Young Daughter Urgently Needs to Change Passport but Lost Contact with Father for Years

Applicant: Ms. Cai
Country/Region: China
Case type: Issuance of attorney’s letter
Case duration: 5 days

BACKGROUND
• Ms. Cai and her ex-husband have been out of touch since 2012
• The U.S. Embassy in Beijing will only process applications for emergencies during the outbreak
• If her daughter’s passport cannot be renewed, Ms. Cai will have to leave her infant daughter alone in China

Six years ago, Ms. Tsai had retained us at Tsang & Associates to handle her divorce case, however, she had lost contact with her husband two years prior and needed our assistance in filing an ex parte divorce and obtaining full custody of her daughter. After the divorce was finalized, we also assisted Ms. Cai and her daughter with a legal name change and a new U.S. passport with a new identity.

Time flies, and Ms. Cai’s mother and daughter traveled between China and the United States in the years that followed without any problems. She thought that the divorce had been finalized, her name changed, and the problem of her “ex-husband” would be over. The U.S. Embassy in China told her that she had to get her ex-husband’s consent before she could apply for a new passport for her daughter. Generally, it is the norm to ask both parents for permission to renew a minor’s passport, but in some special cases, this is not possible. At a loss for what to do, Ms. Cai again turned to Tsang & Associates for help.

KEYS TO SUCCESS
We handled Ms. Cai’s divorce six years ago, so we knew her situation well – we couldn’t find her ex-husband six years ago, let alone today. Despite the lack of hope, we tried our best to find and contact him through his last known phone number, email address, and even various social media, but all were lost …… Finally, we even tried to contact his aunt, but all our efforts were in vain, and Ms. Cai’s ex-husband was still nowhere to be found.

After exhausting all efforts to locate Ms. Cai’s ex-husband, we set sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing setting forth the reasons why Ms. Cai’s daughter’s father’s consent could not be obtained for a new passport. In the letter, we explained in detail Ms. Cai’s unique situation and all of our efforts to obtain the consent of the child’s father. In addition, we also In addition, we provided Ms. Cai with instructions on what to expect when she went back to the embassy, how to explain and respond, etc.
Five days later, Ms. Cai went back to the embassy, still a little apprehensive, but much more confident.

OUTCOME
At that time, during the New Guinea epidemic, the embassy only handled emergency applications, but with our help, Ms. Cai was able to submit a letter from her attorney to the embassy, and the embassy officials saw the letter and waived the requirement for her daughter’s father’s consent to get a new passport. The consequences of not being able to renew her daughter’s passport were serious, and if the application was denied, Ms. Cai would have been faced with the dilemma of either delaying all of her scheduled travels or leaving her young daughter alone in China for the time being. Fortunately, with our help, Ms. Cai was spared the dilemma of having to return to the United States together without having to separate her mother and daughter.

The United States has a vast array of laws, and families in cross-border marriages encounter many more problems, especially those who need to travel between the United States and China from time to time, and it is important to have a team of professional lawyers who understand the laws of both countries as family counsel. 

*To protect customer privacy, customer names are pseudonyms.