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Worried a child might be taken to another country

jmmiller's picture
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Just a quick question for anyone who may have some experience in this. Me and my wife are semi-worried about her ex-husband taking my stepson to Poland and not telling anyone. Is there a law here against that, and more importantly, if something like that happens, is there a way to go through the US system to get the child recovered from that situation. They have joint-custody, and the stepson lives with me and his mother most of the time. We are worried that his father will take him and disappear to his home country.

Thanks for any advice

Voss's picture

Does your SS have a passport already? We just went through that exact same thing but SD didn't have passport yet. If parents have Joint custody then both parents have to sign the passport application. BM had to have DH sign and he refused so she had to get court order which the judge did make him sign. During that time I registerd SD with the State Department Passport Issuance Program and they notified us as soon as the passport application came in. You then will have 30 days to let them know if it is consentual. I did this because we were worried that she would lie on application that she had Sole Custody and DH would never know if SD went out of country. The State Dept. notified DH that the application for SD came through he responded back to them that he signed it under duress and they told him since he had SD registered w/The State Dept that anytime SD uses her passport DH will be notified. The only way a Judge is not going to grant a passport is if the parent is a flight risk and native of another country but you still have to prove this. I hope this helps just a little bit!

Orange County Ca's picture

And yes the U.S. State Department does intervene in the case of kidnapped children but remember the kid will be governed by the laws of that country. If the kidnapper is indited the U.S. can ask for extradition.

Failing to returns ones bio-child to a custodial parent is considered "parental" kidnapping.

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100 years from now it won't matter if you were successful in business, church or your social circle. But it will matter if you were important in the life of a child.

jmmiller's picture

Yes, his father has his passport, and my stepson has been to Poland a few times already with his dad. It's a scary situation, and not to be a prude, but vgill, your joke is not funny in the least.

Voss's picture

This is no joke, just look at the news of fathers OR mothers trying to get their children back once they enter into another country! The only other thing that I could suggest is to get an emergancy hearing to stop the Father from taking your SS out of the USA, maybe having Passport revoked, Mom holds passport, not really sure. Again, you are going to have to prove that Father is a "flight risk". Meaning, have you gotten emails, statements from him saying he is going back to Poland and not coming back, did he lose his job here in the US, all family is back in Poland, etc... you get the drift. Good luck on this, I know how you feel.