No permission from BIO Father for minor daughter - options?

[Amadia 711]

As the Title suggested, the Bio Father of the minor daughter will not give permission for the daughter to immigrate. Let me break this down and please if anyone out there knows of any options we may have at our disposal, please don't be shy, please let me know.

Fiancee is Mexican National living in Mexico.

Minor daughter is dual citizen with Spain and Mexico, lives with her mother in Mexico.

Bio father is a Spanish citizen living in Spain, with no Mexican nationality.

Bio Mother has Custody and Guardianship. Bio Father still has parental rights.

Minor Daughter has European Passport from Spain and can pretty much travel freely to the US without the need for a Visa and has done so several times to visit her Uncle and cousins in the USA.

Since Bio Father won't give permission, does anyone out there know what path we can take here?

Here are my thoughts, and clearly, I'm just throwing out some ideas, I don't know if they are viable, the legality of it, and or if these ideas will work or not.

Option 1: Proceed with the K1 Consulate Interview. If they don't give permission for the daughter to come, can we then tell the Consulate the daughter will follow later? Will that work? Then because the daughter has a Spanish Passport, we can just have the daughter come up for 90 days at a time to "Visit us", then we can send her back to grandma and grandpa for a weekend, then have her come back to the states on the tourist visa for 90 days, and just keep repeating this process until she turns 18, then we can file for her citizenship immigration or whatever you call it. Does anyone see a problem or legal issue with this?

Option 2: If the consulate will not allow the minor daughter to come over on the K visa, have the minor daughter apply for a Visa Waiver to study in America for school. that way she can stay with us for longer periods of time before we need to send her home in-between school or however long a visa waiver is good for.

Option 3: If Bio Mom is living here in the states with me as my wife, and she is supposed to have custody of her minor daughter, after the daughter comes to the states to visit us, can the daughter stay here past her 90 Visa entry and can we apply for a hardship exemption to keep the daughter here in the states with us? Does anything like that exist in the annals of our immigration system?

Option 4: Can anyone out there give me a 4th option that is viable?

I know there will be some comments about fraud etc...- this is not my intention. We are not trying to fraud the immigration system. My intention is to find out of anyone knows of ways to circumnavigate the need for the bio fathers permission and just get my family over here to live with me so we can begin our new life together.

I was in a similar situation with my ex-husband and getting his permission for my kids to migrate with me to Florida. We divorced and I got care and control of the kids while he was granted liberal access. That being said, he rarely utilized this access but when I mentioned to him that my husband would be filing for us, he gave all assurance that he would grant me the permission to take them with me....yeaah riightt! I ended up putting him through Family Court to vary the order that was given at the time of our divorce.

End Result: He voluntarily terminated his parental rights for the kids and the judge stated that she will draft the court order in such a way so that I would have zero issues when crossing borders with my babies in the event that CBP Officials queried the consent letter to travel from the bio-dad.

Your fiancee will have to show the court that she has been there for them (financially, emotionally, etc) and he has not impacted positively on their lives. The court usually makes a decision based on the best outcome for the kids' sake.

Hope I was able to help somewhat.

[Ontarkie 13,979]

~~Two post removed, one for giving out completely bad information. The second for instructing how to commit fraud. ~~

[Boiler 43,805]

Do not see that the Bio Dad would have a leg to stand on legally having allowed the child to be moved from Spain to Mexico. How does Mexico to USA complicate matters?

[Anh map 2,098]

Ask direct, specific questions to the Consulate so that you get good answers. Don't try to be "cute" and dance around it. That can lead to delays and more intense scrutiny.

[aaron2020 11,651]

As the Title suggested, the Bio Father of the minor daughter will not give permission for the daughter to immigrate. Let me break this down and please if anyone out there knows of any options we may have at our disposal, please don't be shy, please let me know.

Fiancee is Mexican National living in Mexico.

Minor daughter is dual citizen with Spain and Mexico, lives with her mother in Mexico.

Bio father is a Spanish citizen living in Spain, with no Mexican nationality.

Bio Mother has Custody and Guardianship. Bio Father still has parental rights.

Minor Daughter has European Passport from Spain and can pretty much travel freely to the US without the need for a Visa and has done so several times to visit her Uncle and cousins in the USA.

Since Bio Father won't give permission, does anyone out there know what path we can take here?

Here are my thoughts, and clearly, I'm just throwing out some ideas, I don't know if they are viable, the legality of it, and or if these ideas will work or not.

Option 1: Proceed with the K1 Consulate Interview. If they don't give permission for the daughter to come, can we then tell the Consulate the daughter will follow later? Will that work? Then because the daughter has a Spanish Passport, we can just have the daughter come up for 90 days at a time to "Visit us", then we can send her back to grandma and grandpa for a weekend, then have her come back to the states on the tourist visa for 90 days, and just keep repeating this process until she turns 18, then we can file for her citizenship immigration or whatever you call it. Does anyone see a problem or legal issue with this? International parental kidnapping (Discussed below). The other legal problem is abusing a visitor visa to live in the US with brief visits to Mexico. That's illegal. That will end up with her losing her privilege to visit the US. This will absolutely not work.

Option 2: If the consulate will not allow the minor daughter to come over on the K visa, have the minor daughter apply for a Visa Waiver to study in America for school. that way she can stay with us for longer periods of time before we need to send her home in-between school or however long a visa waiver is good for. There is no such Visa Waiver. This does not exist.

