Our daughter has been married to an American for 4 yrs(she is british) they live in Florida and have a 2 yr old daughter (he has a 6 yr old son from a previous relationship)

There marraige sadly has broken down and they are getting divorced ,she intends to come back to the UK and bring our grandaughter.

The father has agreed to this only verbally at the moment.

What is the best plan for our daughter

Does need need to obtain sole custody whilst still over there or can this be done when she comes back
and
does she need his wriiten permission witnessed by an official person in the US

any advice on this matter would be grealy appreciated
Thanks Elmo99

She needs to get divorced and go through custody hearings and the judge needs to sign off on this in the divorce/custody agreement.

If she leaves with the daughter without the above being in place, even if the husband agrees at first, if he later changes his mind she could be extradited for child parental kidnapping.

see link: http://www.fathersandfamilies.org/20...on-or-does-it/

An extremely serious crime, not only is it a state crime, but its a federal crime: http://travel.state.gov/abduction/pr...ntion_560.html

Going on what you said her soon to be ex sounds like a 1st class dick. Who gives up his own daughter? So i wouldn't put it past him to do something like the above.