petitefrancaise

• Folinsky has already said that it is much easier to enforce financial agreements on the OP if the divorce is filed in CA. Which is the same thing I said about child issues for the UK. So, how can you suggest that he files first in CA?
• Hague convention states that the child's principal residence determines jurisdiction for those issues. The child is in the UK. So, why file in CA if UK law would be applicable in any case?
• keeping the divorce lawyers in the same country with the lawyers who know what they are dealing with is going to be loads cheaper than doing this with lawyers in 2 countries.

morpeth

1. The reality is that in many divorce cases issues of financial arrangements- sadly- end up causing much negotiation and friction, and can then affect how - and if - parties agree on visitation and child issues. Filing first in California may give some negotiating advantages, especially in regards to protecting US income, or general leverage if needed to effect a settlement. Without knowing all the particulars, I am just making the prudent suggestion - especially in a case where one parents takes a child so far away from the other parent- that a California lawyer be consulted with as soon as possible.
2. In regards to child arrangements -in addition to what I state above, there is what the law states, how it is understood and applied, and how the two parties are brought to an agreement.
3. You are quite correct that having two lawyers in two countries can get expensive. Yet what price can one assign to the well-being of the child, and the child's relationship with both parents, and especially considering to put the benefit of the child ahead of the benefit to the parent.

Just my opinion, but if I were in that situation I would want to make sure I had all the ammunition I could to protect the interests of my child, and I would be ashamed if I let personal feelings or preferences override what was best for the child. But I do not know all the details in this particular situation of course.

Pulaski

IANAL but I consider that to be one of the potentially murky issues of the this case, as it sounds like the spouse and child left to the US ostensibly on a temporary "visit" to the UK, and that the OP was ambushed with this divorce request. So there may be an argument to be made that the child has been "abducted" and that the usual residence is in the US, because implicit permission by the CA resident parent was only for the chiid to be removed temporarily from the US.

An early discussion on this point, as well as other matters, with an experienced lawyer in CA is recommended.

SanDiegogirl

• My wife and my child moved back to England at the very end of '20 ("abandoning" our California home)

This implies to me that wife and child did not leave under the pretext of a vacation, but moved out.... They only moved to CA Q1 2020 and she left at end of that year,,,,,
Quick deterioration in relationship....... sounds like CA was not for her.....

S Folinsky

Another issue is child’s green card status and eventual possible derivative naturalization. A long time ago represented a man who had a California joint custody decree when wife then absconded to home country which was not a Hague convention country. Upon father’s US naturalization, we were able to obtain a US passport for the child (about the only thing mom cooperated with).

petitefrancaise

I feel very sorry for this family. Moving to a new country so far away from support network with a first baby is really tough. Shame hubby couldn't get back to the UK with his family. Ah well.
Hopefully, they can sort things out amicably so that going forward the child isn't the battleground.

destone

If the divorce takes place in the UK court system, would there be any merit in hiring a U.S.-based immigration lawyer to discuss this possible derivative naturalization issue now (before the divorce), or, once I have become a U.S. citizen in cc ~2026 (I got my GC in July '21)?

S Folinsky

I am quite retired and my bar membership is “inactive” - even if I was inclined to give advice, I avoid doing so. There is one exception for advice to seek counsel. BTW, that was your initial question.

That case I mentioned that I was involved in was in 1990. Also, the California decree was a fait accompli by the time I was involved. A possible quirk in California law is a bifurcation between legal custody and physical custody. Joint legal custody is preferred with sole legal custody requiring justification. That was the law I was working with back in 1990.