Moving Abroad

Hi

I have 2 children who have not seen their father for 4 years, this is due to a termination of contact made by the courts. I have a residence order in my favour. He has letter box contact but has not used it for 3.5 years. No xmas/birthday cards from him or his family.

I have now met a wonderful man and life is good My partner has an opportunity of working in Canada!! We are seriously considering things.

My question is, can I if possible (as not sure of his whereabouts) just obtain the childrens father written consent or do I have to apply for LTR from the courts as I am in the ''system''. Does this make a difference? If consent from childrens father is all I need, in what format should this be, a witnessed solicitors letter?

Any advice much appreciated, thank you.

You will need one or the other.

If your ex gives his consent, you do not need to go back to court (unless the order contained a specific prohibition on you moving away)

I would however advise that you check with the Canadian Embassy to find out exactly what is required for you to get visas etc - they may require the consent to be in a specific format, (e.g. witnessed by a solicitor, as a sworn statement)

If he does not give his consent then you would need to apply to the court for a Specific Issue Order giving you leave to remove the children permanent,ly. You will need to serve your ex with the application and will need to satisfy a court that the move is in the childrens best interests. This would usually include providing a detailed statement and supporting evidence showing where they will live (i.e details of an actual house) where they will go to school (again, specifics, and confirmation that a place is available) Evidence of the stability of the new relationship and the move (e.g. details of your marraige or engagement, detils of how you will be finacially supporting yourself and the chilren, contingency plans if your relationship breaks down)
details of how you propose to maintain contact (this is striaghtforward in your case as no contact is happening, but it would be appropriate to set out detils of whay ndirect contact you would provide (e.h.g e-mail) and plans for contact with any extended family on your ex''s side who the children currently see.

Hi thanks for your reply.

I was just a bit confused as I had heard conflicting info, some saying I definately had to go to Court and others saying only if he Contested the move.

I have checked my Court Order and it states that I can take the children out the country for up to one month without anyone''s approval but more then I need to have every person with PR approval which is just me and ex. Or permission from the Court, if ex contests.

I have checked the immigration website and there is a form that they recommend using, which needs to be witnessed.

I or the children do not have any contact from ex or any of his family, that all stopped once the Final Hearing was over with!