Form #1229 - Consent

[Neels]

I need some advise or opinion regarding form 1229, Consent to grant an Australian visa to a child under the age of 18 years....

My step-daughter is 13, my wife was not married to her father and he is not at all involved in her life. He does have visitation rights etc that he does not make use of. He contacts her on her birthday and maybe Christmas.

But apparently he still has to give his permission for her to be included in our visa application? Is there any way around this?

Cheers,

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Unfortunately not, he has to give written consent or your wife needs a court order granting her sole custody. Even on a visitors visa, if the parents are divorced the parent travelling needs to have the other parents written consent to take the child out of the country. I hope he doesn't give you issues.

[Neels]

Unfortunately not, he has to give written consent or your wife needs a court order granting her sole custody. Even on a visitors visa, if the parents are divorced the parent travelling needs to have the other parents written consent to take the child out of the country. I hope he doesn't give you issues.

Thanks HEoJ

It's not what I wanted to hear.

So if I understand correctly, even if they where never married, and there is no official custody documents, and he has no part in her life... He has me by the short & curly's?..

[HadEnoughofJuju]

As I understand it if his name is on the birth certificate he has to give written consent. I have a friend in South Africa who is in exactly the same position. Never married to the daughters father but because his name is on her birth certificate, when they applied for visitor visa to come and see family a couple of years ago, she had to go through the painful process of getting him to give written consent (which if I'm not mistaken was in the form of an affidavit) before DIBP would grant the visa.

If there is a court order in place granting him visitation rights then he will definitely have to give written consent for her to leave the country. Currently in South Africa (and they were meant to start enforcing this as of 1 October 2014 which I believe has not happened yet), if only one parent is leaving the country with a child under the age of 18 then they need to have the childs unabridged birth certificate as well as an affidavit (I think) form the second parent giving them permission to take the child out of the country and this is regardless of whether or not the parents are still together.

I remember that in the checklist that we got from our agents which listed what documents we had to collect there was a section detailing the full birth certificates for each family member which made mention of the fact that in the case that either of the parents in the application was not the biological parent (caused by separation, divorce or death) that either an affidavit granting the migrating parent permission to take the child out of the country, a court order giving the migrating parent sole custody of the child or a death certificate had to accompany the application.

Your best bet would be to contact one of the migration agents on the forum (SD_MOA, TeeTMI or Ajay) and get a professional opinion and options. The last thing you need is to have your application denied because of a technicality. Besides all that if the guy has a decent bone in his body he wont give you a days trouble.

[Neels]

Besides all that if the guy has a decent bone in his body he wont give you a days trouble.

That's just it, this f a , is enjoying the fact that I now need to 'beg' him for something...

Thanks so much HEoJ, that explains it better.

[KirstyS]

Just had to do the same thing. I am divorced and had to beg for consent from my sons' father.

I did speak to a lawyer but a high court application in itself is a drawn out process as well.

In the end you might have to beg and 'bribe' ?

[Neels]

Just had to do the same thing. I am divorced and had to beg for consent from my sons' father.

I did speak to a lawyer but a high court application in itself is a drawn out process as well.

In the end you might have to beg and 'bribe'

Thanks KirstyS

Yeah, the court route is also very expensive.. a very last resort.

You know what.. I should be humble and hold no grudge, so maybe this is my opportunity to prove my Faith to myself and put my pride in my back pocket and approach him again... (from behind ..)

[Bretty2]

Hi Neels

We went through the same thing recently. The father of my step-daughters was also very evasive, everytime we tried to organise a meeting to discuss this he had an axcuse. We battled for nearly a year and on the day he was about to be served legal papers (we decided to go the legal route in the end) he out of the blue phoned and said he would sign the affidavit and the form 1229 as he agrees they would have a more stable future in Australia. We got him to sign 3 of everything and 3 certified copies of his ID.

If he has no real contact with his daughter then you will stand a good chance in court so see a lawyer and get proper advice. I know it costs money but if all else fails thats the only other option.

