Suppose your spouse is a citizen of a foreign country and your marriage is not going well. Your child has a U.S. passport and you fear that your spouse will sneak out of the country with the child. Your Florida divorce lawyer can advise you how to protect yourself from potentially never seeing your child again.

The first step would be to express your concern in a document filed with the court without notice to your spouse asking for an order temporarily giving you sole custody of the child. The court can sign the order and then set a hearing where your spouse can express the opposing position.

After the court makes the order effective through the remainder of the case, your expert divorce lawyer can then follow procedures of the U.S. Department of State to make sure that your spouse cannot obtain a new passport for the child, even by saying that the original was merely lost.

Bottom Line: There are steps you can take to avoid the unspeakable horror of never seeing your child again.

(copyright Stann Givens 2009)