Ladies. I need some help. I usually only comment in this section but I decided to post this in here…

Bump.

I could really use advice from anyone. Especially ones who have gone through with filing for abandonment themselves.

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think you'll need his permission to get passports for them. But it's best to speak with a lawyer about your situation first.

Thanks. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get much advice on this subject from a lawyer. Most of them here want to be retained first. And the family lawyers are too busy. Ive been trying to get information for the last 2 months.

U do need permission from him to get passports. That's a federal thing so it's the same in every state. If there's nothing legal stating that u have sole custody, then in the eyes of the law, your BD is considered a custodial parent. I'm not sure about abandonment in California as I am in NY. I'm an arbitrator dealing with corporate law but I did some research on family law because of my situation. If u can, find a family lawyer that takes pro bono cases or contact your local legal aid society. Their services are free. It's just a bunch of paperwork that needs to be filed so it shouldn't take too long unless your BD tries to contest. Since he's been absent for a while u should be alright.

U need his permission to get passports, unless you have went to court and gotten full legal custody of the child. I had to do this with my son. I told them(before I went to court for custody) that I didn't know where his father was or how to contact him at the post office when I was trying to get his passport. I asked them even though his father never was in his life why do I need his permission to get MY son a passport. They told me I would either have to go to court and get full legal custody or notify him legally in the local paper. So I went to court and got full custody and just had to take that paper with me to get his passport. I will have to do the same for my daughter, hopefully her "father" won't put up a fight with the full custody.

I think you might I was born in california But moved to oregon since I was 3. My biological father disappeared on us when I was 2. My younger siblings father is the one I consider a dad. Anyways when I was 15 I was trying to go to Italy on a family vacation and I couldn't get a passport with out the consent of my biological father. So my mom had to go threw with the whole proceedings of legally filing for sole custody. The court had approved that bc he was never able to be reached and never showed up to court proceedings there for they granted my mom sole custody and from there my dad filed for adoption legally adopting me as his daughter. I would get started in it bc it took over 6 months for my mom and I to settle this

Thanks ladies. I really appreciate the help. Looks like I'm just going to have to go downtown to talk with someone in the passports department about this. I was really hoping to be able to do this without involving him. Thing is, I really don't know where he is or how to contact him. ?

If you don't know where he is or how to contact you would have to notify him legally by way of local newspaper. They have a section in the paper, I think it's called legal notices or something like that. I didn't know where my son father was when I first tried to get him a passport and that's what my lawyer told me I would have had to do. But I ended up finding him and I went to court for full custody and of course he didn't put up a fight about me getting that. So all I had to show the post office was my full custody court papers and that's all they needed to get my son passport, I didn't have to contact him after I got full custody

I dont think you need his permission i think you can do it without him. My sister got her kids passports &their father is on but they didn't need his permission.

If you have full custody yoy don't need his permission for anything.

There has been no sort of custody at all. He saw the little one once since he was born. Never went to court because he has never been there. Didn't realize it would be such a big issue.

Is he listed on the birth certificate?

If he is you will need his permission to take the children out of the country.

If not, you can do it on your own.

Technically his not a "parent" if he's not on the birth certificate and there is no custody established, if i understand correctly.

Im in england so i dont know if things are different but here you wouldnt need his permission, especially when he isnt on ghe birth certificate. It isnt your fault he hasnt contacted you so why should your children suffer not being allowed on holiday for that??

Thanks ladies.

Just to clarify... No he isn't on either birth certificate.