# Parental order



## Cindy1 (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi Natalie or anyone who can help,
My partner and I have a baby girl with the help of our wonderful Surrogate. After years of heartbreak we finally have out miracle. 

I wanted to ask if any of you have gone through the parental order and you could kindly answer the following questions:

Do I send form C52 to my Surrogate immediately upon handing in C51 to the court?

Approximately how long does the whole process take?

Are there any other costs to the state apart from the £200 we give to the court?

Thanks in advance!
Cindy


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## NatGamble (Mar 1, 2007)

Hi Cindy and many congratulations 

You can send (or hand in) your completed C51 to any Family Proceedings Court (you also need to enclose a copy of your daughter's birth certificate and your marriage certificate, a cheque for the court fee of £200 made payable to HMCTS and three copies of the form).

The court should then (usually a few weeks later) stamp the C51 and return several copies to you with the court number completed, together with the C52, and the idea is that you then give both to your surrogate. Your surrogate then signs the C52 and sends it back to the court.

I have to say though that in practice the courts don't always know what they are doing with parental order applications, and sometimes you end up with the wrong paperwork or the court doesn't send back the C52 etc. If so, you can print off the C52 yourself and give it to your surrogate to sign. The forms, if you need them are here: http://www.nataliegambleassociates.co.uk/page/Surrogacy/22/

You should then be contacted by the court about when you need to go to court for your first hearing, and who is being appointed as your parental order reporter (she will arrange to come and see you at home, and see your surrogate too, and will then write a report for the court). As long as you meet all the criteria, the process is really straightforward and quite informal, although it is quite long-winded. Our experience is that 6-12 months is typical, but it would be really interesting to do a quick poll here as to how long it has taken for those who have completed the process in different places. Any takers?

Assuming you don't need legal representation (which most people don't unless there are problems) there shouldn't be any other costs than the initial court fee.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes.

Natalie

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