Applying for PR - child from previous relationship

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I am applying for residency for myself and my 8 year old daughter so we can join my husband in Ontario.  Thing is...  My daughter is from a previous relationship.  I was never married to her father and there are no court orders in place - I have full custody and parental responsibility rights.  I have been told to supply proof of this with my application.  I have therefore obtained lawyers document detailing that I have full custody, however have been told that immigration are very strict when it comes to children from previous relationships.

Does anyone have any experience of this, or know if a lawyers letter will be sufficient enough?

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Kasey1981 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List New Member Joined: 02 Jun 2011 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Kasey1981 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Applying for PR - child from previous relationship Posted: 04 Jun 2011 at 7:38pm
	I am applying for residency for myself and my 8 year old daughter so we can join my husband in Ontario. Thing is... My daughter is from a previous relationship. I was never married to her father and there are no court orders in place - I have full custody and parental responsibility rights. I have been told to supply proof of this with my application. I have therefore obtained lawyers document detailing that I have full custody, however have been told that immigration are very strict when it comes to children from previous relationships. Does anyone have any experience of this, or know if a lawyers letter will be sufficient enough?

RobsLuv Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 04 Dec 2009 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 745	Post Options Post Reply Quote RobsLuv Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04 Jun 2011 at 9:38pm
	If the child's father has any rights to her at all, you will need notarized written permission from him for her to immigrate. If you have court documentation that says that he has no rights to her - that you have full legal and physical custody - then you don't need his permission for her to immigrate. I don't know whether a letter from a lawyer will suffice when there is no court documentation. Is his name on her birth certificate? Does he pay support? Does she ever see him? If any of these can be answered in the affirmative, you'll probably need something from him if you don't have a court order. I don't know if I'd say the Canada Immigration is unusually strict on this - they can't just let a child come into the country with only one of the parents without knowing that the child has not been taken from the other parent unlawfully. Pretty standard, actually. Edited by RobsLuv - 04 Jun 2011 at 9:41pm
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Kasey1981 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List New Member Joined: 02 Jun 2011 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote Kasey1981 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04 Jun 2011 at 10:55pm
	Thanks RobsLuv. Here in Scotland, if the father has no custody order and has never applied for a parental responsibility order, the mother is legally entitled to leave the jurisdiction and relocate to wherever she choses. My lawyer explained to me that I was free to relocate and cannot take something to court unless her father applies for an order of some type. So basically there is no point filing papers with a court asking permission to relocate when Scottish/English law states I am able to do so. To do that would seem pointless and costly, not to mention lengthy . My daughters biological father does not pay child support and sees her from time to time (basically whenever his social life isn't to busy). He is on the birth certificate, but because my daughter was born before dec 2003 - being listed does not give him any legal rights. The letter I have from my lawyer is an affadavit and not just a notarized letter (not quite sure of the difference though ) But she did say it was deemed to be more official. I'm just starting to worry about it all now... I have our medicals and police check ready to send with the application, thinking that this would speed up the processing time, but i'm just worried about the dependant issue halting things. I just wondered if anyone had any first hand experience of this?? The Law in Canada regarding relocation with a child is somewhat different to the uk and this is what concerns me. K Edited by Kasey1981 - 04 Jun 2011 at 10:58pm