How to Fill Out and Submit Form C2: Permission, Fees, and Filing

A Form C2 children court application is the form you use in the family court of England and Wales to ask for an order or directions in an existing children case, to seek permission to start a new application, or to be joined to or removed from proceedings already under way.¹ It sits under the Children Act 1989 and is the standard route whenever something needs a judge’s approval mid-case. You can download it from the GOV.UK court form finder or collect a paper copy from your local family court.²

When a C2 Is the Right Form

The C2 covers several distinct situations:

Asking permission (leave) to apply for a Section 8 order when you are not automatically entitled to do so.
Requesting an order or directions inside an existing case, such as disclosure of documents, a change to the timetable, or enforcement of an order the other party has ignored.
Joining proceedings after receiving notice (for example, a C6A notice), or asking to be removed as a party.
Seeking permission to instruct an expert whose evidence you want put before the court.

Grandparents seeking contact are among the most frequent users, because they are not automatically entitled to apply for a Child Arrangements Order and must get the court’s leave first.¹

Do You Need Permission to Apply

Section 10 of the Children Act 1989 sets out who can apply for a Section 8 order as of right and who has to get the court’s leave first. Parents, guardians, special guardians, and anyone named in an existing Child Arrangements Order as a person the child lives with can apply without permission. Everyone else needs leave.³

When considering leave, the court looks at the nature of the order you want, your connection with the child, the risk that your application might disrupt the child’s life enough to cause harm, and, if the child is in local authority care, the authority’s plans and the parents’ wishes. If the applicant is the child, leave is only granted where the court is satisfied the child has sufficient understanding to make the application.³ Address these factors head-on in your statement. A judge who cannot see a clear connection between you and the child is unlikely to grant leave.

Completing the Form Section by Section

Court and Case Details

At the top of the form, write the name of the family court hearing your case and the existing case number, which appears on any correspondence or orders you have received. If you are asking for permission to start fresh proceedings and no case number exists yet, leave the field blank and state clearly in the body of the form that you are seeking leave to issue.²

Applicant and Respondents

Give your full name, address, and contact details as the applicant. List the full names and addresses of every respondent. Everyone named in the original case should appear so they can be properly notified. If you do not want your address shared with the other parties for safety reasons, complete a separate C8 confidential contact details form and attach it.

The Statement

This is the part judges focus on. Explain what order or direction you want and why, in specific terms. If you are seeking leave to apply for a Child Arrangements Order, set out exactly what arrangements you propose and why granting leave would be in the child’s best interests. If you are asking the court to enforce a previous order, name the order and describe how it was breached. Vague statements are one of the most common reasons applications stall, because the judge cannot work out what you actually want.

The form also asks whether you need permission to apply. Tick the relevant box if you do, and make sure your statement covers the Section 10 factors: your connection to the child, what you are proposing, and why it would not be harmful.

Documents to Attach

A C2 rarely stands alone. Depending on your application you will usually attach:

A draft of the order you want the court to make. If you are filing through the MyHMCTS online portal, the draft must be formatted so it can be issued directly to the parties, with no “DRAFT” label or watermark.⁴
A supporting witness statement setting out the factual background, particularly for complex or without-notice applications.
A draft C100 showing the arrangements you propose, if you are seeking permission to issue a Child Arrangements Order.
A C8, if you need to keep your address confidential.

You need to supply the original form for the court plus two copies, and keep one for yourself. Each respondent must be given a copy of your application and any accompanying documents; the court will tell you the deadline for doing so.⁵

If You’re Asking to Instruct an Expert

Where the C2 is about getting expert evidence before the court, Part 25 of the Family Procedure Rules adds specific requirements on top of the form. Your application must identify the expert’s field, name the proposed expert if you have one, explain the purpose of the evidence, list the questions you want the expert to answer, and estimate the cost. You also need to say whether the evidence could come from a single joint expert shared with the other party, because courts strongly prefer that route to keep costs and delay down.⁶

Judges are often reluctant to allow expert evidence unless the issues genuinely cannot be resolved without it, so tie the proposed evidence to a specific disputed issue in your case.⁶

Applying Without Notice

Most C2 applications are made on notice: the other parties are told and have a chance to respond before the court decides. A without-notice application, where the judge considers the matter before the other side knows, is only allowed where:

Giving notice would let the other party defeat the purpose of the application, for example by moving a child abroad before the court could stop them.
Giving notice would put you or the child at risk of harm.
The situation is so urgent there is no time to notify anyone.

Any order made without notice is temporary. The court will almost always list a return hearing within a few days so the other party can put their side. Because the judge is deciding on your evidence alone, that evidence needs to be thorough and accurate; inaccuracies will undermine your credibility at the return hearing.

The Fee and Help with Fees

A C2 carries a court fee that differs depending on whether the application is made on notice or without notice. Amounts are set by the Ministry of Justice and change from time to time, so check the current EX50 fee schedule before filing.⁷ You can pay by debit or credit card, cheque, or postal order payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

If you cannot afford the fee, the Help with Fees scheme may reduce or waive it. Eligibility depends on your savings, any means-tested benefits you receive, and your income. You automatically qualify, provided your savings are within the allowed limit, if you receive income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Universal Credit with earnings under £6,000 a year, or Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit). If you do not receive any of those, you may still qualify on income: £1,420 or less per month if you are single, or £2,130 or less with a partner, plus £425 per child aged 0 to 13 and £710 per child aged 14 or over.⁸

Complete form EX160 before you submit your C2 and put the Help with Fees reference number on the C2 itself.⁹

How to File the C2

There are three main routes:

By post, using recorded delivery to the court office handling your case so you have proof. The address is on previous correspondence.
In person at the court counter, where staff will stamp your copy as proof of filing.
By email, which many courts now accept for scanned and signed applications. The email address is on the GOV.UK “Find a Court or Tribunal” search page. In public law cases the MyHMCTS portal is used, and the draft order uploaded with the C2 must already be formatted for immediate issue.⁴

Whichever route you use, pay the fee or include your Help with Fees reference number. A form filed without the fee will not be processed.

After You File

Once the court has received and processed your application, one of two things happens. Straightforward requests, especially procedural directions, may be dealt with on the papers, and the judge’s order is sent to all parties by post. Contested or more significant applications go to a hearing, and the court sends everyone a notice with the date, time, and location.¹

There is no published target timeline for listing a hearing after a C2 is filed. In practice, urgent and without-notice matters are dealt with within days, sometimes the same day. Routine applications can take several weeks depending on the court’s workload. If yours is time-sensitive, say so on the form and consider phoning the court office after filing to flag the urgency.

If a C2 is returned without being processed, it is almost always for one of three reasons: the case number was wrong or missing, the fee was not paid, or the form was sent to the wrong court. Check those before you resubmit.

1
GOV.UK. Make an Application in Existing Court Proceedings Relating to Children: Form C2
2
HM Courts & Tribunals Service. C2 Application
3
Legislation.gov.uk. Children Act 1989, Section 10
4
GOV.UK. Make an Additional or Placement Application
5
HM Courts & Tribunals Service. CB1 – Making an Application – Children and the Family Courts
6
Justice UK. Part 25 – Experts and Assessors
7
GOV.UK. Fees in the Civil and Family Courts – Main Fees (EX50)
8
GOV.UK. Get Help Paying Court and Tribunal Fees
9
GOV.UK. Apply for Help with Court and Tribunal Fees: Form EX160