Childs passport - Parental reponsbility

[cls77]

Can someone advise on whether H who I am seperated from can get our DD a passport without my signature? We werent married when she was born (2002) and later married but did not re register her birth. Im getting conflicting info on the gov. website, so thought I would ask? Does he have parental responsibility only whilst we are still married, although is with someone else now, or will it not be relevant as DD was born pre 2003 and birth wasnt re registered?

Does your daughter already have a passport as your husband cannot obtain a second passport? The Passport Office will actually answer this technical question if you use the query email service. They replied to a technical question of mine in less than 48 hours.

No she's never had one, neither do either of us?

I think if you get her one and keep it safe, H then cannot get another one.

There's quite a useful link here but I'm still not completely sure I understand it - he wouldn't have had PR when your DD was born, but then I think would have automatically got it when you married. You say you're separated rather than divorced - I think I'd assume he still has it (and probably keeps it after divorce).

Your best bet is to get a passport first.

I never thought of getting one first. It's not that I don't want her to have chance to go away with him, but he's in a new relationship and promising holidays abroad to dd when he sees her twice a month for a couple of hours (if she's lucky) I'm just scared I guess :(

I don't think you can get a passport without his signature either if you both have PR

I presume he is named on her birth certificate?

Yes he is named on her birth certificate.

Is there a reason you don't want him to take your DD on holiday?

Amateurish I would love my DD to have the opportunity to go abroad on holiday, but her father cant actually look after himself for the most part and only sees her twice a month for a couple of hours, at best, so my worry would be more that he is very underhand and attempting to point score with his new gf and her children, that he would forget he even had dd with him (which has happened on quite a few occasions in our town - daughter had to go into a shop to get them to call him as hed buggered off somewhere leaving her behind)

WidowWadman Wed 02-Oct-13 21:15:53
I don't think you can get a passport without his signature either if you both have PR

When I applied for DD's passport last year the form only required the signature of one person with PR.

Ok - was wrong then. I remember husband and I both signed our kids British passport application, and have been told by German embassy that we both would have to go together to apply for German passports for the kids. That may have confused me.

Actually, although I am still with DD's father (nearly 27 years and counting), she is 13 and born before the law changed to allow both parents on a BC to have PR. So actually on a legal note I am the only person with PR for DD, with both of us having PR for our younger DS. Kept meaning to get around to correcting this, but as DP has never bothered to apply for a passport himself, it was a bit of a hassle (still had paper driving licences then) and we just never got there. In practice, as I am the "organiser" in the home I automatically do the forms, signing, so it's never been an issue.

You can get a passport with the other person. I got one since the law changed. I was married to their father so he had automatic pr. When I did the passport I just said that I didn't know where he was. Which was the truth. No-one ever questioned this.

Get the passport before he does.

He doesn't need permission to take the child out of the country. Just in the same way I do travel, without his consent, out with my children. All I take is evidence that I am a parent and this is only because I now have a different surname.