Shared Residency??

My ex and I are to appear in Court as she wants to move to France with my daughter

I have spoken to a few people about what I can and cannot ask for when it goes to Court.

Someone has suggested that I apply for shared residence.

Without sounding dumb, what does that mean and how can it be implemented, when the ex is living in France and I am here?

Do I have to put things in place for the CAFCASS interview

Ex has residence, we both have PR, daughter is 8 and I have had regular contact, when ex hasnt been refusing it, for 7 years

Joint residence is a legal label that basically says both parents are on an equal legal footing in respect to parenting the child. It does not mean shared care

At a guess, I think the logic for making such an application would be you are putting yourself forward as a primary carer for your dtr and therefore are requesting that the present residence (in favour of mother) is changed.

However, you also recognise the importance of the relationship between mother and dtr and wish to continue to promote it. You would not wish your dtr to feel the importance of mum in her life being diminished.

You are therefore requesting a shared residence order, as you wish your dtr to know, especially at a time of upheavel, that she has two parents that remain committed to her.

You would further argue that such an order would need to have defined parenting times that allowed your dtr to continue to have the stability of her existing schooling, peer groups and support networks, whilst providing sufficient parenting time with mother.

---

To be frank, I can''t comment on the wisdom of applying for the SRO as the issue is over my head. If you were to, I think you would complete the C2 court form. In practice, I would speculate that simply telling the CAFCASS officer your intention and the motives behind it would suffice. That said, I may be mistaken.

Zonked gives a very good description of what shared residence means and how you might go about arguing it.

Shared residence does not have to mean that the care of the children is split 50/50; it can mean any level of split in the care as long as you both agree to call it shared residence (or the court orders it).

There are a few differences between shared residence and the more traditional contact order, notable in the way in which they are enforced. Also where there is a shared residence order both of you need to obtain the other one''s permission to go on holiday abroad. Where there is a sole residence order, the parent who has the residence order wouldn''t need to ask permission.

It would be difficult to overcome the prejudice of everyone involved to argue shared residence if your ex moves to another country. Conventional wisdom would say that residence can''t be shared across different countries. There are some rulings that you could use if that is something you choose to go for though. Read this .

It''s not exactly clear from your post but it might be that shared residence has been suggested for another reason.

Normally, Leave to Remove (LTR) applications are successful because of a judgement that refusing to allow a move would cause psychological harm to the resident parent and this would impact their ability to care for the child. While this is total BS, it''s what the courts base their decision on. Read this .

More recently, a few LTR applications have been refused when there has been a shared residence order in place that amounted to 50/50 shared care or nearly equal care. Read this .

It may be that shared residence has been suggested as a strategic way to prevent your ex moving to France. If that''s the case, unless there is a history of shared care, I''d say it''s an unlikely tactic.

What has the contact been like up until now?

If you do want to apply for a shared residence order, speak to someone at the court office about whether you need to fill in form C2 (application to vary existing proceedings) or C100. I suspect that they will tell you to fill in a C100 and write shared residence order in the section about which order you''re applying for.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions.