As Martin has probably informed you, the most pressing issue in the dispute between Martin and his wife, Olga, is Olga’s removal of the Children from oted Kingdom to Russia without his consent. She’d brought the Children to Russia, left them with her parents and returned to United Kingdom herself.

As background, Olga had in filed an application for sole custody, care and control of the Children with supervised access to Martin. Martin had then filed a cross application for joint custody, care and control of the children with reasonable access to Olga. Olga removed the Children from United Kingdom after this.

To remedy Olga’s removal of the Children, we filed an application for urgent return of the Children to United Kingdom, and for their passports to be held by us. The Court granted this application and ordered that Olga bring the Children back to United Kingdom.

Then Olga went to the United Kingdom court on her own and filed a notice of intention to act in person without informing her solicitors of this. At the same time, she tendered a handwritten letter to court withdrawing her application for custody, care and control of the children in UK, stating that she believes Russia is the more appropriate forum to adjudicate these issues. She also wrote that she has filed divorce proceedings in Russia.

The UK court responded by fixing a case conference for Olga and parties’ lawyers to attend. Olga failed to turn up.
We pushed for the hearing for the custody applications to stand. The court directed the same.

At the new hearing Olga again did not turn up. We submitted that the Court has the power and should hear the application even in Olga’s absence. The Court heard the matter on merits and granted an order in terms of our application.

Olga has to date not complied with the return order and Martin understands that she has left to Russia to be with the Children and is hesitant to return to United Kingdom for fear of sanctions for her breach of the return order.

We believe the necessary substantive orders have been obtained from the United Kingdom Courts. What is necessary now is for these orders to be recognized and enforced in Russia. Could you please let us have your advice on what needs to be done and how we can assist in the Russian Process?

Please feel free to let us know if you require more information or clarification. We look forward to working with you.

Will my Russian divorce be recognized in the United States?

Dear Karina

As you know, we have an order by the Family Court that I have joint custody of the child with care and control to him. This means that the Court has ordered that the child will be cared for by me and to reside with me. The Family Court also ordered that the child will be returned to me.

Are there any legal measures under the civil or family law in Russia that may afford me similar orders in Russia? Can such orders similar or the same orders be made In Russia under the divorce regime?

I note also that you may be considering a criminal action in Russia against my wife. A criminal action here is not possible as the child is out of country and her act in taking the child away surreptitiously may not attract criminal sanctions here as it is likely that the authorities will see the same as a “domestic issue” to be issued by divorce proceedings or guardianship proceedings.

Will be grateful for your thoughts and comments.

Hi how are you I am looking assistance I was married to a Russian citizen she had a visa for USA and took off back to Russia with another man she refuses to show me photos or advise me of Child's welfare I am deeply concerned for her mental state as I don't believe she is of sound mind where can I start with legal proceeding in getting courts to give me access to my daughter, kind regards.

Good morning Karina, I have found your email address from site regarding child support in Russian Federation.

My story is as follows and I would appreciate any legal advice possible.
I am U.S. citizen and met Russian woman in 2015. I moved to St. Petersburg to spend time and get to know her, I rented an apartment where we lived for almost one year.

I paid everything there, provided home, food, and even gave her money in sizeable amounts just out of the goodness of my heart. I asked her to look for a job as she told me the opportunities for her were better in the city we moved compared to city she lived. She made no such efforts.

Trouble began, she was upset for trivial reasons, left three times when things became stressful for her. She moved back to her mothers house.

Trouble again came in the form of a child. This child is not yet born.
We are not married and her name is not on apartment lease agreement.
Also, she claims this child is mine, however it is only what she has told me, no tests have been conducted. I work in different country than Russian Federation and go back and forth on regular basis four times a year, return when I have vacation to spend with her.

We have irreconcilable differences that cannot be resolved amicably.
I feel moral obligation to help with child support however I am not convinced that this child is really mine, after all, I am not always with her, I am at work 6 weeks and at home 6 weeks.

She has requested that we get married. She also has put my name in birth registration without asking and without my consent.

As I mentioned before, we are not married, and she has poisoned her family against me and I feel my personal safety is in jeopardy. I plan to move out of Russia as soon as possible to avoid any confrontations that could possibly become life threatening and possibly land me in jail.

That would jeopardize my job, my lively-hood and including child support.
What solutions can you present?

I cannot prove this child is really mine as I mentioned, as this child is not born yet.

What should I do?

I feel hopeless as this very stressful situation has spiraled out of control and there is seemingly no solutions.

Thank you for your advice and request alternative solutions legally.

Thank you very much Karina and have a wonderful day.