Hopefully you can appeal to his sensible side, no matter how small it may be and get him to sign. Like you said, put your pride in your back pocket. Your goal is that signature so if you have to do some acting and begging to get it like we did then so be it. Make sure he signs at least 3 copies of an affidavit and the 1229 just incase something goes missing and so you will always have a signed affidavit for future use if needed.

My wife and the girls visas came through a few days ago and that feeling made it all worth while in the end. If its really what you want then don't give up.

Good luck

Paul.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Bretty2

[Neels]

Hi Neels

We went through the same thing recently. The father of my step-daughters was also very evasive, everytime we tried to organise a meeting to discuss this he had an axcuse. We battled for nearly a year and on the day he was about to be served legal papers (we decided to go the legal route in the end) he out of the blue phoned and said he would sign the affidavit and the form 1229 as he agrees they would have a more stable future in Australia. We got him to sign 3 of everything and 3 certified copies of his ID.

If he has no real contact with his daughter then you will stand a good chance in court so see a lawyer and get proper advice. I know it costs money but if all else fails thats the only other option.

Hopefully you can appeal to his sensible side, no matter how small it may be and get him to sign. Like you said, put your pride in your back pocket. Your goal is that signature so if you have to do some acting and begging to get it like we did then so be it. Make sure he signs at least 3 copies of an affidavit and the 1229 just incase something goes missing and so you will always have a signed affidavit for future use if needed.

My wife and the girls visas came through a few days ago and that feeling made it all worth while in the end. If its really what you want then don't give up.

Good luck

Paul.

Thanks Paul

Congratulations with your visas

[yavdberg]

Hi, if the other parent signs the 1229 form and gives a certified copy of their passport will that be enough?  Is an affidavit and the divorce documents also required?

[LCJKZ]

Hi @yavdberg

 

So far we have been required to give the form 1229, certified copy of ID and drivers license (it had to be a form of identity which had their signature on it so I submitted the drivers license) as well as the divorce papers. Have not been asked for an affidavit but will let you know if that changes.

 

Liz

[yavdberg]

Hi Liz

 

Thanks.  Are the divorce papers mandatory?  We have a issue where the mother had stated the child would live with her on the divorce settlement when in fact he has always lived with his father full time plus they are in afrikaans.... wondering if they are needed at all to save the hassle and cost of having it translated etc etc.  I assume her signing the form and supplying her passport should be enough?

 

[LCJKZ]

I see your dillemma. Our agent asked me for custody docs and all I had was the divorce papers... but maybe in your case a better option would be to do an affidavit, I am just not 100% sure what would be acceptable. I think it might be advisable to speak to an agent with experience in this type of thing?

 

[TinaB]

WELCOME TO MY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm busy battling with this as we speak My ex husband signed the Form 1229 but the Department has done a verification check to make sure it is his signature on the form and now my ex is being a DUMBASS and telling them that he hasn't given his consent because he wants all sorts of ridiculous information.

I'm at the stage now where he must sit down with me and get this "agreement" done or I will go to a lawyer.  I'll spend every cent I have to make this happen but if I come right, he will be the one to end up paying (financially and sadly, with the relationship with his son).

It would be nice if just ONCE he said "What does G want?".

But no, it's a power struggle and I will not let this man abuse me again.

 

Oh my hat!!!!!!! As I typed this I got a message from him saying "Spoke to the High Commission and I told them I got a letter from you and I am happy with it and will send it through today or tomorrow."

WTF??? ha ha ha - please let this be the end of it!!

 

 

[TracyAnne]

I hope for your sake @TinaB that this is the end for you - YAY!!!!! All the best ??

