Relocation of children to America/Custody&Documentation

[qwerty1974 11]

A couple of people asked if I could get clarification from the Embassy over exactly What they require for the above, so here is what I was told.

I am posting this in the London forum only as it likely varies consulate to consulate.

I have two children I intend to move to the States with. One is my fifteen year old daughter and the other, my twelve year old son. The two cases are a little different so I'll briefly give the context of each, hopefully this information will be of some use to someone as the websites give little clarity to what the custodial requirements are. Naturally, it might vary case to case but they seemed pretty affirmative about what was and was not needed (spoke with two Embassy workers about this).

Twelve year old: Still see's his father regularly but his father and I were never married so there was never any shared parental responsibility. Had a letter (not notarised) simply stating he knew of my wishes and would not object. he'd typed the letter and signed it. My solicitor had written to him later to confirm that we had the letter and if it was NOT his signature he had fourteen days to contest the letter my firm had been supplied with or we'd take it it was fine and standing. When my solicitor did not hear back he sent ME a letter confirming my sons father had indeed NOT responded. We opted to take the action of if you DO NOT do anything, that is confirmation, as he was reluctant to be honest to sign anything in the first place. he and I don't get on and naturally noone one is thrilled to have their child leave the country. As he had always said 'tell your solicitor to back off....signing once should be all thats required of me'. He was happy (ish) to furnish us with the first letter for his son's sake, but really I could not have expected him to happily accompany me to a solicitors to have it sworn, there is a violent history there and he flips quite quickly so I try and have as little to do with him as possible. It was nice he even wrote the first letter.

Fifteen year old: I was married to her father so he technically has joint parental responsibility. However, he has not seen her for twelve years and does not pay maintenance. My solicitor wrote to him twice asking permission. On the second time of asking he unhelpfully just slammed his signature down onto the foot of the letter with no further explanation and sent it to my solicitor. My solicitor seemed happy enough with this.

I wasn't particulary happy with either response as neither was notarised. SO, I swore an affidavit and had THAT notarised. the affidavit stated the reasons why it would be unwise to pursue further official confirmation from either (difficult past relationships) and swore that neither child had

a)outstanding custody cases

b)any objection themselves to moving

c)a situation where the father had not been duly infomred of our intentions and also given ample time to contest it.

At the head of the affadavit I listed the childrens details/passport no. etc. MUST GET IT NOTARISED as it isn't official enough. They seemed to like that it was sworn.

When it came time for the interview they did not question my fifteen year old AT ALL on any of this, which they could have done as she was stood there and old enough to be interviewed. I presented them with ALL correspondance from my solicitor showing efforts had been made to get agreements from the fathers. I gave them the signatures of the fathers and the public notary document. I asked them what the requirements actually were for removing children to America and he said this (well, both officers I spoke to confirmed this):

ALL WE NEED IS TO SEE PROOF THAT THE FATHERS KNOW AND DON'T MIND, THESE SIGNATURES ARE JUST FINE WITH THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS AND AFFIDAVIT, ITS JUST SO AS WE KNOW SOME CUSTODIAL CASE OR OTHER WON'T CROP UP ONCE YOU'VE LEFT.

Really hope this is of some help to someone as right up until the interview I was so, so, so worried about whether this could trip me up as I didn't have full custody of one of them and neither father had a public notary witness the document they DID sign. But we WERE approved and with no eyebrows raised regarding the seemingly complex situation of custody and the odd format of consent from the fathers (especially with the one with parental responsibility just sticking his signature down on the solicitors letter!)

Edited December 12, 2011 by qwerty1974