Foreigner with Full Custody, can I leave Taiwan with Child?

Title sums it up. I have full custody and am considering moving back to Canada. Ex won’t agree to it. She actually hasn’t returned his passports…I’d probably need to apply for new ones.

But can I legally leave with him?

it is not entirely legal. If the child is dual citizen, and you move permanently to Canada without the other parent’s consent it is considrerd kidnapping.

not a lawyer - posting based on sad stories i heard - seek legal advice.

Sooo…just gotta pray China waits until after he’s 18 to attack? Great.

Hopefully you will find a compromise with the other parent before then. If the situation was reversed, you were in CA and your spouse wanted to take the kid to Taiwan cuz Canada is too cold, and too many kids do drugs, would you let them go?

I’ve always put his welfare first. If he was happy and healthy with his mom…I would move back to Canada by myself. But I’m a male who puts logic over emotion. She’s a mentally ill Taiwanese woman who quit her job when she found out she needed to pay child support.

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im not diminishing your plight, but since he is dual citizen, and a minor, the law doesn’t allow one-sided moves like this. To the best of my knowledge Canada is the same.
best is to seek a lawyer’s advice.

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I believe there is no legal basis to take your son and doing so without the mother’s express permission is an extremely bad idea. Seek legal advice.

As mentioned above you need to get legal advice from some one who specialises in family law.

You may have to get permission from the court and there may be caveats like arranging for visitation of the other parent.

Also consider the fact if you dont do it legally, you could be prosecuted for child abduction which would result in you loosing custody.

Even talking about it she could argue that you are a flight risk and ask for some sort of injunction.

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out of curiosity. same situation, but the Taiwanese mother takes child out of country without the foreign father’s permission, same sort of kidnapping legalities? or a double standard?

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Same rules apply, but with all these things it comes down to how diligent the the border officers are.

There are normally rules about it written into the custody agreement (even a court ordered one).

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By the way, I have taken my dual-citizen kids out of the country plenty of times by myself. I would carry a copy of mom’s passport with her written permission and signature and date. I do not think I ever needed to show it. I would have all their passports on me when I did this.

Having said this, it is still a bad idea to take your kid(s) anywhere without permission as kidnapping could lead to jail time and loss of custody.

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Racist double standards. Happens a lot.

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sure, we probably all know some people in this situation, if not in said situation themselves. its fucking infuriating and retarded. venting is nice. but, and of the day, what realistic options are on the table?

Legally speaking. if the local citizen parent, let’s assume divorced, took the kid on vacation without permission from the other parent, how could that play out?

curious because there are a lot of foreigners here who are being separated from their children with seemingly no chances to see them. this kidnapping law may actually be a path forward to get some form of visitation, even custody, against tyrannical ex’s.

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Not a legal opinion, but I think you might have omitted a crucial detail, who granted you full custody? Canada or Taiwan?

If it was Canada you might be in a bit of trouble trying to leave the country without the other parents consent. If Taiwan granted you full custody, I wouldn’t think it would be a problem but better to consult a lawyer to be sure.

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Actually I completely missed the “full custody” part. If you have full custody, you may be able to petition the court to allow you the right to leave the country, if you can make a case it is in the best interest of the child (because maybe you will be in a better position to grant them a good life in the other country). Of course, it would help if you can make a case for how the other parent has not made attempts to be in the child’s life, is a bad influence, how you can have a great job and environment in the other country, things like that.

And also, if you have full custody, your ex should return all passports of the child and you should be allowed out of the country for a vacation at least, any time you like, without asking for approval, but probably with a headsup. I think the other parent has no legal grounds to keep the passport of a child that she does not have custody over.

Yes, but that goes back to the question who granted full custody, if it was Canada that ruling has no meaning in Taiwan. It would carry weight with the courts, but the courts here would need to make their own rulings.

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any chance you could elaborate on that?

If you have full custody you can apply to the court for permission to move to Canada. You would need to have their education options sorted out before you apply. And they would have to be good schools (read insanely expensive private schools or catchment area for the top public schools).

You do run the risk of losing full custody with the court possibly arranging shared custody or giving custody to the mother. The legalities surrounding dual citizen children and rights, especially after separation or divorce, tend to favor (but not always) the Taiwanese side of the relationship.

As others have said go get legal advice. There’s nothing to stop you from going for a holiday (and returning) and checking out the schools and seeing how the kids respond to a new environment. This would help in your argument if you did make an application to the court to move permanently.

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Case in point, a father who had been granted full custody by the US courts, was subject to Taiwan law while under Taiwan jurisdiction which meant going through the whole custody case again and the same issue with the mother holding on to the passport and the child was not permitted to leave until all this was sorted out.

https://www.international-divorce.com/d-taiwan.htm

Also note.

Juan said that she was also planning to file other lawsuits against Emily’s father, Cary Sartin, for “falsely accusing” Juan of seizing their daughter’s Republic of China passport. The passport is presently in Juan’s possession.

Again, her actions in this case are determined by Taiwan law, not the rulings made in a foreign court. So if her legal rights to custody in Taiwan have not been determined, it is not illegal for her to be holding on to the passport and the claim by the father the mother was doing so illegally put him on the receiving end of another lawsuit.

Bottom line is the OP needs a lawyer.

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10 posts were split to a new topic: Abduction child - bad advice and good discussion