Chica meets US Citizen in Mexico.
They fall in love and live together.
He brings her across the border illegally.
They get married in the US.
They got her a visa using her maiden name.
They return to Mexico and have children.
The marriage doesn't work out.
They separate and she takes the kids with her.
Now he wants the kids.
What are her options?

Her options would be clearer if you provide a little more info.

Is she living in the U.S. or Mexico?
You imply that the kids were born in Mexico. Did they later live in the U.S.?
Is she curently allowing him to see the children?
Has anyone filed for divorce?

Reytj

She is living in Mexico.
The children have never lived in the US.
I don't know whether she lets him see his kids.
No divorce filed for on either side yet.

That is the option that seems logical for her but I don't have a clue as to how it works for a mexican national to divorce a US citizen.

Does she still get child support if she remains in Mexico?

What about custody if she remains in Mexico?

He does not have to sign the citizenship papers for the kids unless he wants to bring them into the US, as far as I could tell.

It is amazing how citizenship is used as a bartering tool in chica relationships.

I am confused now. I heard from one of our own esteemed experts on this subject and he said the guy won't have to pay child support because she doesn't live in the US. And she is not entitled to half of his estate because she cannot file for divorce in the US unless she is a citizen first.

I always thought the fertile guys had to worry about getting their novias pregnant from a financial perspective......but I guess I was wrong.

"she cannot file for divorce in the US unless she is a citizen first."

This is absolutely incorrect. Perhaps you misunderstood the 'expert' but if not we now know why he doesn't want to participate publicly in this thread.

Tell your friend to contact La Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores ie SRE. If her case qualifies they will file for child support on her behalf.

Reytj

Thanks Reytj, you are a gentleman and a scholar........well, I am not really qualified to say that so it may, or may not, be true. But one thing that is true is you are always dependable for current info.

I wasn't very content with the response I received from the "expert" as he seemed more worried about making money than answering the question which is why I continued the thread.

I wouldn't mind if there was a good reason, but in this case, I am not a potential client in any way, shape, or form.

My guess is that he is not well versed in Mexican law and/or did not want to expose his limitations.

So what about the spouse settlement in over the border divorce cases? Is it true that you only have to split up your estate if she is a US citizen? If so, then the ultimate prenuptial agreement would be to not allow her to become a US citizen after you get married.

I have always wondered how civil lawsuits work when the two parties are on opposite sides of the international border. Is there even such a thing?

Not a U.S. Citizen, I never said that....resident(legal or illegal). I never said she has to be a U.S. Citizen, she must be residing in the U.S. in some way. Bureau of Child Support Services will not take a self case from a woman who does not live in the U.S. or is currently only living in Mexico. The exception is if she received welfare at one time in the U.S. Sure, she could file but a motion to quash will be granted if the father contests it and the case will be dismissed. Seen it, several times. I am not an expert in Mexican law, you were asking about American law suits. I am not a Mexican lawyer or claim to know very much about it. As soon as she gets here with the child...the guy is fair game for child support. As for filing for divorce, she can file if the guy is living in the U.S., even though she is not but only for status divorce only. She can only dispute the disposition of property if she was once a resident in the U.S. and had a community interest in the asset during their marriage. As you can see, there are a million examples and each case is different depending on: where the child resides, the mother resides, the father resides, where the property is, etc. etc. I also never said she had to be a U.S. Citizen to file, only have personal jurisdiction over him. You asked 50 questions of free advice and now your asking more. I have given tons of free advice on this board and had no problems until one guy on this board showed up for court and said I was his lawyer because I gave him advice over the internet....the judge called me in to chambers and gave me a tongue lashing about ethics and wanted to know what clubhombre was. I have done at least a hundred cases dealing with jurisdiction between borders and I know for a fact that she cannot file for child support if she does not currently reside or is present in the US. The only exception is if the case is already open or if the father stipulates to jurisdiction in the US, which they rarely do. I had a girl once file for divorce in the US, although living in TJ but she was denied spousal based upon jurisdiction and the motion was quashed. There, now you happy. Reytj gives you some gracious information and you follow with tons of questions. I suspect this information hits closer to home than you would like to admit. If your friend is having problems or potential problems, then tell them to quit being a codo and hire a lawyer or you hire one for them you cheap fuck.

