Hello,

I am a single mother of an 8 year old child who's father IS listed on her birth certificate. However, he has never paid child support or been involved in her life. There has never been a need for us to go to court for me to get sole custody and I never wished to pursue it for child support. But now I am traveling to Canada to study, and I need to prove to the Canadian Embassy that I have full custody in order to take our daughter out of the US. I am traveling soon, and a court order will take too long. My question is: Can I get a notarized letter from him stating that he is giving me sole custody of our daughter? And if yes, how should the letter be phrased so that it will be proper and recognized legally? Are there any specific words or phrases that MUST be included in the letter?

phoenixfire

No you can not use a notarized letter. It must be a court order sorry. But what you can do is a mutually submitted court document that you would both sign, file with the court and you would not need a court date or anything. You would just file it and the judge will sign it then it will become and order of the court. To be more specific regarding court forms you may be able to do this with I would need to know what state and county you are in.

::Edit:: I can not take credit for finding this but here it is thanks to Lady B: Passport Requirements for Minors Under Age 14 - Associated Content (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/123569/error)

For minor children traveling outside of the United States, effective in 2007, a United States passport is required for re-entry into the United States. The key factor to passport acquisition is the necessity that all minors, under age 14, appear in person at the passport location and, even more difficult, the passport application must have the signature of both parents or legal guardians or the custodial parent must provide adequate documentation securing the parent's authority to make sole travel decisions on behalf of the minor child.


For single parents who do not have contact with the other parent, and are unable to obtain form DS-3053, the passport can be issued to the minor child providing the custodial parent has a legal document which supports the sole custody rights and, in addition, the court custody documents must not indicate the minor child is restricted from travel.

And you may be able to find some helpful information on this web site as well: International Child Abductions: A Manual for Parents - Consular Affairs (http://www.voyage.gc.ca/main/pubs/child_abductions-en.asp)

phoenixfire[/QUOTE]
Thank you very much for your insight into this. My state is Texas.
I noticed that when I submitted the application for my daughter's passport, that there was a space provided where I could write a statement (and swear under oath) my reasons I couldn't obtain the father's signature or a court order of full custody. I thought the woman who processed my application would say something such as "this is not enough of a reason", but she didn't. I took the oath and she sent in my passport documents to be processed. Do you think that the US Dept. of State will not process the application? I hope that they would notify me immediately if they were not going to process it!

It probably won't be immediate, but they should let you know as soon as its rejected if it is.

This link should provide you with the necessary forms to file a mutual custody agreement: LawHelp Legal Information search results for Family Law and Domestic Violence > Custody/Visitation (http://www.texaslawhelp.org/TX/StateChannelResults.cfm/County/%20/City/%20/demoMode/%3D%201/Language/1/State/TX/TextOnly/N/ZipCode/%20/LoggedIn/0/iSubTopicID/1/iProblemCodeID/1310199/sTopicImage/familyjuvenile.gif/iTopicID/495/ichannelid/91/bAllState/0)
Click on the link for:
Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (SACPR)
Then click on the link for:
There are two types of cases:
1. Agreed Cases, (Click here for steps.)

Article in today's paper said that passports are taking up to three times as long to process after 9/11. All the Homeland Security issues.