Advice Centre

Court Approves Application For Mother To Apply For Passport For Children In Father’s Absence

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Posted in: Family and children
Date published: 17/03/2020
Court Approves Application For Mother To Apply For Child's Passport

At IMD Solicitors we represent a number of family clients, located in the UK and abroad. As more and more families are becoming international families, we are often asked to provide legal advice and assistance. Usually this is when parents have separated and decisions relating to the child need to be made but one parent cannot be located or does not want to be involved. In this case, we explain the issues surrounding international children issues and outline a real case study involving issuing a child’s passport in the absence of the child’s father.

Resolving International Children Issues

The first step, you would think would be to try and contact the other parent and resolve the matter. However, when families separate, lines of communication are not always maintained and it leaves the resident parent (the parent with whom the child lives) unable to make important decisions without the consent of the non -resident parent. In England and Wales you may then need to apply to the court for a Specific Issue Order if you cannot agree on:

  • education of your child
  • health/medical treatment of your child
  • your child’s name and/or change of name
  • relocating outside of the UK
  • taking the child abroad without the consent of the parent.

What If The Child Lives With Me, Can I Make All The Decisions?

What If The Child Lives With Me, Can I Make All The Decisions Including About The Child's Passport

If you have parental responsibility i.e. “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities, and authorities which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and child’s property” then you can make important decisions about your child. 

This means if you share parental responsibility with the other parent, then they too are allowed to be involved in important decision making. Parents should try to reach an agreement about the issues above, but if they cannot agree then they may need to apply to the court to decide how the parental responsibility should be exercised.

Parental Responsibility Orders You May Need To Consider

Orders you might need to consider applying for, relating to your child:

  • Child arrangements order: an order setting out who the child lives with or who the child spends times with.
  • Specific Issue Order: an order when an agreement cannot be reached on a specific issue such as those listed above.
  • Prohibited Steps Order: an order forbidding a person who has parental responsibility from taking a certain step in relation to a child

Real Children Law Case Study

A common issue that some of our international family clients face is renewing or applying for their children’s EU passport and being unable to do so as the other parent refuses to provide their consent or are unable to  be contacted.  This was one particular case and the father was unable to be located and the mother wanted to renew the child’s Polish passport and take the child to Poland on holiday.

At IMD Solicitors we applied to the court in England and Wales for a Specific Issue Order. We also made an additional application to dispense with service of the application on the father on the basis that the father was estranged, outside of the UK and unable to be contacted; we demonstrated that we had exhausted all possible ways of notifying the father about the proceedings.

Case Result

We secured a successful outcome for the mother in that the court granted permission for the mother to apply for the child’s passport in the absence of the father’s consent and also granted the application to dispense with service.

International Parent Child Abduction

It is always important to be well informed before you make an important decision relating to your children.  If the other parent with parental responsibility is not involved in important decisions and you take your child abroad without their consent or relocate, again without their consent, then there are serious consequences if you do so.

It is a criminal offence under the Child Abduction Act 1984 for a person to take a child under the age of 16 out of the UK without appropriate consent. 

The Court’s Involvement In International Family Cases

The court is of course a last resort and all steps must be taken to contact the other parent when these issues arise and at least put them on notice before you take steps to involve the family court.   It is vitally important that you take legal advice before making decisions without the consent of the other parent, even when they are not necessarily on the scene or having contact with you child.

Our International Family And Children Matters Solicitors Can Help

International family and children matters can be complex and we strongly recommend that you take advice as soon as possible to discuss your legal options. 

Our specialist international children lawyers based in London and Manchester can help you make legal arrangements for your children. Our team advise on issues including: permission/consent for issuing a passport, parental responsibility issues, contact arrangements, living arrangements and abduction.

For further information, please contact Iwona Durlak in the family law team on 0330 107 0107 or arrange a call back

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published.

Published by:

Iwona Durlak Senior Partner

Family Law – IMD Solicitors LLP


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Example of cases we have dealt with:

