Legal Question in Family Law in California

As a matter of interest, you should establish the citizenship of your baby and obtain a passport. If baby was born in the USA the baby is a USA citizen. Based upon the citizenship of you two parents, you (each) might be able to ALSO get a passport for your respective countries. This is an important issue because if, for example, your husband gets an Indian passport for the baby and IF the baby ever ends up in India on a visit, your husband might be able to get Indian government protection with respect to removing the bay back to you! If you would always want the USA jurisdiction to apply, for the time being, until everything is stable, only obtain the USA passport. You can do this any time with a baby picture. My daughter had her first passport at 1 month of age, for example. I am assuming that your divorce will include custody and support of the child. This is usually a separate part of the divorce. You need to establish percentage of both physical and legal custody. You can share each custody element or you might have sole physical custody with a sharing of legal custody with father. This would all be negotiated as part of the divorce. As there is a big danger of the child being removed from the USA without permission of the other parent, travel rules should be carefully worded in the agreement such as requiring a signed permission before the child could be removed from even the state. On the face of it, neither parent (unlike many countries) would have a rebuttable first right to custody of the child. There is NO assumed custody here. If you could not agree, a family court judge would decide based upon what was considered to be in the best interest of the child. Respective wealth does not matter. So, if husband took child away from you before adjudicated by a court he would not be in violation of any specific law unless in doing so he was actually causing danger or harm to the child. As parents you would each be free to do this, but the other side could get immediate relief by appealing to the court via a restraining order. If the child was whisked out of the country (the child would not easily be removed without a passport or traveling papers of some sort) before the other side knew or had time to complain, it might be very difficult getting the child back especially if the father could establish citizenship in the new country for the child quickly enough. My absolute recommendation is to obtain a restraining order if you have any reason to fear that the child would be removed from you outside of your present jurisdiction. And, also quickly get a settlement of custody so you will be protected by court orders regarding the custody. This will give you a foundation to file kidnapping charges against the father should he remove the child subsequently.

Assuming California law is controlling, you would have to have a visitation plan. Often at that age, he may only be able to visit for a few hours, but more frequently until the baby is less dependent on mom. I would consult the family law facilitator's office in your area and go down to talk to someone. If you are going through a divorce, you will be doing mediation regarding visitation. Your daughter deserves both of you in her life, and the court will usually see to it that this is what happens.