Information for child custody process needed...

[arkom]

Posting this for my cousin.

A little background, my cousin has both Thai and US citizenship, he married a Thai woman with both Thai and Australian citizenship. They have a daughter that who is 12 years old, with Thai, US and Australian passports. They have have filed for divorce here in Thailand, this was about 5 years ago, but are still legally married in the US.

Here is the situation, for the past two years his daughter had been living the US with her uncle (cousin's brother), where she had been attending public school in Santa Moncia, CA. My cousin had paid for schooling expenses, while her uncle provided basically everything else. Whenever her mother would visit in California, my other cousin provided her with a place to stay, a car to use and even opened a credit card for her to use for food and other items.

Her mother is now unemployed and has been forced to moved back to Australia to live with her family, but insisted on taking his daughter with her. They had signed agreement that if his daughter were to move to Australia then all of her expenses would have to be taken care of by her mother and her family. Part of the agreement is that she was supposed to be enrolled in a public school, but ended up in private one. She would also be allowed to to fly back to Thailand to visit him during school breaks, he would be the one to pay of the tickets.

Now that is getting close to Christmas and New Years break, her mother will not let his daughter fly back unless he pays for her school. From my understanding she is not allowed to talk to him or any of his family members unless her mother of other family members are present.

My cousin has come to the conclusion that he will have to go to court to fight for custody, because it seems like he will not get to see his daughter again.

In this situation, what country would it be easiest to get the process started?

Thanks and if anything isn't clear please let me know.

[Mario2008]

They are divorced in the US as well, the Thai divorce is recognized in the US.

Since mother and child are both in Australia, there is were proceedings must start.

The father can get visitation rights, but the mother can ask the court to prevent that the child leaves Australia.

[arkom]

Thanks, I kinda had feeling that might be the case.

[rotary]

This sounds and is complicated...........and expensive.

[atyclb]

You should check to see if Australia child custody law require a minimum amount of time in Australia to establish Jurisdiction in Australia and if so if that requirement has been met. Don't know if the Hague convention rules apply in such a case?