Experience of gaining "Residence order" for child. Time frame and cost?.

[Starabella]

Hi, I'm looking to gain a residence order for my 10 year old to make travelling as a single parent easier. The Father is not present in his life at all and the last contact was when my son was a baby. We have no contact details for him at all.

I've been told by the citizens advice, and on here, that I need a court order to legally take my son on holiday. I have a name for a family law firm but I'm a bit scared to contact them due to not knowing the costs involved. Can anybody advise me on how much it cost them to gain the court order from start to finish and, also, how long the process took?

Many thanks!

You can do it by yourself, application fee £232.

Single parent here. No contact with the father. Ive taken my daughter on multiple holidays without a residency order and never had an issue.

You won't be able to issue it without an address for him.

Ask the family lawyer. Lawyers are the expert. You'll get qualified advice, and save yourself time and effort. Get legal advice before applying. Just pay the £50 for the half hour or whatever. They might even tell you for free.

You're fixated on this. Just carry the birth certificate, explain no dad in picture, and you'll be fine. But get a lawyer to tell you that.

I'm not "fixated", my son is 10 years old and up until now, it's not something I've ever given a second thought to! I mentioned to my friend who is a social worker that we were going to the USA and it was she who told me that I should have the Father's permission and I might get stopped. A quick search on here shows that many have been stopped, it's not imaginary!

This holiday is once in a lifetime costing over £10,000(paid for by grandparents) and I sure as heck do not want to risk messing it up because I never took the right steps. I just can't seem to find any information on line about the process so thought the "legal" section on here would be helpful.

I'm going to get proper legal advice, just looking to see what is involved first. I doubt it's going to cost me £50, I can't even get a plumber to fix my leaky tap for that!

Is the father on the birth certificate?

Family lawyers start at about £100/hour. But this is going to be a ten minute chat. Stop asking others and getting yourself worried, find a family lawyer (a good one). They might even tell you for free.

And yes, you might get questioned.

You just answer the questions.

As has already been said, you can do it yourself. The fee for applying is £232. However, you will need to find the father's address.

If the father hasn't got parental responsibility, you don't need to worry. However, if he has you need to either get his consent or an appropriate court order.