I have not posted for a while as most of my "issues" have been resolved via court. However, I have run into a problem that I never expected when trying to renew my 3 year old's passport.
I have a final court order issued under BCs Family Law Act that gives us joint guardianship (the term custody is not used under this act) but setting out specific parenting responsibilities for each of us - his being limited to ONLY accessing heath and education information. I was assured by two lawyers and the judge that made the order that this would be sufficient when applying for a passport and that his consent is not required.
Our interim order (under the Family Relations Act that was in place at the time) gave me sole custody and reasonable access for him. I had no problem getting my daughter's passport with this. However, at trial, the judge that granted the final order put in specified parenting time for him (limiting it to one afternoon a week as he was unable provide any form of stability for the kids - this was NOT my choice, I had already consented to reasonable/generous access).
It seems that the change to the parenting time has made passport application impossible. I am currently going back and forth with Passport Canada who assure me that his "consent" is not required, but his "participation" is - seems to be one and the same as either way he needs to fill out a form and sign it, which he isn't going to do. He does not live in Canada - he moved back to the US 16 months ago and has not contacted the children since then (despite many attempts by our daughter to call, write, email, etc) so is certainly not using his specified parenting time.
I realise I can go back to court, but not sure I have the energy/time/money to open this whole thing back up again. Anyone encountered anything like this before and were you able to resolve it?
Thanks in advance
I have a final court order issued under BCs Family Law Act that gives us joint guardianship (the term custody is not used under this act) but setting out specific parenting responsibilities for each of us - his being limited to ONLY accessing heath and education information. I was assured by two lawyers and the judge that made the order that this would be sufficient when applying for a passport and that his consent is not required.
Our interim order (under the Family Relations Act that was in place at the time) gave me sole custody and reasonable access for him. I had no problem getting my daughter's passport with this. However, at trial, the judge that granted the final order put in specified parenting time for him (limiting it to one afternoon a week as he was unable provide any form of stability for the kids - this was NOT my choice, I had already consented to reasonable/generous access).
It seems that the change to the parenting time has made passport application impossible. I am currently going back and forth with Passport Canada who assure me that his "consent" is not required, but his "participation" is - seems to be one and the same as either way he needs to fill out a form and sign it, which he isn't going to do. He does not live in Canada - he moved back to the US 16 months ago and has not contacted the children since then (despite many attempts by our daughter to call, write, email, etc) so is certainly not using his specified parenting time.
I realise I can go back to court, but not sure I have the energy/time/money to open this whole thing back up again. Anyone encountered anything like this before and were you able to resolve it?
Thanks in advance
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