Moving abroad with my child?

[dreamsofgreen]

Hi All,

I wondered if anyone had the experience of emigrating with a child in a split family?

My daughter is 10 and her dad, my ex husband, has lived abroad her whole life and has no involvement in her day to day care.

My fiancé has been offered a new job in Australia and we would like to bring up my daughter and our other children there. My daughter is thrilled at the idea of emigrating.

We need to get consent from my ex but he is not replying to my emails about this. He just keeps delaying his response when I chase him.
I understand I may need to take this matter to court but I need to be able to prove we have been through mediation first. My concern is that he just wont turn up to any of the mediation or court hearings and this will delay the process and may mean my fiance has to turn down the job opportunity.

Does anyone know how long these kinds of hearings take and how I manage my ex if he doesn't respond?

Many thanks in advance

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear dreamsofgreen

Welcome to the parents’ discussion forum.

I see that you are feeling frustrated that your ex-husband is not responding to your request for consent to emigrate with your daughter.

It is true that the court requires mediation to be attempted but since he lives abroad this might be one of the exceptions.

If you do not have his consent then you will have to go to court before you can take your daughter out of the jurisdiction of the court here. Why not make the application to the court for permission to remove your daughter and then your ex-husband can be involved in the court proceedings if he wishes. You will need to show the court that proper arrangements (e.g. school) are in place for you to move away.

I suggest that you contact Coram Children’s Legal Centre (Child Law Advice) on 0300 330 5480 for advice about making a private law application. Unfortunately, our service’s remit does not include private law proceedings. You can get advice from this organisation if you do not have a solicitor acting for you.

Best wishes

Suzie

[dreamsofgreen]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you for the informative reply.

Do you know whether the court would accept a proposal of where we intend to live and possible schools rather than confirmation of exact details as much will need to be arranged once we are actually in the country (enrolling in schools and finding a place to rent for example all has to be done when we are there).

Also roughly how long does the whole court decision take? We need the court order to even think about applying for visas so I need to build this into the whole project plan presuming the courts provide us permission to go!

Many thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear dreamsofgreen

Thank you for posting again.

I think you are likely to need to have made fairly extensive enquiries about what would be on offer in terms of accommodation, school places etc. If your finance is going there to work I suspect there should be relocation assistance in respect of all the family’s needs.

The court will want to be satisfied that there are fairly settled plans for your daughter’ move abroad.

Regarding the court’s timescale, am unable to give you one since it is dependent on the court’s timetable and whether the case is contested or not and what the court will require to reach a decision.

As explained previously, our remit does not cover private law proceedings, so I think it best that you make contact with the organisation mentioned in the previous post or seek advice from a solicitor.

Best wishes

Suzie