By the way, if you are asking about your original posting....he cannot file for custody of the children if the children are living in Mexico. The kids are Mexican citizens who reside in Mexico...as long as they continue to live there, his only recourse is to file in Mexico....not the U.S. Divorce is a whole nutha matter...he can file in the US and serve her in Mexico but the judge will never let him get custody of the kids when they live in Mexico. He could try to get a default if she can no longer cross into the U.S. but he has the burder of proof to demonstrate she had the ability to come to court...if not, the custody order can be set aside later based on lack of jurisdiction. Any more questions that my non-expert advice could give you.......

Amazing! Some people's abuse of others, and stupidity, just have no bounds. Telling a judge, that someone who gave him free advice is his attorney, and talking to the judge about Club Hombre.

Its morons like this, that make it real hard to have good turnouts at Fiestas, and to get good advice from people like Blazers and, off the old Redsnake, health advice from Dr. Dick.

Nonsense such as this should be related to the moderator, and the offending imbecile asked for their explanation. Lacking an adequate one, they should be booted off.

Truly amazing, but I think Robert Johnson might have the players confused.

Blazers, hopefully you feel much better now. It is always a bitch when you cannot allow the shit that hit the fan to keep rolling downhill.

Personally, I always thought that one had to give a lawyer money before they could officially be retained as your counsel, but maybe that is only true on television. You did not say how the guy knew your real name in order to give to the judge.

Your attempt to divert the focus away from you being "more interested in money" to you being ethically tongue lashed was pretty good, but that was my opinion, especially after you said:

"Sorry but I am getting hundreds of requests like yours a week and I dont have time to keep giving free legal advice"

As far as the situation hitting closer to home, you are definitely wrong about that. I am not connected with this chica in any way other than to investigate (for my own education) what her theoretical options would be. I just felt that everyone could benefit from reading this thread.

I happen to believe that it is much better to be well informed so that you can avoid trouble rather than to rely on a lawyer to get you out of trouble afterwards.

Being called a cheap fuck by a divorce lawyer is something that will make me warm and fuzzy for a long time to come.

That having been said, let me return to the subject of this thread (and I only count 7, not 50 questions so far, btw).

From a US court perspective:

8. If the chica has never lived in the US for any documented amount of time, and currently lives in TJ, but has the ability to cross using her visa, does she have jurisdiction over her husband?

9. How does this change if he decides to move across the border to TJ?

10. What effect could evidence that she has a health card have on all of this?

From a Mexican court perspective:

11. What exactly is SRE, the "La Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores"?

12. If her marriage is not legally recorded (recognized) in Mexico, will this have an effect on her ability to file for (and receive) child support through the SRE?

11. What exactly is SRE, the "La Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores"?

It's the equivalent of the U.S. State Department.

12. If her marriage is not legally recorded (recognized) in Mexico, will this have an effect on her ability to file for (and receive) child support through the SRE?

I don't know.

Reytj

Well, the health card could certainly be used against her if he wants to play dirty.

If she is a hooker, or was one, she signed a statement saying she wasn't - meaning she committed perjury.

Having a health card causes the US agencies to assume she IS or WAS a prostitute, and that AUTOMATICALLY means she can NOT get or retain a US VISA.

So, if he wants to play dirty he has a major card he can play - or threaten to play - by getting her VISA revoked.

Hmmm ... complicated issues here. The best way to resolve this is to break the issues down into simpler pieces.

The way to do this is to look at WHERE any legal proceedings would be filed. If the divorce case is filed in Mexico, it is likely the judge would suggest that instead the case be filed in the USA, since that is where the marriage license was granted. However, since Mexican children are involved, the judge may decide to pursue the divorce in Mexico so that the custody issues could be decided in Mexico. If so, then none of the noise about the chica's visa comes into play.

