Hi. Are you seeing your daughter at all at the moment? It sounds not if she's making excuses like your place isn't suitable. I would put in an application to court ASAP on a C100 for both a Child Arrangements order and an urgent prohibited steps order. If she is from another country and talking about wanting to go back, she could leave the country. So you have grounds for an urgent prohibited steps order (prohibits her from leaving the country without the court's permission). For that application you can ask for a 48 hour hearing. With Covid it will probably take a bit longer than that but you could have a hearing within a week or 10 days. The bonus to that is it could also be the first hearing for Child Arrangements at the same time (which would normally take about 6 weeks). ie combine the two hearings.
Yes apply for 50/50. You can complete and submit the application yourself. The court fee used to be £215 but went up in September to £232 - however there is a fee exemption or partial reduction if have less than £3000 in savings and less than £1,170 per month income.
The application form is quite straightforward and there's a guide to completing it on the home page (the guide is not quite finished however!) - ask on here about anything you're not sure about. You need to tick the box for an urgent hearing and say why it's necessary. Reason would be - risk of ex leaving the country and abduction of child.
The important bit of that form is 5b on page 10. Reasons for applying. The box isn't very big - but you can type it on an A4 sheet (no more than one side) and attach it and write in the box "please see attached sheet". The wording is quite important as it can get you off to a good start from the outset. We can help on here with the wording. The form will be read by Cafcass usually - so they will form an impression straight away from what you put in that section, and how. Hence if worded right, it can get you off to a good start.
I have always done my own applications even if using a lawyer later, because a lawyer will put very minimal detail on the form - and I don't find that helpful - your application then just looks pretty standard. Plus a bit more detail helps them understand the situation for an urgent application.
Now you may feel confident that your ex won't suddenly leave the country, but I wouldn't risk it.
Normally advice on here is - don't move out till you've got a child arrangements order. And document everything in case you're accused of anything.
But it's clear she is going to make allegations - and one reason for that is to get legal aid and a free lawyer - with the backup of womens aid (who will believe what she's told them). C100 form linked below. There is an option to submit an online application, but I would recommend doing the paper version, because the last time I looked at the online option it is skewed - there is nowhere to apply for 50/50 and it seems geared to assuming only one parent is the resident parent. The paper form is better. You need four copies of the completed form. One to keep and three to send to the court (or hand in, in person). So just do one and photocopy it three times. You can fill it out on computer if you can edit pdf's - I find that the easiest way and it's also clearer for them to read. Plus easier to go back and change things and make amendments. The form itself doesn't take long to complete but you need to spend a bit of time on the wording for 5b.
As it's an urgent application you technically don't need to have had mediation first (the legal requirement normally is to have attended a MIAM which is the first mediation appointment on your own). However I would recommend you have a MIAM if you can - it helps the application be accepted. So google family mediators in your area, phone round them, say you need an urgent MIAM appointment and go with the one who can do it quickest. They might do it by zoom or something. Then just tell them you need signing off mediation because it's an urgent application and the other party doesn't want to mediate.
If it's face to face you could print out the page from the C100 application and take it with you and get it signed there and then. If it's not face to face they'll post it out to you and you just swap that page with the blank one in the C100. But it can take them a couple of weeks to get it to you that way and you don't want to delay your application. So in that case what you could do is add on the form that you have a MIAM booked but as the application is urgent you haven't delayed posting it for the MIAM.
Having said all that, do you think there's any chance your ex would go to mediation? I doubt it would help much if she just wants rid of you and have her own life but it can help if she's willing.
