wendijohna

Hello, i wonder if any one can offer advice with our predicement. My oh has a son from a previous relationship when he was quite young, they split when the child was two and after a few months he stopped visiting the child due to the mothers new partner. The child is now 16 and is unaware of my oh existence, he believes rightly or wrongly that the man that lives with him to be his father. re our visa application we obviously put him down on our application incase the time comes his mum tells him the truth, but are now faced with needing a medical for him

We wrote a statutory declaration to co explaining that this would indeed upturn this child's life and they have asked for further information via a court order or a tracing service to prove what we are saying.

Where do we go from here???

We have always been open with our children, as one day he may want to track his biological father down our children are fully aware that their dad has another child. But when my oh stopped seeing his child he gave up any right to interfere with what his mum lead him to believe.
any advice??? wendy

Julie-Alan

Hi Wendy

That's a good question and I would be interested in the answer as we have a similar problem.
I thought the stat dec would be enough!!
We are waiting for the TRA to come back so haven't got that far yet, however we are using an agent so hopefully they will sort it for us when the time comes!

Good luck

Julie

JAJ

Does he have any parental responsibility? Was he married to the mother?

Even if he finds the child, he obviously has no legal right to oblige child to do medical.

wendijohna

Hi JAJ,
No they were not married, and i believe although he is named on the birth certificate he has no parental rights over the child.(i believe 2003 was the year they brought in parental rights if the father was named on the birth certificate) That's our worry, surely contacting him to obtain a medical would be entering his life in such a destructive way and to no benefit to him whats so ever. But how do we get proof that he holds no parental responsibility without contacting the mother. Who again after 14 years isnt going to open the door with open arms!, and we are unaware of their where about's.
Thank you Wendy

steveandtina

Could he not write to the mother and ask her to do a letter outline the problem, stating she does not want the child to have a medical and include a certified copy of her passport to prove who she is?

That way the child need not know what is going on the CO gets what you have told him confirmed.

We have had to do the same sort of thing and have sent this to our CO on the advise of our agent.

Good luck

Tina x

JAJ

The law on parental responsibility is a matter of fact. Before 1 December 2003 unmarried fathers in England and Wales did not get parental responsibility unless obtained through a parental responsibility agreement or a parental responsibility order. Being named on the birth certificate did not confer parental responsibility.

A good family law solicitor should be able to explain the law in a letter to DIAC.

As to proving no such agreement or order exists, you may want to try either or both of the following:

* statutory declaration to that effect, also detailing the circumstances in which you have not seen the child for x years; and

* if you can get something in writing from the High Court Family Division confirming that no parental responsibility agreemeent or order has ever been issued.

You may well want to seek professional assistance, although bear in mind that many (most?) agents do not have the experience or training to offer any meaningful assistance in this area. You could try Ian Harrop, http://www.ianharrop.co.uk

wendijohna

thanks for advice, writing to the mother would be out of the question as he has had no contact with her for 14 years either..I'm not sure after such amount of time she would want to accommodate us in writing anything..could stir up some bad blood, they were very young at the time..

Will try Ian Harrop, had seen his name flag up a few times on this site and tried to ring but he is only open certain times, will try next week...thanks

JAJ

Contacting Ian is a good idea.

If you wish to contact the High Court to see if they can confirm that no parental responsibility agreement is in place, contact:

Principal Registry of the Family Division / The Divorce Registry, First Avenue House, 42 - 49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP. Tel: 020 7947 6000

They may be under the Subject Access provisions of the Data Protection Act so if you make a request for information, they may be obliged to respond even if this is negative (similar to the way U.K. police checks work).

wendijohna

God your quick thanks for your help

WeGottaGetOuttaThisPlace

Hi

Will you please let me know how you get on as my partner and I are also in the exact same position as you are. There is no way we can contact my partner's ex as we have no idea where she is and she would not want any contact anyway.

Thanks and also to JAJ for the very helpful info posted above.

wendijohna

I will keep you updated, we have sent a declaration from my other half and his father to state they have not seen the child. Also we are contacting the high court to prove he has no parental responsibility as JAJ suggested. Fingers crossed this will be enough
wendy