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Divorced and have sole custody of child

rajankb

Newbie
Nov 7, 2021
5
1
hi All,
I got divorced 2 years ago and have sole custody of my son who is 3 years old now.
I got married again earlier this year and my wife is going to apply for study visa for sessions starting next Fall.
Could you advise what all paper work do we need to have in order to get my son a dependent visa. How do we show my wife as mother of my son now?
My son does not have a passport as of now and neither does my wife has one. I was thinking I could add myself as spouse on my wife's passport first and then get our son's passport as both of us as his parents? Do we need to disclose at any stage that he is not my wife's born son and is a child from my ex wife?
Since I have sole custody of my son, do I still need any permission(s) from my ex wife?
 

rajankb

Newbie
Nov 7, 2021
5
1
It's not clear to me (and maybe not to others here), what country you are in now, what country you and your wife are from, and same for your ex-wife.

It appears that your wife intends to apply to come to Canada as a student from a country I can only guess at and what type of courses she plans to take are unknown, not that that information is key to your inquiry.

You mention adding yourself on your wife's passport. I maybe do not take your meaning and perhaps others here will have no difficulty with the idea, but I have never heard of anyone adding another person to their passport. Passports, so far as I know, are always issued in the name of one person only. No one can be "added". Maybe the old hands here will readily understand all of what you are asking and have answers. I am not that well versed in immigration matters. Only a few, discrete areas.

I have some knowledge of Canadian law, however. Here, the only way for your wife to hold herself out as mother of your son would be through the legal adoption process. In Canada, that requires the consent of the biological parent. Again, I do not know the laws of the country where the child was born, or the niceties of domicile and residence that might apply. Maybe your son can be adopted there by your present wife, no consent of the biological mother required. In the same vein, you ask about permission of your ex wife. Under Canadian law, except in unusual circumstances where you have been awarded sole custody and guardianship and the biological mother retains no guardianship rights, the consent of your ex would be needed for the child to be adopted or, in general, for the child to be taken out of the country.

Assuming your wife gets a study visa, what it would take for the child to come to Canada, I do not know. It seems to be understood that you will be here with them. In that case, you should be able to bring him here yourself, at least if you can demonstrate that you have sole legal custody and guardianship.

Sorry be singularly unhelpful. But you asked for suggestions. I am not really suggesting much, but maybe offering a starting point. There are many here with some related experience/knowledge and maybe they will offer real suggestions.

I also suggest reading much of what is here on the forum already. Spending time digging here will likely provide some help. There is not much that someone has not been through that has not been canvassed in the past. Some time is required to sift through it. The forum is not wholly user-friendly in terms of indexing and cross-indexing.
Thanks for taking out your time and respond to that, may be I didnt add complete details. So, we are in India and to your point of custody and guardianship, I have the sole custody\guardianship of my son and that has been well documented in court order as well where my ex wife provided consent on having me full custody of child.
So for immigration, would my my still need to take legal adoption or do additional paper work to prove her as mother of our child? Or our marriage certificate and the paper work I have for sole custody would suffice?
In Indian passport, there is an option to add spouse name, so thats what I was referring to when I said adding my name on my wife's passport, that might further help prove our relation as husband wife, and me being biological father of our son, we could deem legal parents of child.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
53,022
12,785
hi All,
I got divorced 2 years ago and have sole custody of my son who is 3 years old now.
I got married again earlier this year and my wife is going to apply for study visa for sessions starting next Fall.
Could you advise what all paper work do we need to have in order to get my son a dependent visa. How do we show my wife as mother of my son now?
My son does not have a passport as of now and neither does my wife has one. I was thinking I could add myself as spouse on my wife's passport first and then get our son's passport as both of us as his parents? Do we need to disclose at any stage that he is not my wife's born son and is a child from my ex wife?
Since I have sole custody of my son, do I still need any permission(s) from my ex wife?
Families of international students aren’t guaranteed permits/visas so after your wife getting approval for her study permit that would be your next obstacle. Proof of your divorce and proof that you are legally married will be needed. Adding your names on each other’s passports is helpful but you’ll need more proof that you are married. Proof that you have sole custody of your child should be enough to travel with your child but, if possible, I would also get permission from the mother. Unfortunately there is still a bias when it comes to fathers travelling with children versus mothers so to avoid any issues I would try to get permission from the mother to be 100% sure there won’t be any issues at the airport.

