Is there any single parent who would want to share their experience when applying for issue/renewal of passport of their minor child?
I am a single parent battling the court case for custody of my minor son. I had applied for passport of my son in late 2015 and it was put on hold due to not having father’s consent at that time. The father is a PIO with Australian Passport and has OCI card and only after I got a written consent through the embassy, the passport was issued to my son in January 2016 after months of putting it on hold. Even at that time I used Annexure C, where I applied as a single parent with other parent not giving consent but that did not convince passport officials.
I still dread the experience as I felt quite helpless. There was no legal battle going on at that time and we were still married. Now the passport of my child has expired in Jan this year and I need to get it reissued.
I have heard that rules were changed for single parents in December 2016 and it has been made easy to get a passport for the minor. The father hides his details and has not provided his address and telephone in the case which has been going on for 3 years now. A consent from him can not be expected as that involves giving away a lot of details.
In such a case is there any hope I can get the passport renewed for my son? Can I go ahead and apply for passport renewal? Will the new rules be helpful or we shall still be at the mercy of the father?