father refuses consent

[ttamw]

my partner and i want to emigrate to australia,im an australiian citizen and want to take her 6 year old boy from a previous marriage,but the father who resides in france is refusing consent.since separating 2 years ago the father has had unlimited access but the contact is very minimal up until recently when he realised how serious we were to move abroad.now the father through his solicitor wants a contact order in place even though he can see his son how ever much he wants.could he possibly spoil our dream of living abroad

[Drusilla]

Definitely! Some absent parents require just this type of kick in the pants to realise what they would be missing if their child moved to the other side of the world.

I'm divorced and my daughters live with me, but if my ex husband had custody and decided to move with a new partner to Australia, I know I would move heaven and earth to stop him taking them and he would do exactly the same if I decided to emigrate beyond the borders of the EU. (He's Anglo-French)

Her ex may even be tempted to fight for custody in French courts, arguing a change of custody would not prevent your new start in Australia (without the child).

This would also mean your partner would have to travel across the world for visitation rights, rather than him.

Obviously, I don't know all the details, so my comments may be complete balderdash, but if it was my child, I would fight to stop you. Sorry, I'm not more positive.

[noxlumos]

Firstly does her ex have parental responsibility? If not I don't believe you require his permission to emmigrate, it would then be up to him to persue you via Australian courts for access. If he does have parental responsibility ( has his name on the child's birth certificate or has a court order)you might want to apply for a residency order from the UK court for yourself, so as to cement your position as step parent a little more. If he hasn't paid any form of child maintenance then the court really won't smile on him, and if contact to any meaningful degree has been only a recent thing, ie after you mentioned you were goping to emmigrate, then the court may see this as somewhat cynical.

I wish you all the very best with your new start, having been plagued by an unreasonable ex trying all ways to muck up my life. Get good legal advice and don't allow yourselves to be bullied.

[undercovers]

collect up all the information you have about parental orders and who has custody of the child (be that sole or joint etc) and make an appointment with a family laywer - generally the first half hour is free and you will get quite a lot if info in this session, sorry this is the only advice i can offer but i think it would be for the best. Don't just try and ignore the situation or you could end up in deep water with the law in some circumstances... good luck