Advice needed - wife taken my daughter to the UK

[icemonkey]

What a way to introduce myself to a new forum, eh? This may not be the right place but mabye it is.

Well my wife went on a holiday to her home country England for six weeks, six months ago with out two year old daughter. She left me with all the debt from various medical problems, the apartment, insurance to pay and that in two years she had worked less than three months.

For the past 3 months Ive been paying for marriage counseling via skype with the aim of fixing our relationship and rebuilding the family. It occurred to me today that she is using this as a ploy to keep me from my daughter and that she has no interest in us as a family - she has missed multiple sessions (no childcare) at the last minute and is dragging everything out.

I lost my job in April last year, got a job immediately that pays only a fraction of what I need and so I helped start a new business which I was then pushed out of for my shares (I was sad, so the other partners decided I needed to go). So I am broke - not the usual broke but completely bankrupt.

My wife went back to England to be with a family who have the finances to battle me indefinitely - its also a family with three generations of women who have been institutionalized and I fear for my daughters future.

Im a bit lost with what to do. Any help? The laws in the UK are very unpleasant for fathers.

[Fatheroffour]

Looks like the residency requirements for the UK is 1 year according to my superficial google search.

You need to file for divorce, file to have the child returned to the home, file for exclusive use of the home. The sooner the better.

[icemonkey]

File here in the US or in Britain?

[Fatheroffour]

Here unless you want to go to Britian. Then you would need to go there and wait a year.

[icemonkey]

I do have residency - Cant afford a flight right now though. Are there any books I should read? Anywhere to look?
By the way, Thank you.

[Fatheroffour]

Where do you want to divorce? I took it from your original post that you did not want to divorce in the UK.

If you haven't already, I suggest you Google "International divorce attorney" and start reading to get a grasp of the issues you may be facing.

[jumbledone]

I'd be filing here. Make her come back to fight it. If you have no $$, why are you going to fly to UK to file? You may go to UK to see your kiddo, but file here (unless there is some inherent advantage to filing in the UK...)

But my guess is that you'd get better sympathy here in the states, what with a mother who ran off and took the kid away. Plus I am pretty sure UK is a member of the Hague Convention (at least I think that is the right agreement), which allows children to be extradited back to their originaiting country.