Children's Passport

[irv]

I am having difficulty getting an answer to this even from the passport help line. We tragically lost our daughter at Christmas time, she was a single mum with a ten year old son. There was never a biological father in my grandsons life, in fact we don't know a single thing about him and his birth certificate has no name recorded.

Our Grandson now lives with my wife & I full time and he is now 11. We want to get him a passport, we have not been to Court for parenting orders as we have been advised by a solicitor who specialises in Family Law that there is no need to as we are his closest next of kin.

The passport office advised me to compete a normal child application along with a form B11 which is a general declaration outlining the circumstances. My research into this indicates that this may not be correct, we are unable to sign the declaration stating we agree to him leaving the country as this simply allows for the child's parents to make this statement, the form requesting special consideration by the minister is really where the parents can't agree to allow the child to travel and not appropriate. I really don't want to pay the processing fee only for this application to be refused, does any one here have any experience in this area, or can provide some advice.

Thank you in anticipation.

 

[juddles]

Hi there ivr,

let me first state the obvious that I understand you have suffered a family tragedy and I wish to express my deepest sympathy.

Regarding the passport application, it is possible that in this AFF community someone may have some experience in similar issues, but it appears to me to be a fairly rare situation. As much as we all love to support fellow AFF members, and thus freely give advice, I think in your specific case the ONLY people who can guide you is in fact the passport office. If you have explained the situation to them, and they advised you to make the application, I think that is your best course of action.

 

[VPS]

Good luck with whatever happens - must be very difficult for you