Yes, if he is not the father

I was afraid it was possible for the real father, too, so now I am quite relieved

You shoul check that. It may just be his legal ight removed.....

From our own experience.

In order to get a passport, and so a UK settlement visa, for her daughter my wife had to obtain full legal custody of her as the father was not willing to give his permission.

This can be done at an ampur if both parents are willing and in agreement; unfortunately my step-daughter's father wasn't.

So my wife had to go to court.

Neither my wife's ampur nor her lawyer nor, eventually, the court mentioned that she could simply have his name removed from her daughter's birth certificate; so to be honest I doubt that this is a commonly available option. But maybe the ampur, lawyer and judges were all wrong?

It took nearly a year for the court to grant her custody; mainly because the case kept being adjourned due to the father not appearing. Eventually the court lost patience with him and the case was heard in his absence.

Once she had the court issued custody document we were able to obtain a passport for her daughter and subsequently UK settlement visas for them both.

This was in 2000, but I doubt things have changed that much since then.

Also worth noting is that although a custody document is not strictly required for a UK child settlement visa, it does help show sole responsibility if you have one. Whether this would be the same for the RoI, I don't know.

I believe this application is for a visa for Ireland we have just processed two Irish application mother/child to join spouse. The phor khor 14 was inserted with the application which took some 16 weeks to be returned as it was forwarded to Dublin. Both visas were issued but they asked the sponsor for further evidence of his finances.

Ensure all documents are translated into English.