I am an American retired citizen, living for 7 years in Ukraine with a 'Permanent Residency' status. Divorced in USA and have a Dissolution of marriage court paper dated 2013. Is it possible to marry a local woman in Ukraine without leaving this country?

I am an American Citizen, my wife is a Ukrainian Citizen. We have a 2 year old baby that was born in Ukraine, yet is an American Citizen like myself. My daughter V has a United States Citizen Passport. Recently my wife left the United States with my daughter V to visit her mother/grandmother in Ukraine. They were scheduled to travel for one (1) month and three (3) weeks. Wife and daughter are scheduled to return to the United States on August 1. I spoke to (Wife) recently and she told me she is going to stay in Ukraine indefinately. She does not wish to return to the United States. In Ukraine she has no employment and very little resources. I'm worried they might disappear without my knowledge.

My problem is very serious because we have a 2 year old daughter. Wife is basically kidnapping my daughter.

Is my wife breaking the law if she stays in Ukraine without my consent to leave my daughter there? Can we consider this an Abduction case? I am still married to her in the State of Florida. Its still to pre-mature to tell if she is really serious about all of this because of the travel dates.

I however consider this a serious issue. Children are not toys you can play with.

How can I get custody of my daughter? Would I be able to monitor my daughters whereabouts in Ukraine or else where? Please advise urgently,

My Case:

I have 5 years old son with Ukrainian lady. We were married and the child is registered under my name in Ukraine.

Now the mother doesn’t want to continue our relation and she wants to travel abroad to work and will leave the child with the grandmother. I am American and don’t live in Ukraine as well.

The mother will not let me to take my son in her absence and she will not be staying with her for long period of time as well.

Though I am not looking for full custody and I don’t want to take the boy away from her mother, just in her absence when she can’t be with her son I want my baby to be with me instead the grandmother.

I want to file a custody case (or whatever case type you found more suitable) in order to reach for some kind of friendly agreement before the court session if possible.

I want to know more information about court sessions for such cases. How long it take to set court session date from filling the case date?

Should we attend in person for sessions?

What are my general common rights?

What’s her strength points? How we can push for solid agreement to my favorite?!

Any other details you can provide??

Good afternoon, Karina. I am the editor of the show “хххххххххххх” on the nationwide broadcast channel “хххххххххх”.

We are searching for the American family that adopted three children from Ukraine and then returned them to their grandmother.

We know that this grandmother, to whom the children were returned, is going to file action against the people who adopted the children. I have the information that you are aware of this situation. If you possess any information, please right me a letter. We need to find out the opinion of the foster parents.

Dear Karina, I saw your web site a brief of my problem, I am to marry a lady from the Ukraine, but her ex will not sign papers to take her daughter out of Ukraine unless I pay him a large sum of money I saw on your site their is a way to do it with out his consent as long as i can prove her living will be better, if you can help or tell me some one who can you would have my thanks.

We have adopted three children from Ukraine that want to return to their grandparents. We are in agreement with this. The parents lost custodial rights due to drinking. We have made contact with the grandparents who have been trying to find the children since we adopted them four years ago. How would we do this? Would we set up the grandparents as custodians or guardians? Is there another way to do this?

I have decided to try reconnecting with the paternal grandparents, who are in their mid 50's, to approach them about letting the kids live with them in Ukraine. The maternal grandmother died when the mom was 14 and the maternal grandfather never visited them in the orphanage and lived too far away. The paternal grandparents live just in Ukraine, where the kids were born.

Our adopted kids are biological siblings and have told us non-stop they miss the paternal grandparents and want to go back to Ukraine. They have even told us over and over they would run away so they could get to Ukraine, or "go to jail", so the jail would send them back to Ukraine. They obviously miss Ukraine a huge amount since being adopted 4 years ago.

