Do I need a letter of authority from my ex to take my 17 and 15 yr old to Perth?

[Guest Tiffany]

I have been divorced from my ex for 10 years. He does not visit to kids, never phones and never paid maintenance. My present husband has been offered a job in Perth and we go in January. We are worried that our application for a 475 family visa will not be processed by the embassy without a letter of authority from my ex-husband who is deliberately uncooperative and will relish the fact that he believes he has us over a barrel. We urgently need to process our visas ready for our move in January. Has anyone been in this situation before that can give us some advice?

[Nashville]

Hi Tiffany

 

I was in the same situation and needed to get a Stat Declaration from ex signed and witnessed by a solicitor, JP etc. He also needed to provide photo prove of ID, Passport, Driving Licence etc.

My boys were same age as yours and 'dad' left when they were 2 & 5mnths old. I had to track him down as he had re-married and divorced twice over and moved to another part of the country, luckily I was still in contact with his sister-in-law who had an idea where he was. We came on a ENS 121 visa so not sure if this requirement is same for 475.

 

Best of luck

[Give me a break!]

Yes this is unfortuanatly not that uncommon, and to make it more complicated it seems to depend on which case officer you get as to how pinickity they are. My Ex already lived in Australia yet I still had to get a stat dec from him giving me permission to remove our daughter from the UK despite the fact I was bringing her closer to him. My Ex decided to be really akward and refused, I then had to go to court to get a court order to remove her from her country of residance. Im afraid it does pay to cross the t's and dot the i's. Good luck.

[Guest Gerry McKee]

I had to get my Girlfriend to sign an agreement that i could take my son even though she is sponsoring us and immigrating with us!

[ali]

You might not need to for the 17 year old, but you probably will for the 15 year old. I do know someone that did a stat dec to say that they had tried every available means to contact their ex - date/time of phone calls to relative, proof of posting to last known address. They were unable to locate the ex and the stat dec was sufficient ... but they did provide evidence that they'd tried.

[Guest cartertucker]

Sorry to jump on this thread with something totally off topic, but im trying to get hold of you 'gimme a break'....I cant PM you anywhere!!! Kelly :0)

[Guest brummie51]

When we emigrated 22 years ago we had to get a written statement off my ex husband to allow us to bring my daughter to live in Australia. I told my ex that if he allowed us to take our daughter I would not want any further support payment for her. Sadly he jumped at the chance to get out of paying anymore towards her keep. Try that one with him. Good luck.