Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

I want my daughter to come and visit me in America or come and live. She is in Germany with her mother, but her mother will not let her come to visit me. My daughter is 16 years old and she has a dual citizenship . Does she need her mother's permission to leave Germany to visit me. I am her biological father and I have visitation rights. Her mother took her from the U.S. in 2003 and I have had no contact with my daughter since that time. I think that the Hague Act does not apply now because my daughter is now 16. My daughter found me on facebook two months ago. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you for any help you can give.


Asked on 1/22/10, 2:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Amir John Showrai The Pacific Law Firm, PLLC

Your situation is honestly far too complicated to work out here on Law Guru. Suffice it to say, you are correct that Article 4 of the The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction makes it so that the treaty does not apply once the child reaches age 16. That said, you may still be able to enforce your custody orders by pursuing them in a German court with German attorneys. Now, I promise you, this will be anything but cheap, but then again, this is your daughter, so do what you can.

My advice is to hire the best attorney in Germany that you can, and provide them with your Washington paperwork and make sure a Washington family law attorney can be available to answer their questions. From there, you'll have to see if they can do anything to either enforce the Washington order or perhaps obtain a separate set of German custody orders if the German courts refuse to accept the Washington orders for some reason.

Best of luck to you.

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Answered on 1/28/10, 12:21 pm


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