What evidence do you need if your ex refuses to consent to your child’s passport? We explain the documents that can support a special circumstances application or Family Court passport orders, particularly where family violence is involved.
If the other parent will not consent to your child obtaining a passport, simply saying they are unreasonable, controlling or absent may not be enough.
Whether you apply directly to the Australian Passport Office under the special circumstances provisions or seek an order from the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the quality of your evidence matters.
This becomes particularly important where you rely on family violence, coercive control, safety concerns or an inability to contact the other parent as the reason consent cannot be obtained.
The strongest evidence is generally evidence that is specific, contemporaneous and independently supported where possible.
It should help answer four questions:
The evidence required will also depend on which of the two passport pathways you are using.
If you do not have full parental consent and there is no Australian court order permitting the passport or international travel, you can ask the Australian Passport Office to consider the application under its “special circumstances” provisions.
You will generally need to complete Form B9, Child without full consent or Australian court order permitting issue of a travel document.
The Australian Passport Office specifically states that supporting evidence may include:
The Passport Office may also ask for more information before deciding the application.
A special circumstances application is discretionary. Providing evidence does not guarantee that a passport will be issued.
There is no single document that a person must produce to establish family violence.
A criminal conviction is not necessarily required.
Family violence often occurs privately, and many incidents are never reported to police. The important issue is to provide the best evidence actually available and explain clearly how it relates to the passport application.
Depending on the circumstances, useful evidence may include the following.
An Apprehended Domestic Violence Order may be important evidence, particularly where it contains restrictions on:
Other relevant court material can include:
The existence of an ADVO should not simply be mentioned without explanation.
Where relevant, identify what the order says, why it was made and how it affects your ability to safely seek the other parent's passport consent.
The Australian Passport Office specifically recognises family violence orders as supporting material for a special circumstances application.
Police material may be particularly useful where incidents were reported at or around the time they occurred.
That could include:
A police event number proves that an incident was reported. It does not necessarily establish everything alleged about the incident.
Where available, the underlying statement, police narrative, photographs or evidence of subsequent police action may provide considerably more context.
Medical records can be relevant where family violence caused physical injury or affected the psychological wellbeing of either the parent or child.
Relevant documents could include:
Contemporaneous medical records can be useful because they show what was reported or observed at the time rather than relying solely on a later recollection.
Evidence does not have to come from police or a court.
The Passport Office expressly identifies material from a women's refuge, social worker or similar service as evidence that may support an application involving family violence.
Other useful material may include:
This evidence can be particularly relevant where it documents stalking, relocation, threats, safety planning or advice not to communicate directly with the other parent.
Sometimes the clearest evidence is the communication between the parents themselves.
Keep messages that show:
For example, there is a significant difference between saying:
“My ex is controlling and refuses to let me get a passport”
and producing a message in which the other parent says that they will only sign the passport application if you withdraw court proceedings or agree to an unrelated demand.
Avoid preserving only isolated screenshots where possible.
A useful screenshot or exported conversation should show:
Do not alter messages or crop them in a way that changes their meaning.
This is an important part of many applications.
If it is safe to do so, make a clear written request for consent.
The Australian Passport Office encourages applicants to try to obtain consent from each person with parental responsibility where it is possible and safe to do so.
Keep:
If they simply do not respond, that is different evidence from an express refusal.
Do not expose yourself or your child to risk merely to create evidence for a passport application.
If contacting the other parent would be unsafe, explain why.
Relevant supporting evidence might include:
Form B9 allows an applicant to provide the circumstances relied upon in support of the application and relevant evidence. The current form also asks about court orders and any pending legal proceedings.
The important point is to connect the family violence evidence to the passport issue.
It is not enough merely to say that there has been family violence if the relevance of that violence to obtaining consent is left unexplained.
Again, evidence helps.
If the basis of the special circumstances application is that the other parent cannot be found, keep evidence of reasonable efforts to locate them.
Depending on the case, this could include:
Section 11 of the Australian Passports Act also expressly deals with circumstances where urgent international travel is required because of a family crisis and a person with parental responsibility cannot be contacted within a reasonable period.
