Repatriation advice

[Fred_Quimby]

Our daughter lives in New Zealand but still a Brit. She married a Kiwi and has two young children (3 and 5). He has been a bit of a tw@ since the pandemic and has been violent towards her and the children - not blackmeyebstuff but pushing them around and low level stuff: so much so she threw him out several months ago. He has the children one day a week but cannot cope with them for any longer. He was getting aggressive because he is psychotic (soft drug misuse as a teenager and young adult).

She would like to return here to live and thinks he will try to stop her. I am thinking - get a divorce and f..k him and come home. I believe the laws in NZ are pretty similar to ours (unless someone knows differently); what would happen here if a NZ National wanted to return home with the kids?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. It is looking like a trip to a solicitor when we are over there next month.

 

[crublue1]

You know the fucking rules pal.
Just getting in early...
Seriously, he sounds like a wrong un.
Get her and the kids back home, their safety comes first.
Everything else will sort itself out.
Best of luck

 

[StrangewaysHereWeCome]

As above, get your girl and grandkids back here. Fuck the Kiwi and the rules, what are they gonna do, enforce deportation of the children back to an abusive father?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Like most people I can only guess, but I found this.

General takeaways:
- you can file a divorce in a country if you have a connection to it and/or you usually reside there.
- taking a child across borders in contravention of any custody agreement is illegal and countries are obligated to return them to their country of usual residence.

Based on this, I'd suggest that simply running to the UK with the kids would be a bad idea, although understandable if she genuinely fears for her safety. But getting a divorce in NZ and doing everything by the book would be the better option. She's obviously going to get custody based on what you've said, but running off to the UK with their children is likely to shift things against her in the inevitable legal battle that follows. It would be hard to argue that the kids are 'habitually resident' in the UK.

I'm not sure, once you have divorced, how easy it is to return to the UK with the kids, assuming that the father still has access rights though. As I understand it, you would have to apply for permission to do so, and the court would take into account whether it would harm the other parent's access, which moving the the UK from NZ almost certainly would.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

As above, get your girl and grandkids back here. Fuck the Kiwi and the rules, what are they gonna do, enforce deportation of the children back to an abusive father?

If he's not been proven to be abusive, yes.

 

[crublue1]

Like most people I can only guess, but I found this.

General takeaways:
- you can file a divorce in a country if you have a connection to it and/or you usually reside there.
- taking a child across borders in contravention of any custody agreement is illegal and countries are obligated to return them to their country of usual residence.

Based on this, I'd suggest that simply running to the UK with the kids would be a bad idea, although understandable if she genuinely fears for her safety. But getting a divorce in NZ and doing everything by the book would be the better option. She's obviously going to get custody based on what you've said, but running off to the UK with their children is likely to shift things against her in the inevitable legal battle that follows. It would be hard to argue that the kids are 'habitually resident' in the UK.

I'm not sure, once you have divorced, how easy it is to return to the UK with the kids, assuming that the father still has access rights though. As I understand it, you would have to apply for permission to do so, and the court would take into account whether it would harm the other parent's access, which moving the the UK from NZ almost certainly would.

If there's no custody agreement, she can come home with the kids on "holiday" and file for divorce from here?

 

[1961_vintage]

Invite them all to yours for Christmas.

Send him back on his own.

To get his broken legs fixed-up.

 

[crublue1]

If he's not been proven to be abusive, yes.

He can't cope with them for a day or two.
Seems unlikely he'd pursue them halfway across the planet.

 

[Bill Walker]

He can't cope with them for a day or two.
Seems unlikely he'd pursue them halfway across the planet.

He might do if he thought he might never see them again.
If he's the violent type....Maybe get UK passports for the kids and come here on holiday but don't go back, after a year or two file for divorce.

Must be painful for you this Fred..

 

[Dirty Harry]

Our daughter lives in New Zealand but still a Brit. She married a Kiwi and has two young children (3 and 5). He has been a bit of a tw@ since the pandemic and has been violent towards her and the children - not blackmeyebstuff but pushing them around and low level stuff: so much so she threw him out several months ago. He has the children one day a week but cannot cope with them for any longer. He was getting aggressive because he is psychotic (soft drug misuse as a teenager and young adult).

She would like to return here to live and thinks he will try to stop her. I am thinking - get a divorce and f..k him and come home. I believe the laws in NZ are pretty similar to ours (unless someone knows differently); what would happen here if a NZ National wanted to return home with the kids?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. It is looking like a trip to a solicitor when we are over there next month.

Go to the ‘Citizens advice bureau’ mate, or, if you can afford it, a solicitors who have a specialist Family Law section.