WA International separation/child dispute

[RaqueAL]

Hi guys I'm seeking advise on behalf of my brother. He has been married to his wife for 2 years and they have two girls between them (2 year old and 1 year old). His wife is an American citizen but came to Australia on a spousal sponsorship visa. This July she decided to go visit her family in California with the kids and planned to stay there for a couple of weeks for her sister's wedding. About a week or so after arriving to America, she sent messages to my brother informing him that she does not want to go back to Australia and threatened him if he tries to get in contact or ask for the kids she will cause trouble. She also demanded money and child support and also that he pays for the American passport application for the youngest daughter. She formally asked for complete separation and stated she wanted divorce. She has denied him access and communication with his girls ever since. My brother tried to speak to them through her family members but he has only received 2 videos of them from her mother. All attempts of reconciliation have failed and when my parents tried interfering, she gets completely defensive and is going around talking s**t about my brother. Despite her spiteful behaviour and narcissistic nature, my brother had decided he would fly out to America in December to try and sort things out face to face and also see the girls as he missed them dearly. Last week she unblocked him and starting threatening him because she heard the news of him wanting to come see them and completely demeaned my brother and started saying absolutely obnoxious things about the family and my brother. After several hours of arguing, my brother decided he will stop trying to make things better with her and decided against the trip to America and wants to officially seperate. They never had the best relationship and always fought but when she left Aus they were on good terms. He is happy to go ahead with the divorce as he is sick and tired of her behaviour and constantly causing problems with the family and such.

The main issue now is how he can apply to have access to the kids. What is his best option? We're aware that there is a retrieval order, is that something suitable for him? He is almost certain she will refuse any negotiating about arrangements for the kids and visitations or a parenting plan. There's a lot more I can explain about her as to why he thinks that, so many issues have happened in the past were she demonstrated her difficult personality traits. Any recommendations about his case are very appreciated. He will be going to LegalAid next week but in the meantime we just want to anticipate and prepare for the future.

 

[sammy01]

Sorry to hear.
ok, so he can apply for a recovery order. Chance of succeeding? I am not prepared to guess. But not good.
Is he prepared to move to USA?

Given the age of the kids, I think he needs to be patient. Even if the kids were in Australia, with the youngest being 1 I would not think he would get much time with the kids.

My advice is to be patient and hope that she mellows.
Child support is a whole other problem. I have no idea how that works in USA but technically she could seek child support through Australia's system. Lets hope she doesn't know that...

 

[RaqueAL]

Sorry to hear.
ok, so he can apply for a recovery order. Chance of succeeding? I am not prepared to guess. But not good.
Is he prepared to move to USA?

Given the age of the kids, I think he needs to be patient. Even if the kids were in Australia, with the youngest being 1 I would not think he would get much time with the kids.

My advice is to be patient and hope that she mellows.
Child support is a whole other problem. I have no idea how that works in USA but technically she could seek child support through Australia's system. Lets hope she doesn't know that...

Thank you! It really is complicated like you said due to the kids age. So unfortunate but he has to deal with it it’s for the best they were both unhappy in the marriage. He doesn’t want the kids to leave the mum obviously in fact he strongly believes they need to spend these years closest to their mum but he still want to be able to maintain a relationship with them and stay in touch long distance. Her revenge plan is to completely cut him off and deprive him of any sort of communication with his girls. What adds to the problems is the long distance between them so if he want to see them he will have to keep travelling every time he could. And hopefully when the girls are the appropriate age they can start visiting and living with him here in Aus. At least that’s what we’re hoping for.
He can’t move to the USA he’s a chemical engineer with a stable well paying job here, he’s got a house (rental) which they lived in, and a car and is very well established here. The wife had everything going for her and was absolutely spoiled with constant trips, income from him since she didn’t work and also support from Centrelink. The 2 year old was enrolled in a toddlers gym/activity program here and they were very looked after health and lifestyle wise.

 

[GlassHalfFull]

Sorry to hear.
ok, so he can apply for a recovery order. Chance of succeeding? I am not prepared to guess. But not good.

I wouldn't be able to guess either, but I imagine there'd be a strong argument that the children had a life here in Australia and that given both parents have a right to a relationship with the children, the mother is depriving them of it if he is unable to move to the US (which sounds likely as most Australians cannot simply move to the US). I would certainly speak to a lawyer and attempt to have the children returned. But the question is, if the wife cannot move back to Australia (given the relationship has broken down and her residency relies on the relationship being valid), does your brother want to deprive the children of their mother?

 

[RaqueAL]

I wouldn't be able to guess either, but I imagine there'd be a strong argument that the children had a life here in Australia and that given both parents have a right to a relationship with the children, the mother is depriving them of it if he is unable to move to the US (which sounds likely as most Australians cannot simply move to the US). I would certainly speak to a lawyer and attempt to have the children returned. But the question is, if the wife cannot move back to Australia (given the relationship has broken down and her residency relies on the relationship being valid), does your brother want to deprive the children of their mother?

Not at all!!! This is not his intention and he never wants to do that to the kids. He simply wants to maintain a good relationship with them as close as he can. She chose to move back to the US despite being able to establish herself and build a great life for her and the kids even without my brother. She’s making it really hard by cutting him off and being so bitter about the breakdown of the marriage. If he can talk to them via phone/video often, that would mean the world to him. But he doesn’t even have that. And her family are not helping either. He can’t go see them anytime soon due to work commitments but he definitely will ASAP. This is still not ideal because we want something like a plan to ensure even we as his family get to have communication with the girls. They were extremely close to us here in Aus and my parents were a huge part of the girls lives. It’s honestly taken a tremendous emotional toll on all of us. His wife will never come back to Australia (according to her) so it’s highly unlikely they will come back without an order or before they grow up. It’s a long road ahead of us I hope the next few years pass by for my brother’s sake.