[RedPanda]

Hope for the best! (But check up on it just in case)

[TracyAnne]

So yesterday we get an email informing us that our case officer is not satisfied in respects to satisfying the regulations relating to the authority to issue a visa to my son (7 months and numerous email enquiries on what further info they could need to finalise our application later) ....we originally submitted all court documents, a High Court Order and all other supporting Docs when lodging our application. He was especially unsatisfied that my son's unabridged birth certificate was date stamped 2012 (when it was issued) so he is now questioning why we only registered my son's birth 8 years after he was born, erm.....because thats when we applied for the unabridged for school! Anyway, I went to the cop shop yesterday and signed an affidavit stating that when my son was born it was not the procedure to issue an unabridged birth certificate on registration of birth (that rule has since changed as I got an unabridged birth certificate for both my girls born 2013 & 2015). They also asked me for a copy of his birth records so I also signed an affidavit regarding that because the issue date was yesterday because obviously the original gets handed in at home affairs when you register them....I also went so far as to attach ALL school records and any other info I could find on my son including his Immunization chart.

 

My question is, could they still turn around now and deny our visa. What more do they want? We went the legal route and spent a small fortune getting the High Court Order to avoid this issue and yet they are still asking us for the Form 1229 (??) Surely the High Court Order negates the need for Form 1229???. We then tried calling them because it is VERY difficult to try and explain documents via email, we thought perhaps in person might be more beneficial - you are not allowed to speak directly to the case officers, it's very frustrating!

 

What now?

 

@TinaB, did you come right?

[vitchie]

Ag no, so sorry to hear that Tracey. I honestly don't have any advice. Maybe it's a good idea to contact a migration lawyer in Australia or one of the agents to see if they can assist? 

 

I hope you guys come right and don't have to wait much longer.

[TinaB]

Oh shame, I have no advice for you unfortunately.  We did our visa though an agent so they facilitated all our correspondence with the case officers.

All I can say is that our visa was granted at the end of May and we sent in our application in July, so ours also took a long time but we have now got a visa.  I did have a signed Form 1229 though so our situations are a bit different.  I honestly feel your pain.  Nothing worse than not being able to talk to a person and properly explain yourself.  Hope you come right. xxx

[LCJKZ]

Oh my goodness @TracyAnne! My stomach turns when I read your post!! I can't imagine your frustration and exasperation. I definitely agree with @vitchie to get a migration lawyer who might advise on your options.

 

Our unabridged birth certificates for my step kids were only issued this year. I don't understand how that could be an issue!

 

We are really praying for you that this gets resolved and that you don't have to keep jumping through hoops to satisfy questions that seem completely unfounded! SIGH!

 

Sending you mountains of strength, don't give up!

[Chlloe]

On 4/18/2016 at 11:00 PM, TinaB said:

WELCOME TO MY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm busy battling with this as we speak My ex husband signed the Form 1229 but the Department has done a verification check to make sure it is his signature on the form and now my ex is being a DUMBASS and telling them that he hasn't given his consent because he wants all sorts of ridiculous information.

I'm at the stage now where he must sit down with me and get this "agreement" done or I will go to a lawyer.  I'll spend every cent I have to make this happen but if I come right, he will be the one to end up paying (financially and sadly, with the relationship with his son).

It would be nice if just ONCE he said "What does G want?".

But no, it's a power struggle and I will not let this man abuse me again.

 

Oh my hat!!!!!!! As I typed this I got a message from him saying "Spoke to the High Commission and I told them I got a letter from you and I am happy with it and will send it through today or tomorrow."

WTF??? ha ha ha - please let this be the end of it!!

 

 

Hi Tina, Could you please tell me what happened after the verification failed? Did the Department got back to you and asked for more? I am in the situation where the father has signed this paper when we migrated to Australia, but I am now switching to a different visa and they are asking it again (obviously a different team working on my visa and have no access/did not check my other file.. I am about to submit this paper again, showing them we left Australia with his agreement. But since things got crazy since then, I am worried they might call him and he might create problems. I would not want them to decline my partner visa because of this. If they come back to me asking for more document then I  will be able to use this request to finally be able to go to a judge, which I cant do now IN MY OWN COUNTRY because I am not a resident anymore (!!)... That's why I wanted your feedback on this. Thanks !!