I am going to marry an American citizen. I have recently divorced my ex-husband, the child is now one year old. My ex-husband is against my new marriage and child’s going abroad. What can I do, taking into account the fact that my ex-husband is supporting the child within his powers- pays 3000-4000 Rubles per month voluntary without any court decree?
The first thing you have to do is to apply to the court claiming maintenance for support of the child and yourself. You are entitled to receive your maintenance until the child will become 3 years old. The child is entitled to receive its maintenance until coming of full age. Avoidance of maintenance payment for more than 6 months will enable you to apply to the court claiming termination of parental rights and/or adoption of your child. Termination of parental rights will be the best solution for you, but currently it is impossible due to two reasons:
1) maintenance has not been claimed in a judicial procedure;
2) father renders material assistance and participates in the child’s upbringing voluntarily.
Therefore the option available in your situation is to apply to the court claiming the determination of residence of mother and her child. If the court states that the child must live with the mother, then in case of change of mother’s residence, the child will follow her. If the father is adequate, you may make an agreement within this case limits as regards the procedure for exercising of parental rights, thus defining the place and time of his meeting with the child, maintenance payment procedure and his participation in other types of assistance.
Strictly speaking, К-1 and К-3 visas are non-immigration visas, you don’t have to execute permanent place of residence when going outside the Russian Federation. So you can leave Russia without any hindrance, unless your husband notifies the border control authorities about his objection. If it happens you will have to receive permit for going abroad in a judicial procedure.
As long as he formally does not state his forbidding the child’s going abroad, you may leave the Russian Federation without hindrance, as I mentioned above. In this connection it very important to understand which formulation of the Russian court ruling will be satisfy the consulate for issuing a visa for going to USA, and which documents, apart from the court ruling will be sufficient for obtaining entry visa to the USA.
The periods of case consideration by the court are different. You should keep in mind 6-8 months for consideration of the case on determination of residence of mother and her child.