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Good morning.I have a very difficult situation regarding my step daughter who is in an extremely unhappy and unsustainable relationship. She lives in Belgium with her partner and their young child (2 years of age), but she holds a Latvian passport. She has no desire to remain living in Belgium (she previosuly lived in France). My question is whether she would require the services of a Belgium Lawyer or are there special 'European Lawyers' who would be more appropriate in such cases. If so, how do we go about finding one?I look forward to your reply.Kind regards,Neil Adams
Already Tried: Nothing has been tried so far. The relationship has completely broken down and there is no chance of salvaging it. We are at the beginning of this process.
HiThanks for your question and detail you have provided. For clarity and the avoidance of doubt, could you please respond to the following USING THE SAME NUMBERING:-1. What, ideally, would your daughter wish to happen?Kind regards.Tom
Ideally she would wish to gain custody of her child and probably relocate to another country. Previously she lived in southern France and was much more settled there. However, I doubt that this is an option as the Father obviously has rights and no one would wish to deny him the chance to see his child. As a Belgian national in Belgium it appears that he probably has the upper hand in terms of what realistically is going to happen.
Hi NeilThanks for your reply. There is no such thing as a “European Lawyer”, because each country is subject to it’s own particular rules as regards XXXXX XXXXX She should quietly see a Belguim Lawyer and ask whether or not she can leave the country on her own with the child. I would expect that she would be able it if absolutely necessary without producing a form of consent to the customes officials but she should really check on this first as a last resort measure. She then needs to consult the Belguim solicitor about the length of time it would take to resolve the matter of residence of the child through the Belguim courts. Each country has it’s particularities, here in the UK it can take a very, very long time. After having regard to what the Belgium lawyer has advised her of (ie. chances of success in claiming residence, length of time etc) then she will have to take a view on what to do next. In answer to your initial question as phrased – she needs a Belguim lawyer. She can contact the French/german speaking Belguim Bar Assocaition, the “ Ordre des barreaux francophones et germanophones “ via their website to get details for solicitors near here:- http://www.avocat.be/index,fr.htmlIf you wish for me to provide you with further guidance on any question you may have in the future then please submit a further question to the board requesting me either by my profile or by marking your question. “FAO Tom”. Kind regards,Tom
Experience: UK based Immigration Solicitor