Child Support From Overseas

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tjr1

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My husband has a 4yr old daughter living in Texas. He has been living in the UK for the past two years after splitting up with his daughters mother. At the time of the daughters birth the mother was still married to another man ('tho they were seperated).

My husband is a UK citizen and lived in Texas for 12 years with his father.

While he was living in Texas he made two years worth of child support payments but when he moved to the UK payments ceased due to his financial difficulties. We send his daughter birthday and Christmas presents and are in regular contact with both the daughter and mother. The mother is now remarried and is supported (as are her three children and one on the way) by her new husband. She doesn't ask us for any child support.

At this moment in time we are still getting back on our feet but when we're eventually in a situation when we can afford to make payments to the daughter we will. We would pay it into a trust fund rather than send the money direct to the mother as we want to ensure the daughter gets this money for herself.

My husband still has family in Texas and we would like to visit them early next year combined with a visit to see his daugher too. He has been told that because he has failed to/stop make payments he is likely to be arrested when we land in the USA. Obviously we want to avoid this but need to know if this is likely to happen.
 
He neds to pay his CS. Financial difficulties are not a defense. If he is not paying CS then it is possible he has a warrant out for his arrest. If he has the money to plan a trip to the US then he has money to pay his CS. The U.K. is part of the Hague Convention so any CS order should be honored in the U.K. If he has a US passport it will be suspended once he reaches 2500.00 in arrears.
 
We know he has to pay his child support and this is not what we are disputing. If we don't have the money right now it can't be paid. I don't know how it works in the US but in the UK if the money is not available for payment then payments get suspended until a time when they can be paid. We ARE going to pay child support just not right now and we will be back dating payments.

As for having the money to plan a trip to the US our plane tickets are a Christmas present from his father so his father can see his grandchild. It is cheaper for him to pay for us to go to Texas than it is for his father to come over here.
 
In the US, certain circumstances do exist for suspension of child support. These are legal measures requested through the court and ordered by a judge. My understanding of what constitutes a qualifying reason is an inability to work (severe accident or illness) or incarceration. In no case can payments be legally suspended by the payer without court action.

How much is he behind? Keep in mind if the state is forced to collect, they'll add collection fees and interest.

Also, 99.9% of child support orders specify the custodial parent as payee. Support isn't a "gift" that the child can spend as they wish, it's meant to support housing, food, medical, clothing and other needs that the custodial parent must pay for. Your idea of a trust isn't likely to be given serious consideration.
 
Thank you. This is the kind of response I was looking for.

We're not sure 100% how much he is behind but obviously plan to to find out. The mother and her new husband are more than capable of supporting the daughter which is why we were looking at a trust fund or savings account. Like I said she has not 'chased' us for child support even 'tho she knows where we are. Obviously things are different in the US than over here so that's another thing we have to look into.

Do you know where we can get this information from? Things like what he owes, if there is a warrent out for him etc. We are not shying away from his responsibility towards his daughter it's just that the US legal system is somewhat new and confusing to us.

Thanks again.
 
tj_r said:
My husband has a 4yr old daughter living in Texas. He has been living in the UK for the past two years after splitting up with his daughters mother. At the time of the daughters birth the mother was still married to another man ('tho they were seperated).

My husband is a UK citizen and lived in Texas for 12 years with his father.

While he was living in Texas he made two years worth of child support payments but when he moved to the UK payments ceased due to his financial difficulties. We send his daughter birthday and Christmas presents and are in regular contact with both the daughter and mother. The mother is now remarried and is supported (as are her three children and one on the way) by her new husband. She doesn't ask us for any child support.

At this moment in time we are still getting back on our feet but when we're eventually in a situation when we can afford to make payments to the daughter we will. We would pay it into a trust fund rather than send the money direct to the mother as we want to ensure the daughter gets this money for herself.

My husband still has family in Texas and we would like to visit them early next year combined with a visit to see his daugher too. He has been told that because he has failed to/stop make payments he is likely to be arrested when we land in the USA. Obviously we want to avoid this but need to know if this is likely to happen.
Click to expand...

I'm confused by this entire post.

First, the ex's husband was the presumed father of the child. Did your husband participate in paternity establishment proceedings?

Next, OP says that the mother has not asked for any child support, but OP's husband has been told that he will be arrested when he gets to the US. That means that the mother has pursued contempt charges in court, or the Attorney General or Child Support Enforcement Agency is involved. Either way, as Duranie pointed out, the Hague Convention allows either the AG or the CSE to enforce the order in the UK. It's hard to believe OP's husband has heard nothing about it in 2 years.

Finally, if the AG or CSE are involved, payments would not be made directly to the mother, but would go through the agency.

I think OP's husband needs to post his own questions. Though the US legal system may be new to OP, it shouldn't be to her husband. Apparently, he participated in the legal system 4 years ago, so he should have some understanding of how it works, as well as his rights and responsibilities within the system.
 
He wasn't the presumed father he IS the father of her.

He paid two years of child support but when he moved over here he stopped paying and has not heard anything since being here. The mother is happy not to chase up payments as her new husband is supporting the family but he wants to do the right thing. He hasn't been told he would be arrested, I'm querying whether he would be arrested as he has failed to make payments for 2 years.
 
1. To whom was he paying support those two years? Mom, the state or some other entity?
2. Originally, how was support established? By legal court order or via a verbal agreement with mom or some other way?

If was paying the monthly amount of support he owed for two years, he can multiply the monthly amount by the number of months he has missed to arrive at the base amount of the arrearage. What is that amount?

IF

1. He owed the support via a verbal agreement with mom and mom never involved the state to help her collect,

OR

2. He owed the support via a support order filed with the state and was paying mom directly and she never reported missed payments to the state

THEN

The state doesn't know he's behind and therefore wouldn't have initiated punishment for the arrearage. However, at any time mom COULD report missed payments and it would be his obligation to prove he had paid (via cashed check, typically) and she could ask the state's assistance to help her collect at which point they would (presumably) begin to do so in a vigorous manner.
 
tj_r said:
He wasn't the presumed father he IS the father of her.
Click to expand...

I said that the mother's ex-husband is the presumed father, not your husband. Since the child was born during the marriage, the ex-husband is the legal father unless the concerned parties participated in paternity establishment through court.
 
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