AboutAndreas Moser Expertise International family law with connections to Germany. Separation, divorce, alimony, child support, custody, visitation, adoption, international child abduction, military divorces, etc. Representing clients all over Germany.
Experience After getting my 2 German law degress, I interned with the US Army JAG Corps for half a year, supporting US soldiers in Germany and helping them with their family law questions.
Since 2002, I have my own law firm (www.moser-law.com) specializing on international family law. Extensive experience in German-American and German-British cases, including hundreds of military divorces. Bar-certified Specialist for Family Law.
Organizations German-American Lawyers Association, German-Israeli-Lawyers Association, and others
Publications A list of published court decisions of my cases is available on http://moser-law.com/anwaelte-e.htm
Education/Credentials My CV is available on www.moser-law.com/anwaelte-e.htm
Expert: Andreas Moser Date: 7/8/2008 Subject: Child Support - Spouse returning to Germany
Question Hello Andreas, I have a question with regards to German child support. A bit of background first:
I am English and my former wife is German. We married in Germany in 1992 whilst I was serving in Germany. We have 2 children, Kimberly who is 16 & Kayleigh who is 14. Both children were born in Germany with German birth certificates although they were both educated in English schools. Kimberly was born prior to our marriage and as far as I am aware I completed the necessary paperwork to adopt her as my natural daughter. My apologies if this is a bit vague but it was a long time ago. I also remember signing some paperwork stating that I was responsible for Kimberly till she was 18 and if we split before this time I had to pay a monthly sum (DM's) as the currency was then.
In 1998 we moved back to England and settled here after I left the army in 2000. Both of my children hold British passports.
A year and a half ago my wife and I split up and have subsequently divorced. Throughout this time I have remained in contact with my children (living a couple of streets away) and have paid maintenance as prescribed by the Child Support Agency.
It wasn't until the divorce was final that my wife informed me that she is moving back to Germany at the end of July and taking the children with her. I suspect the timing is relevant as I didn't contest custody expecting the kids to be living round the corner.
My wife is now asking me to agree to an informal arrangement for child support when she goes to Germany although she is also asking for details for the German CSA such as address details etc.
I think at this point I should say that I have no issue with paying for my children, I never have. I am merely inquiring as to my rights with regards to access etc. I am also concerned that while I am paying an agreed sum informally to my wife, she will also be seeking redress through the German benefits system.
Any advice you can give me with regards to my rights in this situation would be gratefully accepted.
Answer Hello Leigh,
it sounds as if your ex-wife had sole custody of the children when she moved to Germany? Because otherwise, it would constitute an international child abduction and you could request that Kayleigh be returned to the UK (Kimberly is already too old because the Hague Convention only applies until children turn 16).
Your visitation rights should be pretty generous, given that you have always had contact with the children. You should be able to visit them at least every 2 or 3 weeks. But as they are already old enough and have lived in England before, some of the visitation should also take place in England. They are old enough to fly there alone, at least after the first couple of flights.
Between these times, you would have the right to telephonic, e-mail or video chat contact of course.
German law provides no clear guidelines for the amount of visitation, so it all depends on the specifics in each case. It's therefore hard to give you a general answer.
Regarding the child support, if you have an agreement with your ex-wife, there is really no place for the German authorities to step in (unless she is on welfare, because then the German authorities would try to recover some welfare from you). You can NOT be forced to pay twice and should therefore keep a clear record of the payments that you make to your ex-wife. But as long as the payments are documented, I would not have any tactical or strategic objections against you paying her directly.
I hope that helped a bit,
Andreas Moser
Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für Familienrecht
(Attorney at Law and Family Law Specialist)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gustav-von-Schlör-St 10, 92249 Vilseck, Germany
phone: 49-9662-289981 - fax: 49-9662-701391
cell phone: 49-172-8100726
www.moser-law.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
