MrsB

For all the legal-eagles out there - or anyone else who has had experience......

If I said to OH...."I've had enough of this....I'm leaving in 2 months ....with the kids"

Could he stop me? And if so how? Or could he just stop me taking the kids?

I just wanted to know that's all......it's not what's going to happen!!! Honest!

TraceyW

Yes he could stop the kids from leaving if you have P.R. He could take out an injunction to stop you leaving the country with them. Do you think he is likely to do that?

If he is adament he will not leave this place, won't let you take the kids, and you desperately want to, you have a decision to make, and one where you will not include your husband in ANY of the planning. Do you get my drift?

Thinking of you

Jerseygirl

Not a good idea. If she removed the children illegally from Aus...he could apply to the British courts for the kids to be re-united with him in Aus. After all Aus is their home now not the UK.

MrsB

No he is not likely to do that - but you never know do you? I'm just thinking worst case scenario - that's all!! And whether I do put a plan together as you mentioned above!

crusheduk

Very irresponsbile reply......so it's ok for women to run off with the kids? There' be bloody hell on if a guy said this!

crusheduk

Seriously what does your gut tell you? Do you really think it would be ok to simply up and leave a country with the kids? Come on....what do you think?

HINT: NO

Emma M

If you're thinking this way, then it's a good idea to put together a sensible plan before drama rears its ugly head.
Go and see a family/immigration lawyer.
Seriously, don't be doing anything rash on the opinions of anyone here, not saying they don't offer good advice, God knows where I would be without them, but when it comes to legal / family matters, your best bet would be finding out for definite where you stand, before that thought you say you wont act on NOW, becomes one you have to do.

rabsody

I would 100% second that.

I'm not sure how long you have been here Mrs Best but I do know (having consulted international custody lawyers myself regarding similar matters) that the Australian Family Courts consider what is best from the viewpoint of the child, not the parents. The impression I got was that they don't care where you want to live.

If you have been here long enough for the Australian courts to consider Australia the childrens' permanent residence ("home") then it may not be straight forward I'm afraid.

I was advised by my lawyer that if I ever did consider bolting with the kids an option, the Australian authorities would come and bring us all back and it would obviously impact extremely negatively on my case and future custody. Australia and the UK have a reciprocal agreement in child abduction cases under the Hague Convention.

Anyway, no point speculating, best to find out from the horses mouth (a lawyer that specialises in these cases) so you can work out what you want to do moving forward. I did have a link somewhere that listed all the lawyers state by state, I'll see if I can dig it out.

TraceyW

Ok so you think I'm irresponsible eh?

If I was in the situation where my husband was basically keeping me in a country where I didn't want to be, if he was that thoughtless and unkind, I would up and leave and I WOULD take MY children. I would also be prepared to face the legal consequence back in the UK.

Well, that's what I would feel like doing anyhoo. But in reality, who knows? Thank God I'm not in that positin.

lansbury

Australia is a signatory to the Hague Convention on Child Abduction.

If you removed the children from the country without his consent he could make a criminal allegation under the appropriate Australian law. He could apply to the courts for the children to be returned and if such an order was granted it would be ratified by the UK High Court and enforced in the UK. Worse case scenario the Australian's could ask for your extradition to stand trial for child abduction. That would be a rare event.

In my time at Heathrow I grabbed quite a few kids off of aircraft as they were being whisked out the country by one parent against the wishes of the other. Even intercepted one child being taken from the USA to Israel while they were in transit at Heathrow.

There is very great international co-operation between countries on child abduction and if you were to removed the children from Australia without consent and it be discovered while you were still travelling you could very well find yourself in great difficulties on arrival at a UK port of entry.

That is the blunt answer to your question having spent 10 years at Heathrow part of my job being to enforce child abduction laws.

Jerseygirl

You are not entitled to encourage others to break the law.

Edit: I see you changed your post whilst I was typing this...so it puts my post out of context...even so the above still stands.

username 34

its a crappy situation if it ever gets to the point where you have to stay in Oz because of custody and you hate it there but thats a FAR better scenario than taking off with your kids, getting dragged back to Oz with them and losing custody of them and only having supervised visits - which is what would happen should you up and run without his consent.

I'm sure you're level headed and realise that option A is the way to go.

Lets hope you guys can come to a good compromise - maybe you return with the kids with his agreement and they go to Oz for holidays or something?

and REALLY talk things through before getting lawyers involved, remember they're not out for the best solution all round - they're purely out for winning your side, alienating the "enemy" and getting paid,

username 34

you might be - but you're kids wouldnt want to see the consequences, they'd be the victims because of it.

Jerseygirl

It's a scenerio that not many of us think about when we immigrate or marry and have children to someone of a different nationality. It is something that worries me...my daughter is in her early 20's unmarried...but it's a situation I dread her being in.

username 34

its not easy for sure - and on here there's many stories of people making the move to XYandZ having to get all sorts of legal decisions and agreements to take children from previous relationships/marriages with them.

These laws are there for a reason - each parent has the right to be in the same country as their children, which they can give up if they want - but it must be their choice rather than the other half taking off with them.

Tracey - what would your answer be if it were MR Best asking the question, leaving MRS Best in the dark???

I'm guessing there would be an outcry of how dare you deprive a mother of her children.