You should never lie to immigration so you should not claim that your new wife is the child’s mother. It could have pretty substantial longterm consequences. In order for your new wife to be legally the child’s mother the child’s biological mother would need to give up their parental rights.
 
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armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,646
7,950
You really should post in the international students section as well.

As far as I can tell, you should not need your spouse to adopt your child for Canadian immigration purposes.

I believe how this would work is that you would be her dependent spouse and children who are dependents of either of you can also be included as accompanying dependents.

(Assuming she gets the visa etc)

I don't know about the other aspects and it may be preferable for lots of other reasons for her to adopt the child. But likely not necessary for cdn immigration purposes alone anyway.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
53,022
12,785
I agree with armoured that adoption should not be necessary for Canadian immigration purposes. I mentioned adoption because,, in your initial query, you asked about showing your wife as the mother of your son. But I am sure you can come to Canada as a family without any requirement for your wife to adopt your son.

As see it, you should make sure that you have lawful authority to remove your child from India. While canuck78 mentions a bias against fathers, mothers can also get caught. This I know from personal experience. Some time ago, my wife was returning to visit her country wth our kid, who was then about age 3. She had my permission to travel with our child and we had prepared a document evidencing that permission. Unfortunately, the document was sitting on a desk at our home in Vancouver when she was at YVR trying to board a plane. She was not allowed to depart. She and our child had to re-book for 2 days later. We were fortunate that the airline did not make her pay full price for new tickets. We just paid a change fee. But still, a pain.



Nothing canuck78 said in the above passage is wrong, it just might not go far enough. Under Canadian law, sole custody does not endow one with the full bundle of parental rights and responsibilities. That comes with guardianship, a different concept. It was explained by a BC court some time ago, thus:

The importance of guardianship cannot be overstated. It is a broad concept that encompasses the concept of custody and goes further, to include a collection of rights and responsibilities relating to a child, subject to specific statutory limitations. These rights and responsibilities are wide-ranging and relate to all matters that affect the best interests of children. They include, for example, education, religious and health decisions. A guardian has responsibilities not only with respect to the "person" of the child, but also the child's property.

Wong, Re v. S.C., Stromberg-Stein J., Vancouver E002815, E002866, October 20, 2000 , 22pp.

The matter is addressed, in part, in BC's Family Law Act:

Parenting arrangements
40
(1) Only a guardian may have parental responsibilities and parenting time with respect to a child.

Parental responsibilities
41
For the purposes of this Part, parental responsibilities with respect to a child are as follows:

(a)making day-to-day decisions affecting the child and having day-to-day care, control and supervision of the child;

(b)making decisions respecting where the child will reside;
...
(g)applying for a passport, licence, permit, benefit, privilege or other thing for the child;

So, my simple point from the above is that do not place too much reliance in the fact that you have sole custody, unless you also have sole guardianship. Whether the Indian law recognizes the niceties between the two concepts is another issue, as is the matter of whether those you come in contact with at immigration counters, etc. are schooled in family law and international law. But headaches should be avoided if the child's mother is aware of and agrees to travel for the child, and has provided proof of that assent in writing. Probably best in statutory declaration or similar form.


Always a course of prudence. No lies. Not even suppression of the truth.
Was refer to bias in India (and other countries where traditional gender roles are still common) when it comes to children traveling with fathers not mothers. Would assume that fathers traveling with a young child in India are more likely to be asked if they have permission to travel than mothers.