International divorce

internationaldivorce

Hi there,

I am a Romanian citizen living and working in London. I married my Russian wife in June 2013 In Romania. In January 2014 I got my employment contract in London and moved here. Shortly after she came to me an gave birth to our son in July 2014 in London. (We had made residence for her so everything has been in accordance with the law). Soon after, trouble started between us after her sister's visit. Fights had become more and more intense, she would never be content with anything anymore despite all my efforts. After more than 2 months of fights I bought holiday tickets for all 3 of us to Romania to visit my father hoping that this trip would bring back some positive mood and things would get better. She totally refused, telling me the child is too young to fly (4.5 months old) but the true reason was she had decided to go back to Russia for good to her parents(as I found out later). I took the flight and went by myself to Romania thinking i would a few days to have some rest. 3 days after I landed she writes me that she is in Austria at her sister and that they would soon leave to Moscow together.(She had Russian diplomatic passport so she could get out of the UK with my son without my permission).I got really angry because instead of coming with me to Romania she went with my son to Austria to her sister without telling me, so I filed for divorce. A divorce that has been going on for 2 years in Romania without any outcome. The court had decided that it is incompetent to judge the case, because we were note living in Romania. During these 2 years she got her divorce in Russia and I did not have any notice of the procedures of the divorce. I tried to make peace throughout the court procedures and did my best to reason with her hoping she would bring me back my son (it was technically child abduction) but nothing worked.

Now I find myself in the situation that I am divorced in Russia and married in the EU and I cant get divorced. I would like to get a fair trial to get some legal rights to see my son. I don't know what to do.

If anyone could recommend a lawyer that has international experience I would like to take my case to court and clarify my situation. I hope that is possible!

I greatly appreciate any replies,

Thank you very much,

Kindest Regards,

a heartbroken father

pphillips

I know that is not easy to find an international family lawyer. It seems from what you have said that you are divorced in Russia and therefore you probably won't be able to get another divorce from a different country.

Unless your ex-wife is an unfit mother, despite her abducting your son, I don't think that it is realistic to expect a court to order that he is brought back to the UK .

My advice if you really want to see your son and you cant make the arrangements with your ex-wife is to get a C100 form filed with your local court to apply for a child arrangements order, if your local court has a Personal Support Unit https://www.thepsu.org/ then they will be able help you with this.

TBagpuss

If you are divorced in Russia then , provided that that divorce is valid in Russia it should also be recognised in the EU. So in the first instnace, i suggest that get copies ofthe divorce documnts from the Russian divorce, if you don't already have them. That divorce will cetainly be recognised under English law - I can't speakfor Romania but would be surprised if you need a second divorce.

In terms of your son, the issue is more complex. *normally* the court which hasjurisdiction to deal with a case is the court in the country where the child is residence and domiciled, so it is likely that thRussian court would be the place to pursue any case for conact. If you are alleging abduction then things get a bit more complicated - ReUnite is an organisation which supports parents in that situation and which mantains a list of lawyers with relevant expertise and (in some cases) cross-border qualifications . They have a website at http://www.reunite.org/ which you may find is a useful starting point.