F v F - Acted for a German husband in a complex financial remedy matter. He decided to instruct IMD Solicitors after he had lost trust in his previously instructed solicitors and feared that he would not achieve a favourable outcome from the proceedings. The relevant assets were spread across the globe with some located in the UK (including a multi-million pound business), Gibraltar, Spain, Dubai, and Poland. The overall value of assets exceeded £24 million. The husband had been cut off from the matrimonial assets and excluded from control of the business that had been established by his family. The case involved the instruction of numerous experts, for business valuations, Capital Gains Tax reports, and opinions on the enforcement of orders in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with several applications, including applications for orders to freeze assets, prevent the disposition of assets, for the joinder of parties, and to litigate conduct issues. The final result exceeded the client’s expectations.
L v L - We were instructed by a mother in a complex international children matter. She was required by orders of the UK courts to return the child to the UK from Poland. She had travelled with the child to Poland but, following unsuccessful application to extend her stay there in August 2017, she decided not to return to the UK because the child disclosed sexual abuse by a member of the paternal family and the father. In September 2018, the Polish court dismissed the father’s Hague Convention application for the child's return on the basis of Article 13(b), a decision which the father appealed. In March 2019, the father applied to the UK High Court for an order for the child’s return pursuant to the procedure set out in Article 11(6) – (8) of the Brussels IIA Regulation. Despite the father's unsuccessful Hague Convention application in Poland, the UK court ordered the return of the child. Article 11 does not allow the court of the returning country much discretion. After all of this, the mother instructed IMD Solicitors to apply to discharge the orders of the UK Court for the return of the child. Even in the face of the fact that most applications to discharge such return orders fail, we succeeded. We are currently awaiting a decision in the UK courts on a further application for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Polish courts where the mother resides with the child.
G v P - We represent a Spanish mother in respect of an urgent application for a Child Arrangements Order and Specific Issue Order in the UK seeking the relocation of the child to Spain. This was after the return of the child to the UK under Hague Convection proceedings which this mother lost in Spain. She was asking for an order for the relocation of the child back to Spain and an urgent interim Child Arrangements Order to allow her to see the child pending the final outcome of the UK proceedings. IMD successfully argued that, regardless of the return of the child to the UK under the Hague Convention, the mother should be allowed unsupervised overnight contact with the child. We were delighted to be able to secure her contact with the child for Christmas and she said that it was the best Christmas gift she could have wished for. The outcome of the application for the relocation is pending.
S v V - We currently represent the father in Child Arrangements Order proceedings issued by the mother in relation to variation of a UK order made in the face of numerous other international proceedings. He is an Italian National who has been living in France for the last 20 years and the mother is a Lithuanian national. The child is now 11 years old and proceedings concerning the child have been ongoing in various jurisdictions for the majority of the child`s life. Contested divorce proceedings including child arrangements took place in Monaco. The French Court and authorities were also involved, and various proceedings had been ongoing between parties since 2013 in France and Monaco. The parties’ divorce was pronounced in Monaco. Thereafter, in December 2020, the mother submitted an application to relocate to England with the child, and the relocation took place in June 2021. Upon relocation, the she lodged a child arrangement order application, seeking to register a judgment made in Monaco and to vary the same in respect of the contact arrangements between the father and the child. The father seeks for the child’s return to Monaco. Due to the parties’ mutual allegations and the associated international elements, various authorities and courts that have been involved in the case, the local authority has become involved with the family and a guardian has been instructed to represent the child in the UK proceedings. At present, these proceedings in England are ongoing and the outcome of the professional reports regarding the family are awaited.  
P v P - We have acted for the Respondent Husband in relation to the financial remedy proceedings in the UK. The parties had various assets in the UK and Romania consisting mainly of the portfolio of properties but conduct issues were raised by the Wife due to a business of the Husband over which she had lost control and her allegations of dissipation of assets. The value of assets excluding the business were in a region of £3 million. 
K v K - We act in financial remedy proceedings for a wife who is a Polish national. The matter's complexity mainly comes from a dispute between the parties around land in Poland. Its value was initially in dispute but was then assessed by a joint expert to be in the region of half a million pounds. The total assets in this case are estimated to be worth over £1 million. The land in Poland is a subject to contract with a third party and is being leased as a photovoltaic (solar) farm. The division of the land to achieve an equal share of the assets is complicated due to the contract in place and plans for the future use of the land. Currently the parties are awaiting a final hearing but efforts are being made to reach a settlement with the aid of alternative dispute resolution and in order to save the parties money and avoid further delays.
R v O - We acted pro bono and worked together with a law firm in Poland to ensure that the Costa Rican Mother regains access to her child. The Mother's only child was abducted from the UK in 2014. The Mother was successful with the abduction case and the UK family courts ordered the return of the child. The orders were recognised in Poland but unfortunately due to various issues with the Mother's immigration status and court's delays in Poland, the orders were never enforced. The Mother was facing removal from the UK and prospects of never seeing her child again. We have corresponded with various courts in Poland dealing with international abduction matters and we decided that an application for contact should be issued rather than any proceedings for further enforcement of the orders, as the Mother had not seen the child for around 7 years. At the same we secured the Mother's stay in the UK making successful outside of immigration rules application to extend her stay. We now receive regular photos from the Mother with her daughter, as face to face contact is taking place. We helped to secure an order of the Polish courts for the Mother to see the child regularly in person, whilst when she instructed us she was facing a prospect of never seeing her child again and being deported to Costa Rica.

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