Parent's rights

[vickat]

Hello-

I plan on bringing my daughter to Santo Domingo this fall to visit her father. Both she and I are American citizens, but he is a citizen in DR. Is there any chance he could legally detain her there, even if she is an American citizen? They both share the same last name, and my last name is different.

any info on this subject would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Mirador]

are you divorced? do you have custody? how old is your daughter? why would he challenge you? etc etc

[Oche]

Dr. Fabio Guzman should correct me if i'm wrong but i believe that if your daughter was not born in the DR (and has never been declared in a Civil State office in the DR), then there should be no problem in short term. If yes (meaning she was born and declared in the DR)and the father would want to detain your daughter, he would need a civil sentence appointing custody of the minor/child, therefore it would require a special civil process, and he would have to have a lawyer justify by every relevant means his petition of the child/minor custody, having you off course as well your opportunity to deny/contradict through the same court and through same process his claims/petitions. That is something that cannot be donde arbitrarily.

[Fabio J. Guzman]

Oche is right. Assuming you have custody of the child, you shouln't have any problems.

[vickat]

great - thanks! Someone told me that it was a possibility - it didn't sound right to me, so I wanted to make sure before I went (just in case!).