I’m worried she’ll cut her losses and just never go back to the states/never bring the kids back. But I don’t know. Just worried about the possibility.
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My thoughts exactly. Kids are resilient, but they don’t deserve being abducted to the other side of the world and used as bargaining chips.
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Maybe OP has a plan? He seems confident…
bigger worry is her filing DV charges in the US, where DV allegations have such a low proof of burden that the wife can just about say anything and the guy would have restraining orders and all sorts of nasty stuff happen. Even if it turns out she lied nothing would happen to her.
If I were OP I’d get the jump on her by filing a lawsuit for international parental kidnapping. It’s a federal crime and she can get prison time for it if she’s convicted. But in that case, she’ll probably never go back to the US so she never has to deal with it.
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Based on the information in this thread, the mother may not be able to secure Taiwanese citizenship for her children all by herself. She may have to bring them back to the US after all, in which case, justice could be served.
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Now the interesting part is if his wife will be forced to return to US + with the kids +. Then the custody can be decided by US courts.
OP should think about getting the passports flagged so they can not be used to enter other countries, just return to US. Otherwise visa runs are still possible (exit and reenter Taiwan for 3 more months stay). But this is not really sustainable with two kids, unless her family is rich.
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I don’t know if this can be decided by US courts if she doesn’t actually bring the kids back with her.
I meant when she returns to US it will be with their kids.
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I sure hope so!
That would be my first lawyer meeting topic as soon as I arrived the US.
And I would also not be with her alone anywhere where I don’t have a 3rd witness from my side in person (the kids are too small so they don’t count)
If she doesn’t choose to leave the kids in taiwan. In which case I would warn the Immigration Agency about their illegal stay.
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Overstaying has a fine and can result in an entry ban for some time. How is it handled if the offending person is a minor?
They are generally lenient about this with really little kids, but only if the parent just so happens to forget. They’re probably not so accommodating if you are actively trying to keep a foreign citizen here illegally.
Source: I accidentally overstayed a couple of times when I was a baby. My mom was like “my bad i forgot she’s not technically a citizen” and they basically responded with “it’s cool she’s just a baby.” This was in the 90s, though. Things may be different now.
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If they only knew…
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If mother prepared well, maybe she can register the kids in her hukou as a unmarried mother without OP’s documents. I don’t know if she wants to do it, though.
That’s a step she really doesn’t want to take, she needs a birth certificate.
Impossible for her to stay in Taiwan with the kids. As the OP illustrated in his first posting, the kids are American, entered Taiwan with their American passports, do not currently have Taiwan citizenship or a Taiwan passport. If the law is followed, in Taiwan,ha ha ha, she can’t get Taiwanese HHR or citizenship or passports for the kids without his permission. Also, in regards to schooling, the American kids can’t attend Taiwanese public school without citizenship or at least an Alien Resident Certificate. The only other option would be private schooling like TAS which is spendy. Then there is the issue of exit and re-entry every three months, but that can’t be accomplished if the US passports are flagged for no travel to any country except the US. Also, the wife can extend the current visitor visa’s of the kids without leaving the country if she takes them to NIA to request an extension. An acquaintance of mine did this for his American son who entered on a three month visitor visa. He was able to take his son down to NIA every three months and extend every three months for up to 1 year if I remember correctly. But, in the case of the OP, his wife won’t be able to do this indefinitely. The American kids need to leave Taiwan and go back to America and if she is smart, it will be sooner rather than later. The longer she takes to bring the kids back to where they belong, the worse it’s going to be for her ultimately.
I agree with the OP that she merely cooked up some false DV charges in order to force him into unfairly signing over custody and money, etc.
Now, that the OP is back in the States, she is up shit creek.
Next on the agenda…A stop by the FBI office for report of parental kidnapping, a stop by a well trusted lawyer who has experience in family law and hopefully specializing in international custody issues, and a stop by the US State Department to put a travel ban on the kids’ passports, unless returning directly to the US.
The OP is in the driver’s seat! Excellent news for a change! I’m going to pour myself a nice glass of scotch and toast the OP’s good fortune and hopefully continued good fortune!
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I don’t think I’d mention the DV to the manager…I would mention the kidnapping. I have a hard time believing that someone who had their kids kidnapped in a foreign country wouldn’t get some time off to deal with it.
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I hope things work out for you and, more importantly, your kids.
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