Obtaining a passport for DS with largely absent exH

[thefoxandtherose]

exH hasn't seen DS for a year. I am aware of his current address but he generally never responds, eg, no response via the divorce progress, no response until the last hour for ancillary relief order hearing and didn't attend court.

I am fairly sure that I have no chance of getting him to sign DS's passport or provide a letter of consent for me to take him on holiday. I'm wondering what I can do? Surely I don't have to take this to Court?

Thanks for reading.

Has ds already got a passport? I just applied for my ds's without any inpout from his dad.

I am still with my dp, but i just applied for my dds passport with no input from him. I think i read that entitlement to a british passport comes from the mother, unless the parents are married, so his dad would have more trouble than you.

My dp is irish, so i didn't add his passport number, but your passport number is enough to confer citizenship i should think.

Oh really? That's good news. This will be his first passport. So I can just leave father's details blank?

I have googled and thought that I would need a notarised letter of consent from him? (which he isn't likely to provide).

You will need your exH's consent or a court order to take your son out of the country otherwise you are committing the crime of child abduction. If you get a residence order in your favour you can take your son out of the country for up to one month without needing your exH's consent. If you do not have a residence order or his consent you will need to apply for a specific issue order.

I had looked into getting a Residence Order as that would be quite practical given that he is an absent parent who will probably need to consent to a number of different things throughout DS's life and will probably not respond at any time. However I don't think that I would be able to get one as there was no domestic violence, he doesn't pose any risk, and there is no risk of him trying to take DS...he's just an absent parent, therefore I don't think a RO would be granted.

'Child abduction' . We've not had a peep from the dc's 'dad' in 5yrs. If I ever have enough money to go abroad I won't be tracking him down and asking if it's ok.

Meglet - If he has PR you would be committing a criminal offence. It is also increasingly difficult to get into some countries unless you have proof that you have legal authority to take your child. If he does not have PR there is no problem - you can do what you like (although you would still face problems getting into some countries without some form of proof that the father does not have PR).

He has PR but he refuses to see them, not a bad thing as he threatened to kill us all. If they did kick up a fuss it would be yet another way absent, abusive 'fathers' still have power over the children they left behind. An absent father shouldn't be allowed to control what the children do with their lives. The law has gone too far with parental responsibilty, absent parents should lose it.

An absent father cannot control what the children do with their lives. If he has PR he is entitled to a say in certain decisions affecting the children. If the parents cannot agree the absent father can apply to the courts for a Prohibited Steps Order but if he is completely absent from his child's life his chances of success are low. And if he is unwilling to go to court there is no other way he can enforce his will on non-holiday matters.

If you were never married to the father it may be possible to get his PR removed. Even without that, if you have a residence order in your favour you are entitled to take your child out of the country for up to a month without needing the father's consent.