After you divorce your spouse from another country, you may be in a situation that is becoming increasingly more common where your child may have a family in both the United States and abroad. Your spouse may want to go back to your home country and may consider taking your child there for vacations or business trips, but with the impact of a divorce, you may harbor certain doubts. So, how can you make the custody battle easier? Take a look into these easy hacks to make the journey to the next phase a smoother process.
Communicate Your Fears
The first thing that may hit you about the transitionary phase is your child traveling abroad. Depending on their age, you may have certain misgivings and think that they may be too young to travel such a long distance from home and may even feel homesick. In such a scenario you can discuss with the other parent your concerns, so you can resolve them before your child embarks upon his/her journey.
Build Up a Strong International Custody Plan
Your custody plan may have the nitty-gritty involving everything, especially when it is acceptable or not for your child to leave the country. You may have in your list many things of concern, including things international contact information and emergency numbers.
Planned Participation
You can participate in various planning activities with your ex-spouse. For instance, if your ex-spouse may take your child to Mexico for a week, plan a trip alongside if you can. You’ll know all about the itinerary and know exactly what to expect from the trip, thus help you feel better about the upcoming trip.
In most cases, when parents hail from two different countries, both recognize the fact that they must take their child from these countries safely, on time, and with permission. If you fear that your child runs the risk of being kidnapped or prevented from returning, inform your attorney.
Know More About Visa Rules
You may not be able to stay overseas or re-enter a foreign country without following the correct local residency requirements. This can turn out to be a terrible proposition if the other parent has greater control of your status and therefore has greater power in the whole dynamic.
Be Wary of Local Laws
In many countries, a parent’s conduct that is acceptable in the United States may not be accepted, or may be regarded as offensive elsewhere. If you happen to engage in activities that could be regarded as inappropriate, it can adversely affect your custody rights, or even get you barred from getting access to your child. For example, if a woman’s husband accuses her of adultery in Dubai, there may be serious charges in the UAE. In such a case, it is recommended that she leave Dubai that night without taking along her young child who was staying in the husband’s possession. You may depend on other ways to retrieve the child.
Written Agreements
If a husband or wife strikes a deal that you’re going overseas just for a trial and that you may return before working out, you can get it in writing. Verbal agreements are often forgotten as soon as they are spoken, especially when things turn for the worse. But you have to know that in some cases even a written agreement may not work. A foreign court overseeing your child custody case may refuse to acknowledge the previous deal, the one that was with the other parent; it may only consider the best for the child at the present moment.
Consult with an Experienced International Attorney
You need to plan strategically but you have to be conversant about some of the basic facts. Local family lawyers often may not prove to be your best bet. There is a lot of information out there handling such issues. There have been instances galore that clients have not had the best advice with damaging repercussions. An experienced international family lawyer on the other hand may be a savior and consult with local lawyers as appropriate and provide advice considering the bigger picture, and more often than not come up with great strategies.
Divorce is hard and so is child custody, especially when it comes to parents hailing from two different countries. There are a lot of things to consider before the two parties may see eye to eye on sensitive matters.