Ex wife lied to where she has taken kids abroad. Where do i stand?

peachyprice

coolcait wrote: »

The fact that the authorities don't seem to police the requirement very well still doesn't mean that the requirement doesn't exist.

they don't police it at all, which is why

"The necessity to obtain permission to take a child out of the UK is not commonly known".

I travelled to Portugal by myself with my passport in a Portuguese surname, 2 6yo children with a Portuguese surname and 9 month old baby with an English surname, not once was I even asked whether the baby was mine, where the baby's father was, where the boys father was, the authorities just don't care about this 'necessity', it's no wonder it isn't commonly known or why people choose not to stir up a hornets nest by seeking permission from an absent parent.

coolcait

peachyprice wrote: »

they don't police it at all, which is why

I travelled to Portugal by myself with my passport in a Portuguese surname, 2 6yo children with a Portuguese surname and 9 month old baby with an English surname, not once was I even asked whether the baby was mine, where the baby's father was, where the boys father was, the authorities just don't care about this 'necessity', it's no wonder it isn't commonly known or why people choose not to stir up a hornets nest by seeking permission from an absent parent.

Maybe you've been lucky in not being questioned by the authorities 'here' or 'there'?

There are a quite a few countries who take the 'written consent' rule far more seriously than the UK appears to do.

I do know of people who have been stopped and questioned in other countries. Probably a worse situation to be in. If you did get stopped by immigration when leaving the UK, you'd at least be 'home'.

Getting stopped by immigration in another country, when you're trying to get 'home' :eek:. That's a different ball game.

It has happened to me before - perhaps because I was travelling alone with my children from another EU country to the USA. Ironically, we were making that journey to meet up with the children's father, to whom I was married at the time the children were born and at the time we were travelling.

Thank god I knew what had happened to other people, and was able to produce written consent for the children to travel. Even if their father had only written it to humour me ("you're never going to need this!")

That said, I hadn't realised that the UK also had this requirement - I picked that up on other threads on MSE.

The bottom line here is - whether any of us agree with it or not; whether it is properly policed or not; whether some of us comply with it or not; whether many people are completely unaware of it or not:

The legal requirement does exist.

Dunroamin

coolcait wrote: »

Maybe you've been lucky in not being questioned by the authorities 'here' or 'there'?

There are a quite a few countries who take the 'written consent' rule far more seriously than the UK appears to do.

I do know of people who have been stopped and questioned in other countries. Probably a worse situation to be in. If you did get stopped by immigration when leaving the UK, you'd at least be 'home'.

Getting stopped by immigration in another country, when you're trying to get 'home' :eek:. That's a different ball game.

It has happened to me before - perhaps because I was travelling alone with my children from another EU country to the USA. Ironically, we were making that journey to meet up with the children's father, to whom I was married at the time the children were born and at the time we were travelling.

Thank god I knew what had happened to other people, and was able to produce written consent for the children to travel. Even if their father had only written it to humour me ("you're never going to need this!")

That said, I hadn't realised that the UK also had this requirement - I picked that up on other threads on MSE.

The bottom line here is - whether any of us agree with it or not; whether it is properly policed or not; whether some of us comply with it or not; whether many people are completely unaware of it or not:

The legal requirement does exist.

Why would you be stopped by a country's immigration service when you were leaving?

silvercar

We collect avios (airmiles) as do lots of our friends. To get reward flights availability is often restricted to a couple of seats on individual flights. So to travel we sometimes end up with splitting the family and travelling on 2 different flights a few hours apart. Lots of our friends also do this. So more often than not you will have dad+1 kid and mum+1 kid on different flights. No-one I know has ever been asked for a letter from the non travelling parent. I'm talking about a lot of flights over a lot of years.

Apart from the fact it would be impossible to police, what happens if someone says the other parent is dead? or the father is unknown?

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Dunroamin wrote: »

Why would you be stopped by a country's immigration service when you were leaving?

Not immigration - but check in staff have the right to refuse you from boarding.

peachyprice

coolcait wrote: »

Maybe you've been lucky in not being questioned by the authorities 'here' or 'there'?

I don't think I have been 'lucky', I think it's extremely rare to be asked for this necessary document.

Oh, and I've travelled without a father in tow worldwide with various combinations of children, USA, UAE, Australia, Singapore, Ukraine, pretty much every country in Europe leaving by air, sea and train, I don't think it was just luck that I've never been asked.

mumps

Dunroamin wrote: »

Why would you be stopped by a country's immigration service when you were leaving?

Back in the days when children were added to parents passport a friend of mine went for a romantic break with husband. Granny had their little boy. All went well until they tried to come home. For some reason the passport people in the country they were visiting became concerned about where the little boy was. They were accused of selling him! I think the holiday company produced the details of their arrival showing it was just the two of them. They nearly missed their flight.

This wasn't immigration but the principle is the same.

balletshoes

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

Not immigration - but check in staff have the right to refuse you from boarding.

they do? I understood that to be the job of the immigration officials at the airports.

I have been asked for the letter once by the way - at Luton airport immigration when we came back from France with my niece. It was because when they checked her passport, she has a different surname to us.

However I've travelled for 12 years, every year, with just my DD, since she was a baby, without my OH for various reasons, and I've never been asked for any kind of letter of permission from her Dad for her to travel with me. It wouldn't occur to me to get one.

gotnodosh

I am German and used to fly reguarly to Germany with my young daughter who has a different name on her passport and also a British one. I used to get asked frequently what the relationship is with my daughter and had to carry a consent form from the father with me.

I now have Residency and take the order with me if I go abroad, just in case they ask.

jellyhead

balletshoes wrote: »

they do? I understood that to be the job of the immigration officials at the airports.

I have been asked for the letter once by the way - at Luton airport immigration when we came back from France with my niece. It was because when they checked her passport, she has a different surname to us.

However I've travelled for 12 years, every year, with just my DD, since she was a baby, without my OH for various reasons, and I've never been asked for any kind of letter of permission from her Dad for her to travel with me. It wouldn't occur to me to get one.

After reading this thread, I'm going to write a letter of permission next time my husband takes my son away - just in case. They've been abroad 3 times and he's never been asked for anything. They have different surnames, and he's not his father although he calls him Dad.

Actually, come to think of it he's 16 now so he'd have an adult passport and it wouldn't matter. I'll do it for the youngest if there's ever a situation where he takes youngest away without me.