Obtaining Russian Citizenship for a child of a Russian woman once divorce final.

[Markje]

To get the child Russia citizenship, BOTH parents have to attend the consulate, the Russian citizen makes the application on behalf of the child, and the foreign citizen have to sign to his/her agreement to the application.

When we did this, my participation was vague and not really required. It wasn't essential I was there, she just had to "get it signed" IIRC. From what I made out, if a Russian citizen applies for citizenship for their kid, it'll happen with or without the *actual* involvement of the other parent if foreign. Different consulates may vary of course.

In the Netherlands, I was actually denied entry to the RU-embassy for this (only people with an appointment allowed).

We did manage to make the guard feel the consequenses of his actions though....

The next time, I could enter the embassy, no problem.

[Pushkinlov]

The mother has not seen the kids in months.  Divorce will be completed in three months.  All recommendations from doctors and officials are that I retain the legal and physical custody.  Mother has not addressed mental illness and recommendations from the Court, and didn't even show up in the last Court hearing.  So I know mother has rights to monitored visits but has not exercised those rights.  She even threatened to harm the children and I have hard evidence about it; the Court also has it.  I am in Southern California.  I will request the Court a move away decision (leave to other country).  If my children were not in the children services system I would stay, but now they became coveted for profit by a variety of people who are involved in the children services system.  I actually was warned by a Russian Speaking staff within the system that they these people wanted the children, but I maneuver to recovered them.

I know that in Russia they couldn't care less about the US law.  The only way I would take them to Russia is if I have guarantees in writing from the Russian government that I will have the sole legal and physical custody of the children.  I will have all documentation to prove her mental conditions.  I think she has a history of hospitalizations  in Russia too.  I know that in the forum many people read a variety of circumstances involving children and I wanted to get some hints and orientation.  I learned some elements to consider already such as bringing grand mother to the picture and ask her to testify about the mother's condition.  She is already old and ill, and she was also victim of the mother's rage.  So I want to give it a try and approach the embassy.  If it does not work then the children will be with me in another country, safe and sound.  I just want the children to grow in a healthy and safe environment, with good education.  Russia offers that (I have been there quite a few times and spend time also).  However, other countries are ok as well.

[Fashionista]

AvHdB, I have enough means to support them.  I want to buy a flat in Russia, Moscow or Peter, but I am looking also at other cities with safety ratings such as Krasnodar or Sochi.  The cost of living in Russia is less than in the US.

Moscow and Peter aren't the only places to live in Russia, and to some (including myself) not the best. You could try other places. For example small towns in Novosibirsk oblast come to mind. Akademgorodok is a highly educated place with many people who travel and speak English. A bit more expensive than the places around it but certainly not as expensive as Moscow.

How resilient are you to long harsh winters? Do you like skiing? 

[BillyB]

So I know mother has rights to monitored visits but has not exercised those rights.  She even threatened to harm the children and I have hard evidence about it; the Court also has it.

Court recognizes your wife having a mental illness yet they still granted her monitored visitation rights. She has rights to the children and you can't take the kids very far unless you get her permission. Unless you can get the court to remove all her rights with new damaging evidence, I doubt you will be legally moving the kids to Russia.

If my children were not in the children services system I would stay, but now they became coveted for profit by a variety of people who are involved in the children services system.  I actually was warned by a Russian Speaking staff within the system that they these people wanted the children, but I maneuver to recovered them.

For profit people wants your kids? That is not going to happen unless they can prove both parents are harmful to the kids. Is someone making a claim against you?

  The only way I would take them to Russia is if I have guarantees in writing from the Russian government that I will have the sole legal and physical custody of the children. 

No government is going to guarantee you get to keep your kids forever. They don't know if you're going to be a good parent forever. They will reserve the right to take away your rights. What you can try to do is take away your wife's rights to the kids in America first and then go to court in Russia and get them to strip the wife's rights to the kids too.

[Pushkinlov]

Thank you Fashionista, yes I have explored Novosibirsk and also Tomsk and also Tyumen which is the city with the highest standards of living in Russia.  I have been staying in Russia when it is under 30 degrees celsius.  That's extreme.  Siberia can easily get under 40 and more.  The question is if the children can get used to that, and that's why I was looking at Krasnodar and Sochi which are safer places than the average town in Russia.

BillyB, thank you, you have sharp comments and you seems to be familiar with legal matters regarding children.  You hit the nail in the head.  The mother should not have any rights with respect to the children for me to legally move the children to Russia without any implications here.  The other side of the equation is the legal rights of the mother in Russia.  If I can establish clearly that she is a threat to the health and safety of the children, I may obtain guarantees to retain the children.  I am not really worry about any perception of me not being a good father, and I still need to be careful.  I will try to obtain a move away decision from the Court.  If that is granted then the door will be open more and more, but still I must move carefully.  If I see significant risks, I will just stay around. 

Regarding the "system" protecting children here, I just don't believe in it based on my experience and other people experiences whose children are in the system. I witnessed their cases.  Money drives the interest of many people who claim they protect children.  I would qualify many actions of these people as "legal trafficking".  But that is another topic of discussion.

These conversations are helping me to focus.  I appreciate that.

