Taking a child abroad as part of a blended family can pose a couple of hurdles. However, it can still be worthwhile for your family to benefit from the wonderful experiences of traveling.
This article will highlight some of the potential legal issues at stake. Also to help you overcome those hurdles and enjoy a happy holiday.
Removing a child under 16 from the UK for any period of time requires the permission of those with parental responsibility of the child. The exception being a court order is in place stating the child should live with you.
If you have such an order, you can take a child out of the country for up to 28 days. Parental responsibility is defined in s3(1) Children Act 1989 as “…all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property.”
Border control forces may ask to see proof of permission to take the child abroad if they suspect you don’t have parental responsibility of the child. This can come up due to something as simple as not sharing the same surname on your passports.
This will apply across the board. To blended families and also if a child is traveling with a friend’s family. There’s no universally required form of permission.
Nevertheless, it would be wise to have a signed letter of consent from whomever has parental responsibility for the child.
You can even go a step further and have the consent letter witnessed by a solicitor(attorney) if you wish. There are some countries with particularly stringent rules on the paperwork.
For example, South Africa requires any child under the age of 18 accompanied by only one biological parent to travel with:
- Their own passport and that of the traveling parent,
- A visa,
- A birth certificate listing the parents (or a certified copy of it) as well as
- A parental consent letter no more than three months old and
- If a parent is incapacitated or deceased and the child has no legal guardian appointed yet a letter of special circumstances from the Director-General of Home Affairs.
Botswana has adopted the same rules. The US requires children under 18 to carry a notarized letter of consent from those with parental responsibility or proof a traveling parent has sole custody.
Canada requires this for children under age 19.
Where there’s some form of children custody order in place (such as where a child has specified contact with another parent), which will be the case for many families where the child’s biological parents are separated. The order needs to be complied with unless special permission is obtained to defer from them for the purposes of traveling outside the UK.
If consent is refused by those with parental responsibility for the child, recourse can be sought through the courts. You may be required to attempt to reach a solution through mediation first.
If this fails, you can apply to the court for permission to take the child on holiday outside the UK. This would take the form of a Specific Issue Order, for which a form C100 must be completed.
If the requisite permission for the child to travel is not obtained, you put yourself at risk of illegally abducting the child. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction 1980 protects the so-called ‘left-behind parent’ by enforcing child orders made in the UK in other countries as well.
It aims “a) to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Contracting State; and b) to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting States” under article 1.
There are 98 signatories of the Convention, including most recently the Philippines and Pakistan. Article 3 governs what counts as a wrongful “removal” or “retention” of a child. Article 12 requires if there was such wrongful action the child must be returned to the state of their habitual residence (subject to certain exceptions under article 13).
In practice, this means that
- if the child is habitually resident in the UK and
- an order is made by a UK court that prevents the child leaving the UK without permission and
- the ‘travelling’ parent takes the child out of the UK without permission,
then the left-behind parent can apply in the country the child has traveled to for summary return of the child. This issue is one to be acutely aware of if the child has international family connections, as this can increase concerns the child will not be returned.
Getting the paperwork sorted before going on holiday is well worth the relatively small hassle of doing so. It allows you to avoid potentially being turned away by border control at the airport.
It also protects you from costly legal action being taken against you in order to return the child to their state of habitual residence. In this way you can enjoy traveling with your blended family and allow your stepchild to learn about the wider world in a stress-free environment.
