A friend needs help

[happywifeymom 4]

Hello fellow vj members,

I have a friend who came here on a K1 visa and the marriage didnt work. To make the story short,,she came back home to the Phils. 5 months pregnant with the hubby's child and she's been in the Phils . for more than a year now so there is no way for her to remove her condition since she was out of the US for more than a year.

Her questions are:

1. Is there any way she can ask for the baby's child support(9 mos. old) from her husband even if she is in the Phils.?

2.What does she have to do to get the child support and who she gets the help from? She don-t have any money nor job in Phils. and the husband completely did not care about her and their baby.

3. She cant afford to hire a lawyer and the baby did not have the CRBA since hubby won't help her with the papers and the finances?

Please i reall y need your help for my friend who was not lucky with her married life.Thanks so much in advance.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

moved from off topic to Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits

this is a more appropriate forum for your topic.

[RDDIXON 0]

If she is got of the country, out of money, out of a job, the only hope she has is to find a non profit of some type for help which would be very difficult.

If he is in the military, it would be a lot easier for her. If he is a civilian, I'm thinking it is next to impossible for her to get child support. It isn't easy for US citizens to get child support unless they really fight for it and even then, if he isn't the responsible type, he will most likely not pay. It is easy to get child support from men who have good stable jobs, because their wages can be garnished if necessary, but men who move from job to job, it is usually a waste of time to try to get child support. They would rather go to jail than to pay.

[Old Dominion 26]

It's a stretch, but in the process of getting a divorce, the question of spousal and child support should be put before the court. Until divorced, he is unable to get on with his own life.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

It's a stretch, but in the process of getting a divorce, the question of spousal and child support should be put before the court. Until divorced, he is unable to get on with his own life.

If he files for divorce in the US then it's unlikely he'll even mention the child, and she's not in the US to respond, so the court will find in absentia, and he'll get the divorce by default. There were be no spousal or child support.

She can't file for divorce in the Philippines. She can only file for annulment. The Philippines is one of the few places in the world that doesn't recognize divorce except under very specific circumstances. She meets some of those requirements, including having married a foreigner, but she would have to get divorced in the US and then petition a Philippine court to recognize the divorce. She can probably get a child support order in a Philippine court, but it won't be enforced in the US. Neither the US government nor any state has a reciprocity of child support enforcement agreement with the Philippines.

I think her only chance is to hire an attorney in the US to represent her in a US court. She'll probably need to seek a court order forcing him to get a DNA test, since it's not likely he's going to admit paternity on his own. Once paternity is established, she should be able to get a support order in a US court. That order WILL be enforced, and he'll have to pay. Also, with the proof of paternity she'll be able to petition to get a certificate of citizenship for the child without the father's cooperation.

[happywifeymom 4]

It's a stretch, but in the process of getting a divorce, the question of spousal and child support should be put before the court. Until divorced, he is unable to get on with his own life.

If he files for divorce in the US then it's unlikely he'll even mention the child, and she's not in the US to respond, so the court will find in absentia, and he'll get the divorce by default. There were be no spousal or child support.

She can't file for divorce in the Philippines. She can only file for annulment. The Philippines is one of the few places in the world that doesn't recognize divorce except under very specific circumstances. She meets some of those requirements, including having married a foreigner, but she would have to get divorced in the US and then petition a Philippine court to recognize the divorce. She can probably get a child support order in a Philippine court, but it won't be enforced in the US. Neither the US government nor any state has a reciprocity of child support enforcement agreement with the Philippines.

I think her only chance is to hire an attorney in the US to represent her in a US court. She'll probably need to seek a court order forcing him to get a DNA test, since it's not likely he's going to admit paternity on his own. Once paternity is established, she should be able to get a support order in a US court. That order WILL be enforced, and he'll have to pay. Also, with the proof of paternity she'll be able to petition to get a certificate of citizenship for the child without the father's cooperation.

Thank you all so much for ur replies.

[rin and john 71]

I think her only chance is to hire an attorney in the US to represent her in a US court. She'll probably need to seek a court order forcing him to get a DNA test, since it's not likely he's going to admit paternity on his own. Once paternity is established, she should be able to get a support order in a US court. That order WILL be enforced, and he'll have to pay. Also, with the proof of paternity she'll be able to petition to get a certificate of citizenship for the child without the father's cooperation.

Really? I would think that in the case of a child born to a married couple that paternity would be assumed by the court unless he could prove otherwise, thus meaning he would have to arrange a DNA test to prove he wasn't the father. She should consult with an attorney in the Philippines with knowledge of family law in the USA.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I think her only chance is to hire an attorney in the US to represent her in a US court. She'll probably need to seek a court order forcing him to get a DNA test, since it's not likely he's going to admit paternity on his own. Once paternity is established, she should be able to get a support order in a US court. That order WILL be enforced, and he'll have to pay. Also, with the proof of paternity she'll be able to petition to get a certificate of citizenship for the child without the father's cooperation.

Really? I would think that in the case of a child born to a married couple that paternity would be assumed by the court unless he could prove otherwise, thus meaning he would have to arrange a DNA test to prove he wasn't the father. She should consult with an attorney in the Philippines with knowledge of family law in the USA.

Yes, you are correct - that's common law. The courts would presume the husband was the father. I was wrong about that.

First, she needs to get an attorney into court and file for a dissolution, if her husband hasn't already done that (she's been gone a year), and establish that there IS a child. If the court doesn't know the child exists, then there's nothing to presume paternity of.