[Contrarian]

Andrew, Gypsy, and others have said to get an Attorney, probably the best advice!

Hope everything works out well for you and your kids.

[Pushkinlov]

Thanks for all the comments.

[BillyB]

Get an attorney to convince the court to completely remove your wife's rights to the kids if you want. Getting an attorney to achieve your other goals is a waste of money if your wife has rights and a say where they live.

Keep in mind, it's very difficult to get a court to eliminate a parent's rights to the kids. You or your attorney will need to convince a judge the mother will be a danger to the kids forever.  Removing a parent from children's lives is considered a bad thing to do....unless the parent being in the children's lives is worse. The judge may ask her to see a mental health professional and it could take multiple visits and months before a mental health professional writes a recommendation to the court. What you want is not a concern of the judge. What is best for your kids is the concern. A mental health professional will most likely request to see your wife and kids together and observe how they interact. If the kids show a bond to their mother and the mother shows a bond to her kids, you will lose and she will keep her rights.

[andrewfi]

When I see stuff like this I start to wonder who is the most 'ill'. This is not the first time we have seen similar stories. But here we have a person we know nothing about on the one hand and on the other a person who seems to have paranoid fantasies about his kids being stolen from him and sold, thinks that other people are insane, and who wants to take his kids away from their mother, to a different country - one with which he is largely unfamiliar in order to escape the molestations of predatory homosexuals.

On the balance of probabilities, who would you entrust a child to? A random and completely unknown person, or the person described above in my post and in his own words by the OP of the thread?

[Pushkinlov]

Thanks BillyB.  Actually there are two Court cases open as we speak in the US.  Dependency Case and Divorce Case.  I will just mention some facts here.  This is not to put dirt on the mother because mental illness is unfortunately a condition that defeats rational thinking, logic and even emotional balance. No-one wins when there is mental illness in the family and the picture is not pretty in any mental illness scenario. One of the children does not want to see her mother anymore because of the erratic behavior.  The other child is very much afraid when she is present.  Specialized staff has witness this. Mother has been restricted by the Court to be with children until she addresses mental issues.  Mother has been hospitalized 3 times with mental illness diagnosis each of them. In addition the Court provided Mother with a psychiatrist and other services to address, but mother has not follow through with instructions by the Court. Mother has not made an effort to see the children since the condition for her see them is to follow up with psychiatrist visits and intake of medication; she has not seen the children in the last 9 months, but the case has been open sin December 2017.  The children are with me and both receive counseling and therapy.  The Court case will close in three weeks and final decision will be based on facts.  Family in Russia know this and I keep in touch with them.  I offered my mother in law and step son to come to live with me so they are part of my children growing up.

Divorce Court continues and will be finalized most likely in June/July.

Andrewfi, thanks also for your comments.  I am not really afraid that the kids be stolen here.  My fear is that they would be legally taken for any reason.  Only parents whose children have been taken by children services know this.  I will just mention one thing that summarizes thousands of cases here in California. The Law is perfect, but the agencies responsible for implementing the law don't have resources, are understaffed, and very little actions taken by all people involved respond to the "best interest" of the children.  The end result is that everybody involved looks after their own interest (preserving their 8am to 5pm jobs, profit from the system, etc). Children become objects of financial interest.  These people tried to take the children and the judge actually changed the original instruction because saw the absurdity of recommendations by children services staff and agencies involved in the case.  There is of course a lot of facts that I don't disclose here because they are unpleasant. 

The challenge for me is to be able to move the children away from here, and all your comments, as I mentioned before, are helping me to focus.  I have attorneys here for the US Court Cases.  The next step is to get an attorney for Russia.  I have already two contacts.  One of them is a friend of the family in Russia.  So while I wait for these Court cases to close, I am assessing my next steps and this forum has provided me with some valuable points to consider.  Thank you.

[BillyB]

mother has not follow through with instructions by the Court. Mother has not made an effort to see the children since the condition for her see them is to follow up with psychiatrist visits and intake of medication; she has not seen the children in the last 9 months, but the case has been open sin December 2017.
 

Not following court orders may not be a strong enough reason for a judge to remove a parent from a child's life forever. The judge may allow your wife to retain her rights to see her kids but it will remain supervised visitation until she takes the proper steps to prove she's not crazy or a danger to the kids.

The children are with me and both receive counseling and therapy. 

During divorce proceedings with my first wife of a few years, I asked to retain rights to be a parent to her son from another relationship. He is not my biological son and I didn't adopt him. There is no law on the books that allow me to continue to be his parent after divorce. The court's priority was what is best for the child. We saw a mental health professional in separate meetings over the next few months. The mental health professional said we had a bond and it would be harmful to the child if it was broken. The court granted me the right to be a de facto parent to the child.

During my son's meeting with the mental health professional, my son said he didn't like me and didn't want to be with me. He used some words in ways only an adult would do. The mental health professional knew his mother was coaching him. If you are coaching your kids on what to say, you may be found out and it will be used against you.

Hope you come back and let us know how it turns out in 3 weeks.

[msmoby]

Not following court orders may not be a strong enough reason for a judge to remove a parent from a child's life forever.

Quite..

Family Courts in the west do not work that way..they encourage joint contact.