I will try to give you as much information as possible should some of the details be of use. My Russian wife and I have been married for 2 years. She arrived on a K-1 visa and currently has a Green Card. We got married and have a beautiful 6 month old daughter. I am employed full time and she stays home to take care of our daughter. Her English is not very good and she does not know how to drive. She has always exhibited very angry and explosive behavior, but it has gotten much worse recently. I am trying to get her to go to a counselor with me, but she is reluctant to seek help. Given her anger and instability, I am afraid that I might have to try to take my daughter from her and I would like to understand the following:

1. What are Russian and American laws concerning custody of young children? Is it ever possible for the father to get custody of a daughter in a situation like this? Aside from two occasions where I drank too much and blacked out (one was our wedding night), she has no evidence that I am an unfit father.

2. I have video, audio, and text messages (collected over the course of more than 1 year) showing that my wife is unstable and, at times, incapable of taking care of our daughter. Could this ever be admitted as evidence in a custody hearing? The files are in Russian and/or English and would have to be translated – is this something that you or your office could do? If so, how much would this cost?

3. If my wife takes my daughter back to Russia, do I have any legitimate guarantees that I will be able to see her? If my wife tries to prevent me from seeing my daughter, is there a way through Russian courts for me to be able to see her?

4. What happens to her immigration status if we file for a divorce? I assume that she would be able to travel back to the US, but she would have to apply for a visa every time – is that correct?

5. What financial obligations do I have if my wife returns to Russia with our daughter? What if she returns by herself? We do not own property and I am not wealthy.

6. What would you estimate the cost of pursuing a divorce in these circumstances? What is the expected time-frame to complete everything?

7. Based on your experience with others and the information contained herein, are there any other circumstances of which I should be aware?

Please let me know if you have any questions or need any clarifications.

Hello Karina –

Thank you very much for your recent response and consultation. I'm hoping that as a part of this consultation, you wouldn't mind clarifying a couple of points from your response that left me wondering. I hope you a couple of questions regarding your consultation will be ok for you.

The first point is as follows: In your consultation, you suggest obtaining a visa other than a K-3 or medical visa for my fiancée’s child. Can you clarify this, by suggesting what kind of visa would be best for our situation. Really, a couple of different suggestions would be ideal.

Along with this, if we seek a different visa for my fiancée’s child, then on what basis would we ask for the Ukrainian court’s permission to take the child out of Ukraine?

These really are the two most helpful pieces of information you can give us as a part of our consultation.

My husband and I have been married for nearly 20 years. We were married in the US.
We have two children. Both are now university students. Therefore, there are no custody issues to consider.

I learned recently that my husband has had affairs with multiple women over the past 6 years. This happened earlier in our marriage, when my children were very young. However, we worked through the issues then and stayed together. Now that it has happened again, I can no longer stay in this marriage, as it is beyond salvaging.

In terms of assets, there is an apartment that we live in in Moscow that my husband is registered as owning, a house that we are listed as jointly owning in Florida, and a house that my husband is listed as owning in France. (I am not sure how property law works in Russia and France, and I have no idea if I am entitled to make any claim to these properties as my husband's spouse). There are also individual bank accounts that we have in the US, UK and Russia.

Regarding our citizenships: We actually both have 3 passports: Russian, UK and US.

My main objectives for the outcome of the divorce are as follows:

1. I would like for it to be over quickly.

2. I am really only interested in getting what I put into the marriage financially. This would involve a cash settlement and full ownership of our property in Florida, since I will probably go back there to live in the near future. I can provide further details on my rationale for this type of settlement if you would like.

Questions that I would like to get answered from you as a result of your initial consultation:

1. In what country/ jurisdiction would it be best for me to file for a divorce?

2. Based on your answer to #2- approximately how long would it take for the divorce to be granted?

Please let me know what further questions you may have. I look forward to your reply.

Hello, Karina,

I came across the link below in attempting a Google search for my current situation. The link below describes my situation almost exactly.

I have a fiancee who resides in Crimea and her divorced was finalized in October or November of last year. As the possession of this territory is in turmoil, her marriage and the birth of her child occurred when it was considered Ukraine territory, but the divorce was finalized in the Russian courts.

Her divorce decree states that the child lives with the mother, but does not explicitly state that anyone is granted custody...at least according to the English translation that I have. The father is required to pay support, so I believe it can be assumed that she is granted custody.

I have filed the I-129F Application for Fiancee Visa with U.S. immigration and we are awaiting completion of that, which we expect within a month or two.

We expect opposition from the child's father and we understand that according to Ukraine law, he has that right, though I believe that according to the link below, we could qualify for the exception and I can provide evidence that I am able to support them better here than they are able to in Crimea.

In addition, we are unsure which laws will apply, because we are unsure which embassy she will be told to report to. She will most likely be assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, but there is a possibility that she will be assigned to Moscow.

I guess I would like to begin a dialogue with you to determine if the details of my situation warrant action and if your office can assist us. If so, I would like to discuss fees for possible services.

Thank you for any insight you can provide.

I need to get an official Certificate of Divorce from Russia. It's typically on green paper and would have a number on it. According to ZAGS, the document I have is not sufficient even though it is stamped, etc.

Do you know anything about this?