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Asked over 2 years ago - Santa Clara, CA
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Our situation is unique. My husband, myself and our two kids are all US citizens but living in India for the past 6 years. My husband has been threatening to file divorce in US court. He will move back to US, live there for 6 months or whatever time it takes to establish residency and then file for divorce. My questions are:
1) In this situation, will US courts order me to move back to US, be a resident and then go through all legal proceedings?
2) If 1) is true, who will pay for my maintenance in US. I am currently working in India.
3) I understand that if the divorce goes through and their is joint custody, I will have to live within a certain distance of my husband for custody issues about our kids. How long will this be valid? Until the kids are 16 yrs or 18 yrs?
If your husband meets the residency requirements, he can file for divorce here. No, the court cannot make you come back here to go through legal proceedings. He will need to get you properly served in India where you live but you do not have to step foot in the United States if you do not want to.
If the kids stay in India, California will refuse to exercise jurisdiction over questions of their custody or support. Your husband cannot drag them back to the United States in order to get an order regarding who had custody and visitation, etc. Do not bring the children here voluntarily unless you want to risk submitting to California’s jurisdiction over the kids.
Most interestingly, you can ask the court to order support for you if your husband comes into a California court asking for a divorce. It would seem like a foolish thing for him to do unless he really wants a divorce and can’t get one in India. A California attorney can help you with this, if and when he actually files. Responding from India may be a bit tricky, but not impossible. An Indian attorney can help you with establishing a custody order regarding the kids there. But I know less than nothing about Indian law so that’s all I’ll say on the subject.
Best of luck to you.
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This response is intended to be a general statement of law, should not be relied upon as legal advice, does not create an attorney/client relationship and does not create a right to continuing email exchanges.
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