I have one child, age 13 from previous marriage, have now remarried. My ex husband has had no contact with daughter for 12 years though he does pay some maintenance through CSA. We never had an issue with custody as he did not make any effort to see her and so there is no mention of custody on the divorce papers. I don't know where he is so is this going to be a big problem re proof of custody and obtaining letter giving consent to remove her from the country? Anyone out there who is in a similar situation as I just don't know how to go about this? Thanks.

You will need to obtain his permission (as you were once married). If he withholds it, you will need to get a residency order from the Court - based on what you have said, it should be fairly easy to persuade a judge it is in your child's best interest to grant such an Order. Best sort it out now as CHC will demand it in due course anyway.

Are you applying federal skilled? If so,with a 4-5 year wait time then your daughter may well be 18 by the time they get around to looking at your application. Assuming CIC are intelligent enough to understand that custody is irrelevant for those aged 18+ (in fact, they are supposed to respect United Kingdom law that generally allows those 16+ to make their own decisions).

I have just been in the same situation but my daughter had never seen her bio farther and someone had informed the CSA years ago that he had died (not true) so I have never had maintainance. But he still had parental responsiblity LOL. Any way I now have the documents I need and will share it with you on a PM if you wish.
I Paid a fortune to a solicitor who I felt made matters worse.

First things first do not worry, I made myself ill over it. Its achievable.

A PM would be great please.

Also send me the details how u cope with it ...
i am going through the same scenerio and it is just like nightmare.

cheers

I have just been though this.
after spending over a £1000.00 of 2 sets of solicitors and being no better off.

I traced my ex husband using a company called tracesmart.co.uk at a huge cost of £14.95. I had to fiddle little and look up people that I knew were related it took in all about an hour to find his mum, sister and him.

I had three copies of my document printed and sent one to each of the above with a letter written by my daughter (she is 15) it said that we had been offered a wonderful opopportunity and that she really wanted to go and that she knew he would not want to stand in her way. very short and to the point and not at all spitefull. Please remember she has never seen or heard from this person in 15 years. She asked could she put in her mobile number and we did.

He called her a couple of days later and she stuck to her guns and said she wanted it signed. To our amamazement he did.
I have never slagged off my ex or made any remarks about him and I must say it has paid off. He called her a couple of times.after a few calls he kept saying that I had stopped him seeing her and what a bad person I was. She told him not to bother calling again because I had never said a bad word about him and she new now what type of person he was.

I am so glad now that I acted with truth and honesty all theses years. I have always tried to be honest with my daughter and she new in her heart what he was like. leopards really don't change their spots and you really don't have to do anything to deter your children, the best way is let them find out for them selves.

If anyone would like a copy of my blank document I had drawn up by my solicitor please contact me I am more than happy to share.

By the way sorry about poor spelling I am rubbish at typing.

Hi,
Can I please have a blank copy of your dodocumentwe're in a similar situation, my husbands 3 children live with us, have done since the youngest was 1year old.

We had been told that all we needed was nonotarizedl etter of the birth mother giving her consent to children entering Canada permanently, have spoken to solicitor, would be interested in seeing what your document says.

Many thanks
Charlie

No problem
Send me a PM with your email and I will email you the word document.
Sandra

Would you have to have the fathers permission to leave England for Canada if the father has no contact with the child and no parental responsibility?

My ex had no contact since my daughter was born or near enough. He left when she was three weeks old. But we were married so he still had parental responsibility. I can tell you it was heart breaking after nearly 16 years to contact. I can tell you I felt sick putting it in the post.
I did go via the solicitor route but I just found that they were only interested in going to court and it costing thousands. In the end I changed solicitors had a legally binding document drawn up and sent it.

I know the law is different if you have not been married.

do a search on parental responsiblity lots on here and some from me when I first started.

Thanks for all this advice, nice to know we aren't the only ones in this situation right now. It's just another thing to worry about, sure it will be worth it.

Sue

If any one wants a copy of my decloration drawn up by my family solicitor just email me and I will reply with copy of word document that you can print out and use.

Sandra

Have just gone through the exact same thing with my ex-husband and daughter. Never slagged him off as i wanted them to be able to make there own minds up when the time came to meet him and not be clouded by what i thought of him :curse: :curse: Anyway, they met twice a few weeks ago and he managed to slag me and her step dad off more in an hour than i had done in 18 years now she has told him she does not want to see him ever again. good for us sad for her really

When we were emigrating i had to track him down also as we had no idea where he was. I composed a letter and sent it to some of his family members enclosing a cheque so that he could sign it in front of a notary public. months later i got a signed reply agreeing to us taking her. Although in the end she has decided to stay behind with her boyfriend.

I felt the exact same way having to ask his permission made me physical ill for days. I was so angry that i needed his permission when he had had nothing to do with the children for many, many years.