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  1. #1

    Default Can I Prevent My Spouse from Taking Our Child Out of the Country

    My question involves a child custody case from the State of: California

    My spouse and I are living together. She is an immigrant from an overseas country and has had US citizenship for around 3 years. We have a 2 year old child. The child has a passport. My spouse desires to take our child to her homeland and I am not sure she will bring him back. She is in possession of his passport and is unwilling to give it back to me (this to me is a red flag).

    Do I need a court order to prevent her from taking our child out of the country?

    Would such a court order encompass her being required to relinquish the passport to me?

    Can she legally keep our child's passport from me? If I seize his passport from her and refuse to return it, would she have a legal right to reclaim it?

    If anyone can offer any other advice, I would appreciate it.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    1,695

    Default Re: Can I Prevent My Spouse from Taking Our Child Out of the Country

    You will get better advice if you name the country.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Officially across the country from where I've been all my life
    Posts
    4,494

    Default Re: Can I Prevent My Spouse from Taking Our Child Out of the Country

    Having an order that prohibits the removal of a child is worth the cost of paper. People violate court orders all day, multiple times a day. I know there is a program that will alert a parent if a passport is ISSUED for a child in a custody dispute, but I know of no such program that will alert a parent if the passport is used. Besides, if your child has dual citizenship based on mom's citizenship, it's possible for a child to be issued a passport of that country.

    Best you can do is get an order ordering the surrender of the passport.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    16,474

    Default Re: Can I Prevent My Spouse from Taking Our Child Out of the Country

    Quote Quoting Lizard
    View Post
    My question involves a child custody case from the State of: California

    My spouse and I are living together. She is an immigrant from an overseas country and has had US citizenship for around 3 years. We have a 2 year old child. The child has a passport. My spouse desires to take our child to her homeland and I am not sure she will bring him back. She is in possession of his passport and is unwilling to give it back to me (this to me is a red flag).

    Do I need a court order to prevent her from taking our child out of the country?

    Would such a court order encompass her being required to relinquish the passport to me?

    Can she legally keep our child's passport from me? If I seize his passport from her and refuse to return it, would she have a legal right to reclaim it?

    If anyone can offer any other advice, I would appreciate it.
    Your wife is a US citizen. Do you have a particular reason to believe that she would prefer to live in her original home country? Are you having problems in your marriage?

    Realistically, even in a divorce there is very little chance that a judge is going to order that a child is never allowed to visit a country that is 1/2 of their heritage unless said country is either truly dangerous (ie there is a serious war going on) or there would be no chance of legally getting the child back if the parent refused to return with the child (think North Korea...which is an extreme example but I am trying to make a point).

    Please do not do something like "seizing" the passport from your wife. That is the kind of thing that can escalate into a domestic violence situation and you simply do not want that.

    TALK to your wife. Do not issue orders or demands just TALK to her. If you feel that your marriage is over and that she really might leave the country with your child and not come back, then talk to an attorney about getting a divorce actions started.

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