Can a mother take a child abroad to live without the fathers consent?

dlb

Hi everyone, hope you can help me, i had a phone call last night from a friend seeking some advice and myself and my hubby were unable to help him, but i said i would do some research today for him. So im hoping you can help??

Basically my friend and his ex partner have split up, they were never married and have a child who is now 3 yrs old. He has had regular contact since the split.
But now his ex has told him she is going to be moving to Germany with her new partner who serves in the armed forces.
He is completly falling apart and is heartbroken, we have advised him to get legal advice and im hoping he does so.

Can she do this? Does he have any chance of fighting this some how?
He realises she has moved on and is happy but cant face the though of only seeing his son a few times a year.
Any advice or links to good websites would be most welcome.
Thanks Donna

missjennipenni

He needs to see a soliciter ASAP quite frankly. He can put up a fight about it.

Slapps

does he have PR? if not then i think she can take the child anywhere she wants without his consent, if he does then she has to gain his permission. if he pays CSA then they would have to be told as well as i think this will affect payments. maybe he could talk with the mother as appeal that it may not be best for the child if they have had reg contact. either get a lawyer or go2 the CAB as they will know his rights
hth

missjennipenni

Slapps wrote: »

does he have PR? if not then i think she can take the child anywhere she wants without his consent, if he does then she has to gain his permission. if he pays CSA then they would have to be told as well as i think this will affect payments. maybe he could talk with the mother as appeal that it may not be best for the child if they have had reg contact. either get a lawyer or go2 the CAB as they will know his rights
hth

fathers to children born after dec 2003 automatically have PR.

Angua2

Hiya. The law seems to differentiate hugely between fathers who are married and those who are not. If I understand things, Parental Rights and Responsibilities are given to married fathers and, since December 2003, fathers who jointly sign the birth certificate/register with the mother.

Your friend might find help/information from Families Need Fathers. http://www.fnf.org.uk/law-policy/unmarried-fathers

hobo28

Your friend needs legal advice and sharpish. Much will depend upon the current arrangements. How often does he see his son? How much involvement does he have in day to day stuff? Is it near enough 50-50 or is it more every other weekend? The former is more better, the latter not.

Since he has PR then I *think* she technically needs his permission. However, if the matter goes to court then its quite common that the parent with care is given permission.

Might be worth him applying for a Prohibited Steps Order in the short term to stop her from moving until they can either sort it out or a court does it for them. What you don't want is for her to do a moonlight flit and then present the court with a fait accompli. Because in theory the childs interests are paramount so if they've gone to the extent of moving, its easy to argue its not in their interests to uproot them again.

But legal advice is definately the way to go.

pinkshoes

Wow, i thought i was reading about a collegue here, but he has the same situation with 2 children aged 2 and 4, and their mother plans to move to Spain with her new partner (but not til 2008). They weren't married either.

Anyway, he's applying for custody of the children, on the basis that the rest of the family (grandparents etc...) are in the uk, they speak english, and that they'd be better off with him than living in spain!

Go and see a solicitor and the CAB as soon as possible!

daisy_doughnut_2

hi

there was a thread not so long ago but the situation was reversed

my freind was also put in the same position some yrs ago also

i dont mean to dampen your hopes but the chances are that the mother will win if it goes to court

what your friend could do tho is to sort out how contact will happen
they will have free flights to the uk via the mod an also discounted travel
so there is no reason why he cant see his child every few month i know its no consolation to the contact he has now but rather than him having lets say the weekend he could have a week at a time

when the child starts school make it so the child comes home in the holidays to spend with dad this means he could actually get up to 100 days a year which is equivelent to every weekend

also phone an maybe even th computor through web cam

he can keep up good contact if she goes abroad-you never said though if the ex an the partrner were married im just presuming they are if they arnt then the situation in the eyes of a judge would be different

good luck

mookiandco

This is the leading case on removal from jurisdiction:

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/library.asp?i=242



if the mother can meet the criteria set out in this case then it is more than likely the court would give her permission to go. If you friend doesnt have parental responsibility the mother doesnt need his consent. If he does have PR (i.e child born after december 2003, name on birth certicate and father present at registration) then she will need his consent. If consent is not forthcoming she will make an application for a specific issue order to dtermine whether she should have leave to remove the child from the jurisdiction.

hobo28

mookiandco wrote:

This is the leading case on removal from jurisdiction:

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/library.asp?i=242

Very interesting. Seems such a shame when the father had such a lot of contact that the mother was allowed to go. The cynic inside me wonders if the shoe were on the other foot, whether the father would have been allowed to go.

Soubrette

daisy_doughnut_2 wrote: »

hi

there was a thread not so long ago but the situation was reversed

my freind was also put in the same position some yrs ago also

i dont mean to dampen your hopes but the chances are that the mother will win if it goes to court

what your friend could do tho is to sort out how contact will happen
they will have free flights to the uk via the mod an also discounted travel
so there is no reason why he cant see his child every few month i know its no consolation to the contact he has now but rather than him having lets say the weekend he could have a week at a time

when the child starts school make it so the child comes home in the holidays to spend with dad this means he could actually get up to 100 days a year which is equivelent to every weekend

also phone an maybe even th computor through web cam

he can keep up good contact if she goes abroad-you never said though if the ex an the partrner were married im just presuming they are if they arnt then the situation in the eyes of a judge would be different

good luck

Your friend needs legal advice asap but in my experience the situation is not always as hopeless as the above post suggests.

I can only advise that I have a friend who went through this 12 years ago with his then 6 year old child. Her mother had married a service man and wanted to take my friend's child abroad - he went to the courts and won so he was able to stop his ex-wife taking their daughter abroad to live by court order.

Good luck

Sou