Child leaving the country with 1 parent only, needs father permission?

Dear Laetyann,

Welcome to the Ecuador forum.

Even if you found someone on this forum who had similar experience, their experience is not a perfect predictor for your situation.

You need to be communicating with the relevant embassy, consulate(s) or agency governing your case.

Presuming that you are still in Montreal, I'd start by visiting the Ecuadorian consulate there .. or contacting the nearest EC consulate.

cccmedia

Laetyann wrote:

Hello to all,

I am in a re-composed family and we intend to get settled in Ecuador. I live with my husband and my 10 years old daughter, whose biological father lives in Europe. He recognised her officially but since then, he never took care of her and never wanted to interact anymore. I don't even know where he is now...
I know it is touchy in certain countries (notably Colombia), so I am wondering if, once we are residents, we would have to provide an "authorisation of leaving the country from the other parent" when we want to travel outside of Ecuador...
I try to look for information about all this on the web, but it is quite unclear...
Does anyone have this experience ??
Thanks a lot in advance.
PS : we used to live in Canada and overthere they are supposed to require such paper, but in the facts, they never did.

What do you think is "unclear?" Below is a link from the national police and it's explicit.

A minor citizen/resident can not leave Ecuador without parent(s) accompanying the child unless authorization is granted by one or both parents (depending on one or none accompanying child).

There are options for your situation but they require paperwork (example - sole custody of child ). 

http://www.policiaecuador.gob.ec/aplica … irpais.pdf

vsimple wrote:

A minor citizen/resident can not leave Ecuador without parent(s) accompanying the child unless authorization is granted by one or both parents (depending on one or none accompanying child).

I would never insult the esteemed V by saying the above sentence is ‘clear as mud'....

But the fact is:  I have read it multiple times and do not understand it.

Note that I highlighted the ‘depending' clause, which is the confusing part.

cccmedia

cccmedia wrote:

vsimple wrote:

A minor citizen/resident can not leave Ecuador without parent(s) accompanying the child unless authorization is granted by one or both parents (depending on one or none accompanying child).

I would never insult the esteemed V by saying the above sentence is ‘clear as mud'....

But the fact is:  I have read it multiple times and do not understand it.

Note that I highlighted the ‘depending' clause, which is the confusing part.

cccmedia

Ok, no problem. If a child is traveling with one parent then authorization is required from the other parent. If however the child is traveling without either parent then authorization from both parents is required. That was what I meant by depending on whether one parent or none accompanying the child.

Thank you. Well, this was not the link i have read (can't find it right now) but it also mentionned about judgements (and this particular part was unclear because it opened a door with no specifications) In my case the French judgement specified that i can go wherever i want with my child. I guess it is worth getting it translated and apostilled to be able to show it to the border... To note : Colombia is supposed to be super strict about this and when we left they didn't ask anything. This is why i was requesting others' experience if any. Experience often says more than the law (i could see that in Canada too).

Rasruben wrote:

Thank you. Well, this was not the link i have read (can't find it right now) but it also mentionned about judgements (and this particular part was unclear because it opened a door with no specifications) In my case the French judgement specified that i can go wherever i want with my child. I guess it is worth getting it translated and apostilled to be able to show it to the border... To note : Colombia is supposed to be super strict about this and when we left they didn't ask anything. This is why i was requesting others' experience if any. Experience often says more than the law (i could see that in Canada too).

When you departed Colombia was it as tourists or residents? That's the issue here, it's literally the system as in immigration computer system that flags citizen/resident (not tourists) minors traveling, and to clarify the names of the parents are listed on the cédula.

You are perfectly okay with the French judgement and yes get it apostilled and  translated. And from personal experience, yes authorization was required.

Thanks for your answer and experience sharing, vsimple.
We left Colombia as tourists and I know it makes a difference. But interestingly enough, when we took a flight from Bogota to Cartagena (which is an internal flight then), the crew wanted to verify this information before letting us go onboard !!
By the way, indeed I just learnt recently the parents' names are on the cedula. But I'm wondering : if you show only your passport when leaving the country, how can they know you are resident anyway?? You don't have to show automatically your cedula when leaving the country, do you?
Last night I got the chance to talk - by pure coincidence - to a friend of a friend here in Ecuador who happens to be a court lawyer, specialised on childhood and family affairs. He also confirmed, as you said, that my judgement will be sufficient to be allowed to cross the borders. Moreover, he said we can also go to the court in order to withdraw the father's parental authority, since we have no news from him and he doesn't have any interest on his daughter. He said it's a simple procedure and that would make things even easier. So I think that's what we will do.
Thanks again to all who responded, and I hope this post will help the others in the future !

Laetyann wrote:

I'm wondering : if you show only your passport when leaving the country, how can they know you are resident anyway?? You don't have to show automatically your cedula when leaving the country, do you?

1.  Residency visas are typically stamped into your passport.  By viewing the visa stamp, the government agent can tell if you attained legal residency.  If you have violated the terms of your visa, the agent can access that information through the agency's digital records base.

2.  You can cross the border with passport only.

cccmedia