The decision is not simply about conflict between two adults.
Evidence concerning the child may be important, particularly where you say that the child's physical or psychological welfare would be adversely affected if they could not travel.
Section 11(2) of the Australian Passports Act expressly permits the Minister to issue a passport where satisfied that the child's physical or psychological welfare would be adversely affected if the child could not travel internationally.
Relevant evidence might include:
The focus should remain on the child's circumstances rather than simply the parent's desire to travel.
If the Passport Office pathway is not appropriate, or the other parent actively objects and the dispute requires determination, you may need to seek orders from the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
A passport proceeding must be supported by an affidavit setting out the facts relied upon.
Where the application concerns a child's passport, the Court's current Passport Proceedings Practice Direction also requires relevant documents which can include:
The Court's requirements therefore make it particularly important that your evidence is organised and specific.
Avoid broad labels without factual detail.
Instead of simply saying:
“The other parent has subjected me to coercive control.”
Explain the actual conduct.
For each significant incident, where possible identify:
For example, the affidavit might explain that after you previously raised overseas travel, the other parent threatened to retain the child's documents, and then identify the message containing that threat.
Specific evidence assists the Court to understand both the conduct alleged and why it is relevant to the passport application.
Independent evidence can substantially strengthen an application, but the absence of independent evidence does not necessarily mean that family violence did not occur.
Family violence frequently happens without witnesses.
What matters is presenting the available evidence accurately.
A combination of evidence may be particularly persuasive. For example:
The evidence then supports the account from several different sources.
Family violence evidence does not remove the need to address the proposed travel itself.
If Court orders permitting international travel are sought, the Court may also need to consider whether there is any risk that the child will not return to Australia.
Useful evidence can include:
Be open about overseas connections.
Trying to minimise foreign citizenship, overseas assets or close family connections can cause more difficulty than disclosing them and explaining why the child will return.
That allegation should be addressed directly.
Depending on the circumstances, evidence of return ties could include:
The Court's international travel guidance identifies matters such as the proposed itinerary, connections with Australia and the destination country, immigration status, Hague Convention status, undertakings and possible security as relevant matters in overseas travel disputes.
More evidence is not always better.
An application can become less persuasive where the material contains:
The objective is not to provide every document generated during the relationship.
It is to provide evidence relevant to the decision that needs to be made.
Depending on whether you are applying to the Passport Office or Court, a useful evidence package might contain:
The aim is for someone who knows nothing about your family to be able to read the material and understand:
What happened? Why is consent missing? Why is the passport required? How does this affect the child? And, if travel is proposed, why is the child likely to return?
Yes, although there will often be considerable overlap.
For the Passport Office, the immediate question is whether the application satisfies the requirements for a passport to be considered without full parental consent.
The Passport Office identifies family violence orders, police and medical material, government or educational declarations and other supporting evidence as potentially relevant to that assessment.
For the Court, the evidence needs to support the particular parenting or passport orders being sought and address the child's circumstances, family violence and, where overseas travel is proposed, any risk relating to the child's return.
The Court also imposes formal filing and affidavit requirements that do not apply in the same way to a Passport Office application.
If you are seeking a child's passport without the other parent's consent, evidence matters.
Where family violence or coercive control is relied upon, the strongest case is generally not built around labels.
It is built around specific events, contemporary documents, independent records where available, and a clear explanation of how that history affects the ability to obtain consent and the welfare of the child.
For a Passport Office special circumstances application, that evidence helps DFAT decide whether it can exercise its discretion to issue a passport without full parental consent.
For a Court application, the evidence must support the orders sought and explain why those orders are appropriate for the child.
If your former partner will not consent to your child's passport, read our guide: [My Ex Won’t Consent to My Child’s Passport: What Are My Options?]
Urban Law Group advises parents about child passport applications, family violence, international travel disputes and parenting orders.
This article contains general information only and is not legal advice. The evidence required will depend on the circumstances of the child, the nature of the family violence or dispute and the orders or passport decision being sought.