Filing I-130 for Canadian spouse and his son

[kaya541 1]

Hi guys. So it turns out his son may be living with him from now on...so our questions are this: I read that we will need written consent from the other parent granting permission to have the son come to the States with his Dad and sometimes the country (i.e. Canada) has to grant permission as well. They have joint custody of the kids, will this be a problem? Or would it be necessary to have sole custody of his son first? And will we need permission from Canada as well?

Have any of you brought your kid(s) down with you from a previous relationship?

[trailmix 77]

Hi guys. So it turns out his son may be living with him from now on...so our questions are this: I read that we will need written consent from the other parent granting permission to have the son come to the States with his Dad and sometimes the country (i.e. Canada) has to grant permission as well. They have joint custody of the kids, will this be a problem? Or would it be necessary to have sole custody of his son first? And will we need permission from Canada as well?

Have any of you brought your kid(s) down with you from a previous relationship?

Hi Kaya,

Welcome to the Canada forum!

I don't really know much about this subject, however from what I have read he will need written permission from the child's other parent for him to move to the U.S.

As for the 'government' approval, I have never heard of this and think it is misinformation.

There are a few here who have gone through this process with children and i'm sure they will be along to share their experience

[zyggy 9]

Actually if it's joint custody it may be a problem. You may need to have the court change custody from joint to sole and also have the other parent's permission to waive their visitation to allow your child to move to the US.

[Amy and Adrian 0]

My two stepchildren will be coming with my husband to the States. He has sole custody however. We did have the kids' mother sign a letter in front of a commisioner of oath verifying that she had been informed of the plans for the kids to come to Ohio etc. with their dad. I don't know if this helps or not. We didn't know if we would need it or not- the letter was not asked for by anyone during our process so far- but we've included it in our paperwork and will have a copy for the interview as well.

Edited November 11, 2008 by Amy and Adrian

[trailmix 77]

My two stepchildren will be coming with my husband to the States. He has sole custody however. We did have the kids' mother sign a letter in front of a commisioner of oath verifying that she had been informed of the plans for the kids to come to Ohio etc. with their dad. I don't know if this helps or not. We didn't know if we would need it or not- the letter was not asked for by anyone during our process so far- but we've included it in our paperwork and will have a copy for the interview as well.

You will need it at the interview stage

[MsZ 6]

You're going to need a letter no matter what -- you need one to take a child out of the country or into the country so of course you need one to move a child to another one.

Joint custody means that parents share decision-making. It doesn't express anything about visitation or living arrangements. So unless there is something more specific in the documents about those things, and unless the other parent doesn't agree with the move, it isn't necessarily so that you'd need to have changes made to the agreement and a judge review.