Family Law Solicitors
You may be giving some thought to looking into having a surrogate mother in a foreign country to have a child. If so, it’s important to seek our expert legal advice. Book a consultation today.
Head of Family & Partner
Our specialist team of family lawyers will assist you with the legal implications of using a surrogate. We’ll lead you through the steps required to allow you to acquire full parental rights for your child.
Our family experts will work with you every step of the way – assisting behind the scenes as questions arise and with the important elements of the legal process.
Under English law, if you have a child with a surrogate mother, you and your partner generally won’t be the child’s legal parents. You’ll need to ask the court to make a Parental Order. This stops the surrogate mother’s parentage (and her husband’s if she’s married) and transfers the rights and responsibilities for your child to you.
With international surrogacy arrangements, the child often has no automatic claim to British nationality or permission to enter the UK, regardless of your nationalities. So, additional steps need to be taken before you can bring your child home.
It’s important you understand early on what the legal requirements are and what steps you need to take both here and in the country your child is born. Our specialist team of family lawyers can make the Parental Order application for you and help you throughout the process.
We’ll go through the legal requirements with you and support you through the important steps, such as serving the relevant documentation on the surrogate mother, the court hearings, preparing your statements in support of your application and meeting with the Parental Order Reporter.
We’ll advise you on what nationality and status your child will be entitled to, and then work with you to select the best option to bring your child home as quickly as possible.
Call one of our team to discuss starting and financing your divorce application, your rights and how we can support you through this distressing time in your life.
Head of Family & Partner
“Vanessa Friend is the stand out partner in the team. She is exceptionally bright and knowledgeable. She secures fantastic results for her client. She is a very good negotiator and very personable.”
Advice to couples and families considering international surrogacy, and the processes involved in bringing a child back into the UK.
Guidance to ensure you receive the right support and advice in the country in which the child is born. All the necessary procedures will need to be completed in accordance with the laws of that country. This may involve instructing specialist legal advisors where your child was born and potentially in other countries where they may have citizenship. In any case, we’ll focus on assisting you to ensure a quick and smooth process from abroad back to the UK with your child.
Preparation of Parental Order proceedings in England and Wales to ensure you’re legally recognised as your child’s parents.
Please note that we do not hold a Legal Aid contract and are therefore unable to provide Legal Aid services. All family matters are undertaken on a privately funded basis only.
Our specialist team will be flexible when working with you so that we meet the needs of you and your family. We understand the sensitive nature of the process and work with absolute discretion.
Most of our surrogacy clients have used a surrogate abroad, and they therefore need advice regarding both the family and immigration aspects of the arrangement – as well as help in bringing their child back to the UK. We work collaboratively with other advisors in all aspects of your surrogacy arrangements.
Our Private Client team have experience in assisting intended parents to prepare a will to cover specific issues raised as part of the surrogacy arrangements. In some countries, this is a requirement to proceed with the surrogacy.
Hodge Jones & Allen family solicitors are ranked in the Chambers UK and Legal 500, 2026. Our specialist team are highly experienced in handling such cases.
“My overall impression of the client service is excellent. The team is very responsive to emails, always providing timely updates and addressing any questions I have.”
“The team is supportive and great across the board. They are known for their robust and strategic advice.”
We have links with surrogacy agencies and clinics, specialist international surrogacy barristers and immigration lawyers around the world.
“Her professionalism, knowledge of law and negotiating skills are exceptional. Vanessa’s attention to detail far outweighs any solicitor I have ever encountered”
We represented the commissioning parents in the reported case R and S v T (Surrogacy: Service, Consent & Payments) [2015] and successfully obtained Parental Orders for twins where the Ukrainian surrogate could not be found and could therefore not provide her consent to the making of the Parental Orders.
We represented the commissioning parents on an application for Parental Orders for twins following an arrangement in India. The commissioning father was an Indian national and the commissioning mother was a British national. The twins could not come into the country as the commissioning mother could not pass on her British nationality. The Home Office was joined as a party to the application to secure the twins entry to the country and to complete the Parental Order application.
Hodge Jones & Allen family solicitors have been recognised as one of Chambers and Partners‘ top firms. We’re also noted by the Legal 500 for our commitment to excellence. You can rest assured that our team are highly experienced in handling even the toughest family law cases.
Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors is proud of the many positive testimonials that we receive, reinforced by our ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot. Please read through what some of our clients have had to say about their experience with our legal teams.
