chinese travel document problem

[jenny333]

Hi,

I have a situation.

I am from china and married a british man. We have a 2 year old baby together born in the uk with british passport.

Our marrage hasn't been good and my husband wants a divorce.

I want to take our child to china for a month to visit her grandparents there however my husband says he will never allow her to go to china. Ive checked the situation and apparently china will not issue a visa to a child who is classed as a chinese citizen. (But she has a british passport i hear you ask!) Well yes. But according to the chinese goverment a child born to a chinese citizen (even if not in china) is chinese.

So the only way is to request a 'travel permit' for the child (different to a visa - looks like a passport)

However in order to get a travel permit both parents need to attend the visa office and I need written permission from my husband for it (which he wont give). She will need this travel document to go to and from china until she is 16.

So I feel stuck. If we divorce is my husband right in what he says? that I will never be allowed to take my child to china until she is 16 as:


a) the Chinese government wont give her a visa as they see her as Chinese and wont issue a visa to a Chinese citizen.

b) I cant get a travel document as my husband wont give his consent for it at the Chinese embassy.


Is this right?

Or is there any way such as after the divorce and I get main custody of the child would the Chinese embassy still require my husbands permission to give the travel document?


Is there any solutions to this?

Im thinking one way could be to renounce her Chinese citizenship so that the china government would see her as truly british and issue a visa. but this seems extreme and hard to do without the child been in china first.

Or perhaps I could renounce my Chinese citizenship (im eligible to apply for a british passport now but have been holding off as currently on a ILR (indefinite leave to remain) so don't have to do it yet but can if I want. This would mean my child would not be classed as Chinese as both parents would be british and she would be able to get a Chinese visa. But this will cause future problems for me in going back to china to look after my parents.

What do you think?

[889]

You have a serious legal problem and need serious legal advice from a lawyer familiar with this field, not the sort of advice you get on a forum like this.

 

That said, you should be aware that there are in fact various legal protections to prevent one parent from taking a child out of a country without the permission of the other parent.

 

To be honest, you need to think of the child as "our child," not "my child" because that's the way the law views the child.

 

[roddy]

This is a complex issue. We might have people with useful info, but... 

 

If you want to do this in the near future, you probably need professional advice now. If it's a few years away, I'd focus on sorting out the divorce and custody arrangements. For what it's worth, you can apply to the courts for permission if the father refuses (see here, although you've probably already seen it). Edit: And this ignores the citizenship / passport issues. 

[amytheorangutan]

My advice would be to seek professional legal help and don’t do anything drastic in a rush that would be very hard to recover later such as renouncing citizenships etc without proper consultations with your lawyer. 

[TheBigZaboon]

For the second time in as many days, I find myself in agreement with @889..

You need the help of professionals experienced in matters like this. 

 

I also agree with @889that you need to think in terms of "our child"  rather than "my child". I live in Japan, which is rapidly becoming famous (notorious???) as a place where (usually, but not exclusively) a mother can take a child or children and keep them away from any contact with the other parent. It is claimed that not only the authorities, but society in general, will actively or passively go along with assisting in this. I have no experience of any kind with this issue, but I can easily see a father running up against similar Chinese attitudes about Chinese-ness. 

 

As this is becoming a better known phenomenon, I'm sure people in this field will confront you with it sooner or later. I think you had better think about it seriously before you make your decisions.