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  • Passport Canada Woes

    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

  • #2
    Your first step will be to fill out the passport application form, and mail it to him, asking him to sign it; also email him to let him know it's coming in the mail and that you'd like his email confirmation that he will do it. Do this NOW... so that if he ignores/refuses you will be able to use his non-compliance as reasoning to get your order updated.

    No experience with courts on this issue, but this matches my recollection of reading the passport Canada rules: Reasonable Access means no signature required, but Specified Access means signature IS required. Sort of logical, since one implies a cooperative relationship.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by dinkyface View Post
      Your first step will be to fill out the passport application form, and mail it to him, asking him to sign it; also email him to let him know it's coming in the mail and that you'd like his email confirmation that he will do it. Do this NOW... so that if he ignores/refuses you will be able to use his non-compliance as reasoning to get your order updated.


      No experience with courts on this issue, but this matches my recollection of reading the passport Canada rules: Reasonable Access means no signature required, but Specified Access means signature IS required. Sort of logical, since one implies a cooperative relationship.
      The application form is with Passport Canada - they don't want or require his signature on this. They want me to send him a different form to fill out (acknowledgement/consent to participate) and either return to them or submit at the Canadian Consulate in the US.

      This is interesting - I never thought about it this way! I looked at it as reasonable access meaning far more time with kids than specified, so was confused as to why I had no issue with the application when reasonable access was in my order, but now that he has specified it is a problem! It's even more odd that the passport I am trying to renew has been valid for 3 years so if I was intending to interfere with this access (which he has never used) then I could have already done so!

      Thanks for the response - I appreciate it. I guess I just need to get my head around how these administrative procedures work!
      Last edited by ceilidh1; 03-03-2015, 04:04 PM. Reason: qutoed incorrectly

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