International child custody

International child custody cases are always very complicated and heartbreaking cases. These cases also are intractable due to the intersection of the family laws of two or more countries.

International child custody cases are a delicate situation, and high professionalism must be taken in order to provide the best interests of the child. Karina Duvall is an experienced child custody attorney. Contact Karina Duvall (karina.duvall@gmail.com) to schedule a consultation.

Disputes about children are one of the most subtle and emotionally colored categories of family conflicts. Only in rare cases such disputes are resolved without court intervention. In general, the conflicting parents cannot agree on the further fate of their children.

Often in practice, judicial disputes about the incoherence of obstacles in the child's travel abroad, the paternity disputes, the deprivation of parental rights, the procedure for exercising parental rights and some others.

Separate types of disputes about children are disputes between spouses, who are citizens of different countries. International marriages have ceased to be a rarity in our society.

Child custody disputes from international marriages are complicated by a number of reasons.

First, the relationships of spouses, who are citizens of different countries, are regulated by laws of at least two countries. In most cases, when resolving child custody disputes, there are legal conflicts – the contradictions between the laws of different states that regulate the same relationship. The main question in these cases is choosing proper place for divorce and child custody disputes. National Russian law grants to Russian citizen the right to apply to the court of the Russian Federation with a claim for divorce, child support, establishment of paternity if he has a residence in the Russian Federation or at least one of the spouses is a citizen of the Russian Federation. In most cases child custody disputes supposed to resolve in the jurisdiction where children lives. But even in these cases the parties need to provide Russian law expertise since the foreign judge doesn’t know the Russian law requirements and consequences from foreign order in the Russian Federation, as well as consequences from Russian court order for foreign court. When you need special knowledges according to the Russian Family Law, and other branches of Russian law, please contact Karina Duvall, who is Certified Legal Consultant from Russia licensed in the United States.

However, it should be remembered that in the absence of an international treaty or agreement between the Russian Federation and the state of which one of the spouses is a citizen, the jurisdiction of the court decision rendered by the Russian court will create potential difficulties with enforcement.

The child custody dispute with the participation of a foreign citizen, even if carried out under Russian law, but has many procedural nuances that must be taken into account in the performance of certain procedural actions.

For example, in most of the international cases, the plaintiff must attach to the statement of claim documents confirming the marriage with a foreign citizen, birth certificates of children. Quite often, such documents are of foreign origin (if the marriage was made abroad or the child was born outside the Russian Federation). In this case, the documents on the marriage and the birth of the child must be certified in accordance with the requirements of the Russian civil procedural law, taking into account the provisions of international treaties, conventions regulating the certification of legal documents of foreign origin. One of the most applicable is the Hague Convention of October, 5 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents (Apostille Convention).

The dispute over child custody and visitation is allowed by the Russian competent court, in accordance with the norms of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, in the interests of the child and, as far as possible, taking into account his opinion. When considering a dispute over children, one of whose parents is a foreign citizen, the social adaptation of the child in the Russian Federation, the existence of proper housing and living conditions at the place of residence of the child in the Russian Federation for its development and upbringing are taken into account.

However, when considering a dispute over children, one of whose parties is a citizen of a foreign state, one should take into account the peculiarities of his personal law, i.e. provisions of the family law of the country of which he is a resident.

In order to work out the most optimal solution to the dispute over children, one of whose parents is a foreigner, it is more expedient to apply to a lawyer who deals with international family law.

Karina Duvall conducts cases on disputes about children of any categories, and has huge experience to resolve the most difficult conflict, both with the participation of Russian citizens and with the participation of citizens of other states. She also licensed in New York as Certified Legal Consultant (i.e. foreign attorney), and has business connections in USA worldwide.