Ayudame: K2 Visa & Child Custody

[ElChinoPoblano 0]

VJ Amigos -

I am in need of your advice. We recently submitted our I-129F petition and began to have concerns about child custody. My novia and her young daughter live in Puebla, Mexico. The father is a pendejo (in every sense of the word) and has very limited contact with the daughter (might visit once a month or two) and provides little financial support. My novia has never married, and the daughter has always been under her care and custody. Since the father is not giving his permission for his daughter to leave Mexico, how does my novia go about getting a judicial order and full custody of her daughter ("la patria potestad")? How long does getting the judicial order take? What would the lawyer fees be like in Mexico? The goal is that we have the judicial order in our hands, we don't need to consult the father, and the daughter gets her Mexican passport and is able to enter the US without any issues.

If you could share any insight from your experiences, it would be greatly appreciated. Gracias!

El Chino Poblano

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

No experience with family lawyers in Mexico, I suspect fees vary widely by type of practice and experience just like in the US, but there is no doubt your novia needs to secure the services of one to get this done. She might go to the local DIF office to get some advice and perhaps find low-cost legal resources for gaining full legal custody.

[ElChinoPoblano 0]

No experience with family lawyers in Mexico, I suspect fees vary widely by type of practice and experience just like in the US, but there is no doubt your novia needs to secure the services of one to get this done. She might go to the local DIF office to get some advice and perhaps find low-cost legal resources for gaining full legal custody.

Thanks GlobeHopperMama, I'll look into it.

[sym32one 2]

My fiancee and I just went through the same process... it took her 2 1/2 years to get the patria potestad. Her daughters father was "absent" and abandoned her. She was never married. Needless to say, this process was grueling and extremely difficult. We changed lawyers 3 times due to all of them being useless pieces of #######. The whole process cost less than $1000 dollars. my thoughts to you would be to spend more and get a lawyer that specializes in this type of case, was educated in the U.S., and speaks English. Be careful, as any lawyer that you talk to in Mexico, regardless of whether they can help you or not is going to tell you they can, that it is really easy, and that it will only take three months. Don't pay up front as we found they will just drag it on and on and on. We found one lawyer who gave us really good advice and said that lawyers in Mexico typically will charge a small fee per appearance and will just drag the case on and on in order to get this small fee - they don't care about completing the case. I found that you need to stay as close as possible to the process, study it, and understand exactly how every bit of it works to make sure you aren't getting screwed. Honestly, if the father is against her coming here you are better off just trying to convince him and paying him off if you have to. All he needs to do is sign on letter saying she can move here permanently and it is done. Mexico has a machismo culture and I think it will be difficult to convince a court that she can move away if he doesn't want her to, regardless of whether he pays child support or not. The only other way is to do what we did and prove that the father is "no where to be found" and has abandoned her. The court will require that you search for him and prove it. They will basically make you serve papers at all of his past addresses and any addresses that the Mexican government has for him. If he never shows up for court it can be considered that he abandoned his daughter. Convincing him that his daughter will have a better life in the U.S., and will love him for it, and paying him off is just sooo much easier... send me a private message if you like and I can share any further details with you.

[karlanadriana 0]

Hola, I too have a similar question. We want to apply for k visa but I don't know how it works in Mexico. My girlfriend has a 6 year old son, she never married but he has passed away. Would she need to provide his death certificate? I must add that the child does carry his surname. Does Mexico automatically give her full legal custody allowing her to take her son out of the country and that way she WONT need to provide his death certificate?

All responses are greatly appreciated Great journey to all!

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hola, I too have a similar question. We want to apply for k visa but I don't know how it works in Mexico. My girlfriend has a 6 year old son, she never married but he has passed away. Would she need to provide his death certificate? I must add that the child does carry his surname. Does Mexico automatically give her full legal custody allowing her to take her son out of the country and that way she WONT need to provide his death certificate?

All responses are greatly appreciated Great journey to all!

Hi,

You do not have a problem. Mom has sole custody since dad is dead. Just submit dad's death certificate.

Try to start your own thread next time. Posting on a 3 years old thread is frown upon by the moderators of this site.

Best of luck

[karlanadriana 0]

I don't know how to start my own thread, sorry

but mean while you are here can I ask you another question?

So there is no way around her having to present his death certificate? like, they actually have to confirm that he is dead? or can she just decide to take her son anywhere simply because they are not married?

Again, sorry for using an old post. I am new at this site and still don't know how to use it.

[Darnell 8,478]

are you using a handphone? The visual landscape is totally different, pc versus handphone.

It smells like yer lass doesn't know how to obtain a death certificate for the biological father of her child. Right? Wrong ?

[karlanadriana 0]

I'm on my computer. Yeah, that's what she told me

[aaron2020 11,651]

She needs to present the death certificate.

[Darnell 8,478]

so _SHE_ (not you) can research more about how to obtain a death certificate in Mexico ? Yes? No ? If No, why No ?

[karlanadriana 0]

Yeah, I think she said she had to travel to get the death certificate to the state where he actually passed away. She doesn't live there but she absolutely have to present it then I guess there's just no way around it. Thanks for the response

[aaron2020 11,651]

Get several copies of the death certificate, you never know when you may need one.

[NickD 202]

Sure sounds typical of South American countries, male dominated society with don't give a darn biological fathers, not even hit with child support payments, but yet given full rights for "their" child.

Death certificate is the easiest way out, and have to admit, it was tempting. Your intended may be the best person you have ever met, but very limited in the knowledge of their own countries laws. My solution was to find a good US immigration attorney that was very aware of the countries laws and even recommend good attorneys down there that they have worked with.

I did all the footwork, so the fees were very inexpensive, but sure needed the guidance. One problem we ran into was typo's in my stepdaughter's birth certificate that had to be corrected. Strange how they do things down there, go to a notary even months after the child is born, with witnesses to the birth of that child. Her last name was misspelled. But cost me 500 bucks to get that corrected.

Ha, ran into the same problem with my own birth certificate, only had to show it twice for getting a driver's license and when I was drafted. State of Illinois converted the originals to a computer data base, loaded with typos. Took me three months to get this corrected, got an original birth certificate from my sister that proved the correct spelling of my last name. But only cost me six bucks. But after all this nonsense, found my original birth certificate.

May even find that biological father is liable for child support payments, but have to know the laws of that country.

[karlanadriana 0]

NickD, to get your step daughter's birth certificate corrected you had to go to a notary?

I thought it be much of a hassle to do that. So any notary would work?

I just thought you had to go through official government offices and processes for that. But that's nice