IF, however, the divorce is filed in the USA, the nationality of the children becomes an issue. All that the judge could say about the children is that the father could get custody should the children somehow arrive in the USA. AFAIK, a US judge cannot award custody of Mexican citizens to someone living in the USA. If the children were US citizens and were merely residing in Mexico, the judge could order them returned to the USA. If the chica were contesting the divorce in the USA, and her US visa were revoked, I'm sure that an attorney could handle the case for her, while she returned to Mexico. So, the visa issue is just noise in the USA, too.

Noise?

Maybe so, but very important noise.

Maybe not as far as the "legal" proceedings go, but I suspect that after her children that VISA is pretty important to the chica.

The threat of having their VISA revoked is a pretty major issue for most chicas.

I have known at least one chica who dropped a child support case when opposing counsel showed he had proof of her profession as a hooker.

Futbolito is mixing up jurisdictional issues. Although divorce and child issues are related, they are mutually exclusive when dealing with certain aspects of jurisdiction. As long as the children are living in Mexico, all issues of child support and custody will remain in Mexico. For personal jurisdiction regarding divorce, the key issue is if he has minimum contacts with the state of California and has lived their in the last six months or has some sort of contact like working there or visits family regularly...something somewhat significant. ALso remember that the divorce proceedings can get complex as it relates to assets depending on where they are located. This case has a myriad of hypotheticals and we could be here all night discussing jurisdiction alone.
ALso, futbolito, I like how you just glazed over the fact that I never said she had to be a US Citizen to file for divorce. If you want to know how the person said I was his lawyer...my email address is under my profile..and he assumed it was my name.

The original question asked what her options are, and therefore there are multiple scenarios.

And Blazers, you truly only said that she had to be a resident, or have resident status, and did not say she had to be US citizen to file for divorce. All three qualification levels are a far cry from a chica living in TJ with a non-working type VISA. Especially if one were to believe that her health card could force her VISA to be revoked.

Now that we have pretty well defined all of the parameters involved, I will try to summarize what her options are, but please feel free to correct me if I do not get it perfectly accurate.

1. Cross the border with her VISA and retain a US lawyer to represent her legal interest in her divorce, alimony, asset distribution, child support, and custody rights cases.

2. File for divorce in Mexico, using a mexican lawyer and the SRE to process all the appropriate paperwork for international child support.

3. Remain separated. Allow him take the children to the US if he signs their paperwork to become US citizens. She can visit using her current VISA.

4. Reconcile with him, then #3 along with asking him to file foreign country spouse VISA papers.

5. Go underground and hide from him.

All but #5 assume that she does not ever get another health card or work in that industry.

#1 is incorrect if she does not take the kids with her to the US. Subject Matter Jurisdiction regarding the children will remain in Mexico if the divorce is filed in the US unless the father decides he wants the child issues to be incorporated with the divorce. The children are Mexican Citizens and are living in Mexico, making all issues regarding custody, visitation and support jurisdictionally in Mexico regardless of where the parents live. The other scenario is to have a divorce(status only) in the US and then register that divorce in Mexico where the child issues will be finalized......now my brain hurts.

One other thing....many latinas will apply for welfare in the US when the children and maybe the latina living in Tijuana. This will automatically start child support proceedings by the county in which she received welfare. THis is fraud on her part and you can ask the county to do an investigation and the father will be off the hook if the investigation shows fraud on her part.

Blazers

Why don't you have a little section on here for this type of problem maybe you can stir up a little more business ? There are a lot of guys out there that could use your help

We can call it the Blazers section- How not to get phucked

good luck
milky

2.File for divorce in Mexico, using a mexican lawyer and the SRE to process all the appropriate paperwork for international child support.

She doesn't have to file for divorce nor retain an attorney to inquire at SRE about child support.
Like I said before I don't know if her case qualifies.

5. Go underground and hide from him

She certainly wouldn't have to pursue this course living in Mexico for the reasons that have been pointed out.

In terms of her U.S. options the Family Court Facilitator at the South Bay Court in Chula Vista provides free info on a first come first serve basis.

Reytj

She apparently has opted for #5.

Rumor has it that she moved to protect her children after he threatened her when she would not sign some paperwork regarding custody.

Crimes of passion are not judged the same in Mexico as they are in the US so I can understand her reluctance to resolve the problem legally.