How to take child abroad as a single parent when no contact with Father?

[Starabella]

Hello, I'm looking for some advice.

I would love to take my son abroad this year, preferably to the USA. Looking it up, I keep reading that you are supposed to have writtem permission from the other parent, if they have parental responsibility. My son's father walked out on us when he was 6 weeks old, have never seen or heard from since- my son is now 10 years old. Technically, he still has parental responsibility though! There is no way for me to contact him, he does not even live in the same country anymore. I tried a couple of times when he was a toddler and he never replied to any of my correspondence.

I have actually been abroad(Europe) with him several times since he was a baby and never had any problems before, never even gave it a second thought but somehow the thought of taking him to the USA and being questioned or sent back is filling me with anxiety!

I have read something about requiring a court order? Has anybody any advice on how to go about obtaining this? Does it cost much? And will I need one everytime I want to go abroad or is it just a one time thing? Will i need his contact details? I hate that he's still got control over our lives all these years later :-(

Thanks!

I think you should either go to court and get parental rights removed, or just travel.

What are they going to do? Say where's the father? You literally don't know so I don't know what outcome immigration etc would expect. Your son is old enough to explain himself that he has no contact with his biological father and if you don't even know where he is, I can't see that immigration would be able to cause a fuss, given that he's fucked off. Same situation OP and I got parental rights removed. I think the fact your son is old enough to explain would make it fine.

My daughters dad has never met her. I've taken her on holiday at least once a year for past 13 years and never once been asked for a letter from father.

If OP is in England, getting PR (responsibility) removed isn't really an option. Even if he were in prison, it's incredibly difficult.

Speak to a lawyer with expertise.

If you have no contact at all, then applying to court will be a right ballache, because you can't contact him.

An experienced family lawyer can explain the law, the 'no order principle', that your child de facto resides with you, and therefore you can take him abroad for 4 weeks at a time, if you wish. Just take a birth certificate.

In your case I assume he isn't on the birt certificate as he would have needed to be there so met her then in which case he doesn't have pr which is the same situation as me. I have had to show birth certificate to prove it