The law is an ass!!!

It's in place to protect children from being kidnapped and taken abroad by a parent, so hardly.

I would suggest you either get a court order that gives you sole custody or else try and find your ex and get him to sign that he is in agreement.

I am curious as to how you changed your sons name without the fathers consent - or is he just assuming the name? What name is his birth certificate and passport in, as that is the name that you will need to put on the application.

I changed his surname using a deed poll it was easily done I just wrote to the service explaining the situation along with the application and it was done. I then applied for his passport again with a letter explaining the name change and I got a British passport in his new name with no problem.

I'm very suprised as they require a consent letter from the other parent, unless you have sole responsibility.

http://www.ukdps.co.uk/CanIChangeMyC....html#Section2

"... If a father has parental responsibility, his consent is required to make any change to his child's name including double-barrelling the surname. This is the case even if he and the mother have separated, divorced or remarried and if the father has no contact whatsoever with the child.

If a father, who has parental responsibility and who no longer lives with the mother and child, refuses to give his consent, the only course of action is for the mother to apply to the courts for leave (permission) to change the child's name. A court will give permission if it believes it will be in the child's best interests to allow the name change. The court will take into account the degree of commitment of the father to the child and the frequency and quality of contact between the father and child to determine whether the name-link between the father and child can be broken. An older child's views (age 11 upwards) will also be important in deciding whether the name change should be allowed... "

Perhaps they thought you did.

Hmmm well they didnt ask me for anything...anyway it doesn't make any difference now - I still have to get a court order to take my boy.

On that page link I gave, near the bottom, there are links to the forms to obtain a court order which I believe you can use to get a sole parental responsibility order. You can do it yourself, you don't have to have a lawyer.

The other option would be to try and get in contact with his family and ask them to forward a letter to him asking him to sign - you would probably need to 'write' the consent letter for him, then he could sign it and send it back.

Thank you siouxie I will definitely use the thread. You've been a great help. X

How did you obtain a divorce without an Order being made?

My ex told the court he didn't want anything to do with the child and I was awarded full custody. I know parental responsibility and full custody are two different things. I got a letter from my solicitor stating so. I don't know about the order - divorce thing it was 12 years ago. Are you saying there may already be a court order in place?

If you were awarded "full custody" in an Order, you already have all you need; provided, of course, you interpretation of "full custody" (residence and contact are very different things) and mine are the same

Unless things have drastically change since i came to Canada... i suspect you are incorrect...

I was awarded ...full custody ... of my children in 1989.... (Oh Lord .. it seems so long ago when you see it in print) but even then still I needed a release from the court to remove the children from the UK.. Before I applied I asked my ex for permission... which he didn't have any problem with ??????... so with his agreement and my application the court awarded me permission ... but only if I agreed that if for whatever reason, I would bring the children back to the UK if requested... My children were 8 and 11 at the time we landed ... they are now 31 and 34 so it turned out to be a mute point ... but even back that long ago it still wasn't a case of I could just do it because I had full custody.

I suspect that if you apply to the court and explain that the father has not been in the picture for 12 years and you do not know where he is ... this may make things more straight forward. He obviously is not paramount in your childs life, nor has he shown any sign that he wants to be ... However I would seek legal advise... it will guide you along the right path. and although it may cost you an hours fee, it may save you a lot of anguish long term.

Go for it and I wish you all the good luck in the world... your move to Canada will be the making of your family if my experience is anything to go by.

My daughter came with us without permission, 1, I was not married to the biological idiot and 2, she was born in 1995, so just before the law changed I believe. All we did was get a satement drawn up by a lawyer and that sufficed.

Well there you go ... Piff Poff had something to add to my comment.. And she may well be correct with what "the new law is" as I moved here before she did and my experience may certainly be out of date ..

However I can't believe the laws on child custody or the removal of a child from the country of their birth have relaxed since my experience ... in fact I would suspect the laws and restrictions would have become more stringent.... However the point of her comment that I think is most telling is that she says she wasn't married to the 'biological idiot'.

I suspect that her particular circumstances may have had an influence on her situation and the ease in which she removed her daughter 'without permission' from the UK..

But in my opinion I would still check it out with some legal advice.... I think it will serve you well in the long term, especially if you ever have to explain your actions to your child, of what you did and why you did it, at some later date.

it's not an impossible hurdle to remove children from the UK...as you can tell from the fact that lots of us have already made 'the leap'

Good luck

Unfortunately, you are wrong and what the OP is or is not entitled to do will depend upon what the Court Order says, as we don't know that, it is impossible to state with any accuracy at all whether she will need a new Court Order.

Most people have no real idea what "custody" means. Most assume that "custody" means which party the child lives. It doesn't. When people refer to having "full custody" what they usually mean is that the child lives with them most of the time, this is not what "full custody" means.

Until the OP chooses to inform us of the terms of the current Court Order, no one, really, is in any position to offer any constructive advice.

There is no court order at present just when we were divorced my ex said he wanted nothing to do with the child but I have no documents or nothing to prove this. Just my solicitor informed me in a letter I had from her.