Option 3: If Bio Mom is living here in the states with me as my wife, and she is supposed to have custody of her minor daughter, after the daughter comes to the states to visit us, can the daughter stay here past her 90 Visa entry and can we apply for a hardship exemption to keep the daughter here in the states with us? Does anything like that exist in the annals of our immigration system? International parental kidnapping (Discussed below). This will absolutely not work.

Option 4: Can anyone out there give me a 4th option that is viable? A Mexican court order allowing the child to immigrate to the US.

I know there will be some comments about fraud etc...- this is not my intention. We are not trying to fraud the immigration system. My intention is to find out of anyone knows of ways to circumnavigate the need for the bio fathers permission and just get my family over here to live with me so we can begin our new life together.

The US is not going to help one parent kidnap a child and bring him to the US against the wish of another parent.

If Mexican law allows a parent with sole custody to immigrate a child to another country, then you may not have a problem. Otherwise, you will need either the father's permission or a Mexican court order allowing the child to immigrate to to the US. Taking the child to the US without permission, even temporarily for a visit, may result in both you and your wife being charged with parental international child abduction.

https://travel.state.gov/content/childabduction/en.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_child_abduction

Edited January 19, 2016 by aaron2020

[KimMerrell 0]

Really sounds like a domestic issue. Father and Mother issue, parental ping pong. Really, What does she want?

[eiram 0]

Hello! Good day! can someone show me a sample letter of consent. I'm already married to a US citizen and already processing our papers. My daughter needs a consent letter from her dad,giving consent to travel and to live with me as well. Thanks! and God Bless everyone! a reply will be much appreciated

[Ms Hogan 295]

In my situation I had sole custody of my children but ex-husband had visitation rights which seems to be same situation as you. I did not have a letter of permission to immigrate from my ex-husband but simply a letter from him that he was aware we were moving. Not sure that it helps at all but perhaps she can convince him to write that as opposed to permission. He doesn't have to like it but that he is aware of it? Maybe? I don't know.

[DaisyD 12]

I would try to delve further into why he is blocking this. Is he scared that he is no longer going to be a father figure? Does he feel ousted by the presence of a potential step-dad? Is he worried that he will see less of his child? Are the flights more expensive from US to Spain so he is worried about expenses? Does he speak/read well in English, if not, does the thought of sorting out legal issues with a US court worry him? Does he have a bad image of the US culture and not want his child brought up that way?

If you can work out what his main issues are then you and your wife can work out how you can compromise with him, reassure him or sweeten the deal a little for him so that he is more willing to give his permission. If the child visits her father (or his family) at all, it is probably best that he is on board rather than risking him not sending the child back after visitation because he does not agree with her living in the US.

[caliliving 606]

I think this happened to kelly preston (the actress) and she ended up losing custody of her children...

I think you need to go to family court and get a ruling from a judge that she will have sole custody of the kids and grand them to come here with her.. and like the other poster said, maybe he will change his mind:/

[cypherdragon 3]

I have no direct experience with the immigration issues with your situation, however I do have experience with a bitter ex-spouse.

The first step will be to read through the full divorce decree carefully, and preferably with a family lawyer. Make sure you understand all the requirements and responsibilities that are set in the decree fully. Then, and only then, can you figure out how to proceed. Given the situation, I see the following options:

1) If the mother is granted sole custody, there may not be any need for the bio dad to consent for her immigration. There may be a notification requirement however, so check for that even if the bio dad does not have any consent rights.

2) If the bio dad's consent is required, then you can have the lawyer file for a motion to modify the divorce decree, granting the mother the right to immigrate with her child to the US. There may be location restrictions in the order that you are not aware of. You may also have to file for a modification if the bio dad is granted any visitation rights, to make sure that it is clear that the mom can move wherever she likes. OR you can do as others have suggested, and try to discuss the issue with bio dad and come to some sort of compromise.

Make absolutely sure that you follow what the divorce decree states as exactly as you can. If anything is unclear or ambiguous, err on the side of caution, and think about having the lawyer file for a clarification of the decree. In no circumstances take the child out of Mexico without checking the divorce decree for notification or consent requirements! Violating the divorce decree is a very bad idea. Consequences range from a moderate slap on the wrist from a judge, to losing custody of her child and suffering contempt of court charges (which can involve jail time, depending on how the judge is feeling that day). If you can't get the other parent to provide you with written consent that you can file with the court as evidence of agreement, then the court will rule per the divorce decree.

In any case, the absolute best option is to discuss with bio dad and get his agreement and consent. That will be the best route for all involved, even if it does mean compromising or providing some kind of "sweetener" to get him to agree.

[Mike-eeh and Odie 192]

Option 4: Can anyone out there give me a 4th option that is viable?

Send your daughter to live in Spain with her father. Then see how long it takes him to send her back to you with permission to immigrate.

[baron555 934]

Hello! Good day! can someone show me a sample letter of consent. I'm already married to a US citizen and already processing our papers. My daughter needs a consent letter from her dad,giving consent to travel and to live with me as well. Thanks! and God Bless everyone! a reply will be much appreciated

There is no real form but the letter should have something like the following statements:

I PARENT allow my son/daughter NAME to immigrate to the United States of America and to permanently reside there. I also allow NAME to return to HOME COUNTRY to visit and then return to the US.

It should be notarized.

[DaisyD 12]

Send your daughter to live in Spain with her father. Then see how long it takes him to send her back to you with permission to immigrate.

I know that this is said in jest, but in all reality considering having the child live with her father is not a bad idea. It is an option that should be put on the table and considered as rationally as possible.

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

No matter what you do, don't try that "illegal" option you were looking at.. It would make matters worse.