It depends – Can I stop my ex-spouse from taking my child overseas?

In this edition of It depends, associate Hannah Flanderka discusses whether you can stop your ex-spouse from taking your child overseas.

Video Transcript

Hello again. My name is Hannah Flanderka and I am an associate in the family law team at Cooper Grace Ward. Continuing on from my last video, which looked at the issue of ‘can you apply for a passport for your child without the other parents’ consent?’ Today’s video is along similar vein, and it is looking at the issue of ‘what can I do to stop, or deal with my ex-spouse, trying to take my kids overseas?’

What are the first steps I can take?

So, if you’re in this situation, one of the first things to have a look at, do you have consent in place that deal with parenting matters? Usually, it is ideal to try and have some orders that specify any requirements for international travel or travel in general, involving the children. And there might be, for example, framework around you’re permitted to take them overseas, but on the condition that you give notice to the other parent. Or perhaps you’re not permitted at all unless you have the other parents’ consent. So those sorts of, conditions are really significant when it comes to a dispute about this, because it will set the tone and the framework for how you initially respond to the issue. But let’s assume that you don’t have orders in place at the moment, or perhaps the orders don’t deal with the issue of international travel. What do you do then?

What if I haven’t taken any steps for my child?

If you are faced with a situation where you don’t have any orders, or the children are placed on the watch list or something like that, then you should really be very vigilant in getting urgent family law advice, because the more proactive you are in dealing with the issue and placing the other party on, notice that you do not agree with the international travel or there’s other concerns that need to be addressed, the better you’ll be in, getting through a proactive outcome as well. Unfortunately, there can be a lot of delays despite the urgency of these issues if you do need to commence proceedings. And so, it’s absolutely important to, act quickly but carefully and subject to the advice of a family lawyer.

What other things do I need to consider?

So, something else to consider is what’s called the Family Law Watch list. And this is essentially a list that the Australian Federal Police have, and if your child is included on the list, it will notify the police if they’re attempting to leave the country. So, children aren’t automatically on the list, there’s no sort of default, reason that they’re on there. It’s quite an intentional act, and it does require, an application and a bit more of a formal process. The police won’t be able to put them on the list or really take any action, unfortunately, unless you actually do have certain conditions met. So, for example, if you have orders that are in place, or perhaps proceedings that are seeking orders that deal with either restraining international travel, which could be a complete restraint or may be subject to some conditions, including such as requiring the other parents’ consent or some other steps to be undertaken. One other thing to note about the airport watch list is it’s not a decision to be made lightly in applying for the child to be on the watch list. It can be quite difficult or have residual consequences if they’ve been put on the watch list and then you’re trying to seek them for them to be removed so that, for example, you could take them overseas or something else is going on. So again, act carefully and deliberately and, and ideally seek advice as soon as possible in relation to that issue.

As always, if you have any concerns about an issue of the nature described in this video or a family law query in general, please do not hesitate to contact me or another lawyer in our family law team here at Cooper Grace Ward.