[The Cutches]

Originally Posted by tracy.grinsell

Hi

We are coming out on a 457 visa and thought it would take 4-6 months, but my oh has been asked to start work in jan 2008. My ex signed a stat declaration giving me permision to take children out to oz, and now it looks like we will be going a bit later in jan. He thinks ive tricked him but i had no idea myself and he is now saying he is going to stop the children and myself from going ( baring in mind i am no longer married to him), until april, which would not work. Its making the children very upset and me ill,can he do this. Any advice would truly be grateful.

Hi Tracy, I have been thro' this myself earlier this year and my strong advice to you would be to try and agree something between yourselves, thro' mediation if necessary. Then once you have agreed contact, financial arrangements etc. get a consent order drafted. You can do this yourselves if things are straight forward or by a solicitor if it's a bit messy), then get it stamped at court. If you go straight for a court order (as I did when my ex got awkward) it could cost you a fortune and there are no guarantees that you would win. When this happened to me, the courts got CAFCASS involved which meant interviewing the children and the whole process was scheduled to take 6-12months, even if my ex changed his mind and agreed. In the end I managed to change the courts decision to get CAFCASS involved, went to mediation and got the consent order. I only wish I had done that at the start and saved myself a lot of stress and a lot of £££'s

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

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