Also I have found I have worsening health (Lupus) and very poor eye sight (I have had 17 eye surgeries now) and I really want these kids to be happy and safe. My health is so bad I cannot easily care for them and I cannot see. My husband works very late each day so they will need someone.

The grandparents told a translator a few weeks ago (when we asked him to find them) that these children were their ONLY grand kids and they missed them very much. I did not get to ask them about transferring guardianship or letting them "adopt" the kids, because the translator was only talking to them without me present (after I wrote letters). The translator was upset we did not want to just "visit", but to instead try letting the kids stay in Ukraine. He said it would never work out to try to give the grandparents guardianship and the kids had to wait till each reached 18 to reconnect with their family. Is this true or can we give guardianship to the grandparents?

Please let me know if you can help us. Our adopted kids are healthy and happy, but miss family in Ukraine a lot. It was very helpful to receive pictures of family a few weeks ago from Ukraine, but it has only made them more homesick for their biological family.

Let me know if we can do something to return children to Ukraine. They repeatedly said 4 years ago they did not want to be adopted and taken away from their family in Ukraine, but we did not know Russian and did not understand what they were saying. John of course was too young to talk, but he would rather die than be split off from his brother and sister.

Please let me know if you can help us.

The theory:
You may remember the case? I had an extra marital affair with a Ukrainian woman – Olga. The result was twins, 7 years ago. Under Ua law, the twins are entitled to child support = 1/3 of the father’s salary (not sure if this is gross or net) – to 18, or to age 23 for university students. The children have birth certificates registered under my name in Ukraine. Under English law the percentage of child support is C20%, based on normal domestic settlements. Of course, the norm in Uk salary terms would mean a higher settlement than under normal Ua salary terms.

The reality:
I was born in 1950. I live with my wife and support a daughter. I have been paying Olga 1000 Euros pm which is around 23% of my salary depending on exchange rate. She has a job, and earns about E675 at current X rate. I want to support the kids – for me it’s a moral obligation – but I want an agreement within reasonable limits. I also want unrestricted access to the children, ie without the mother’s presence. We have started a conversation aimed at finding an agreement to give Olga’s children security.

My issues are:
1. Overall the agreement needs to be workable – my salary is in the UK, the children in Ukraine. I don’t want to sign an agreement which is subject to Ukrainian legal requirements.
2. I need an agreement which is reasonable – if I am sick, made unemployed, or die, the agreement needs a termination or pause clause.
3. I retire at 65 subject to changes in law. I can’t guarantee payments of this level after that point.

The agreement so far (English version) looks as attached.

I would like your advice on
1. Whether you feel I should go ahead on this basis, what are the legal risks in your view?
2. Whether an agreement should be signed at all, and then under English or Ukrainian law? Is there an alternative?
3. What kind of clause should be introduced to cover uncertainty (unemployment, sickness, death, force majeure)?
4. What is likely to happen in the case that I die, while the children are under 18? Can they claim under English law against my estate?

Could you let me know how much this would cost and how to make payment to you?

My wife is in the Ukraine with our two children. She has decided to seek divorce. We have been married since 2000. I have been unable to find a lawyer in the Ukraine. I want to make sure that she keeps her promise and she said that we will have dual custody, I will be able to travel with the children to the USA and back without her, she will not change their citizenship from Americans to Ukrainian. She only wants child support. I want to insure that this happens but I am scared that she will need me to sign a document in Russian and I told her I would not. I also want to insure that if one or both children want to stay with me in the USA that it will be permitted once they turn the proper age that they can make that call. I don't know what else I should ask for and I need help on this. My wife is already romantically and sexually involved with someone and she wants this to happen soon.
If you think there are other terms that I need to set, let me know. I will need someone that I trust that can do the translations and I want the travel documents as well so I can travel with the kids and she will need them also.
Can you help me with this? Please contact me by email as soon as possible please.

1. What paper work I need to ensure that the 2 children remain American.

2. What age can the children decide if they want to be with one parent or the other.