Moving or travelling with children overseas

When you need legal advice

Get legal advice:

• if your children have been taken overseas without your agreement—contact International Social Service Australia (ISS)on 1300 657 843 for help.
• if your children are about to be taken overseas without your agreement
• if you want to take your children overseas and the other parent disagrees
• about the types of written agreements the court will accept before children can be taken overseas
• to apply to court for your child's passport because the other parent refuses to sign the application
• if the other parent wants you to return your children from Australia to the country where they used to live.

How to get legal advice

Taking children overseas

If you want to take your children overseas, you should try and reach an agreement with the other parent. A family dispute resolution service may be able to help.

If you can’t agree, you’ll have to apply to the court for permission to take them overseas. The court may allow them to travel if it believes it’s in their best interests. It will consider the risk of the children not returning to Australia, and it may impose conditions, such as paying a security, to make sure they come back.

Parenting orders

If there’s a parenting order in place, or an application for a parenting order before a court, it’s an offence to move the children away from Australia without the written agreement of everyone covered by the current order, or any further court orders. You may go to jail for this offence. There are rules about what kind of written agreements the court will accept.

Australia has agreements with other countries to prevent people removing children from the country where they usually live. If you take them overseas without the other parent’s consent, you could be ordered to return them under one of these agreements.

There are things you can do to prevent your children from being taken overseas. If you think they’re going to be taken without your consent, get urgent legal advice.

Passports

If your children don’t already have passports, you may need the other parent to sign the application—it must be signed by both parents. If you don’t want the other parent to take the children overseas, you can refuse to sign the passport application.

If the other parent won’t sign the application and you think they’re being unreasonable, you can apply to the court for the passport to be issued without their consent.

Child alert list

If you think there might be a passport application without your agreement, you can ask the Passports Office to put the children’s names on a child alert list—valid for up to 12 months. You can do this yourself.

Find out how to apply for a child alert

If the children’s names are on the child alert list, the Passport Office will contact you if the other parent makes an application without your agreement. An alert means there will be special scrutiny of the application. It doesn’t guarantee an Australian passport won’t be issued and it won’t prevent a foreign passport being issued if the children are eligible.

Foreign passports

Your children may be eligible for a passport from another country (e.g. if they have dual citizenship or nationality), but these countries may have different requirements for issuing passports. Contact the relevant embassy if you’re concerned about your children travelling on a passport from another country.

Preventing children being taken overseas

If you think your children are at risk of being moved overseas contact:

• the Australian Federal Police
  
  
• the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and get urgent legal advice. 

In emergency, you can access court services and the police quickly. Call 02 5127 0004 for the Family Law Watchlist or recovery and arrest warrants. 

If you think your children have been taken overseas without your consent:

• report it to your local police
• get legal advice—for example—you'll need to apply for a court order to place your children on the Family Law Watchlist. If your children haven't left Australia, it may be possible to stop them being taken.

If your children already have passports, you can apply to the court for:

• an urgent order to prevent the other person taking them overseas
• their passports to be handed in to the court.

Returning children who have been taken overseas without consent

If your children have been taken overseas without your consent, contact International Social Service Australia for urgent legal advice. Call 1300 657 843

This service gives free legal advice and support to families affected by international child abduction, including:

• help preparing applications for a child’s return under the Hague Convention(which is the main international agreement covering international parental child abduction)
• mediation and negotiation services for children taken to other countries outside of the Hague convention
• counselling and support service. 

Financial assistance may be available to help you with overseas legal costs, and for flights to return the children to Australia.

This is a complex area of law and you should get legal advice and representation.

How to get legal advice

If your children have already been taken overseas without your consent, contact

We may give legal advice if your children are still in Australia but at risk of being removed without your consent.

Contact us

Other places to get legal advice:

• Community legal centres
• Private lawyers

Who else can help?

• Organisations directory

Related information

• Family dispute resolution
• What the court considers when making parenting orders
• Parenting arrangements
• Children and parenting
• Domestic and family violence

Last updated

23 January 2026

Last reviewed

23 January 2026