Immigration Corner | Can my husband bring his son with him?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I am married to a Jamaican, who will be migrating to the United States. His 15-year-old son currently lives with him and when my husband comes to the US, he intends to take his son with him.

Can the boy’s mother prevent the father from taking his son with him? And, if the son stays in Jamaica with his grandparents, is the father obligated to pay child support to the grandparents?

– PC

Dear PC,

Since you are married to your husband before your stepson is 18 years old, you can petition for him for immigration benefits – if you are a green card holder or a US citizen. Depending on what your US immigration status is, will determine how your stepson’s filing will unfold.

If your husband has legal custody of his son, he would be allowed to have you file for your stepson. In some cases where the other biological parent is agreeable, the filing can be done without the married biological parent having to obtain a court order granting custody. However, in this case it sounds as if the mother of the child does not want to cooperate with the child’s migration.

If your husband does not yet have a court order granting him custody of his son, with visitation to the biological mother of the child, he should retain a lawyer in Jamaica and have that done sooner rather than later.

Leaving the child with grandparents, and with a mother in the picture who does not want to cooperate with the migration, could lead to a prolonged separation from the father. Certainly, if the child is with the grandparents, his father is obligated to support him. Similarly, as the son has been living with his father, his mother has had an obligation to pay child support.

The upside is that once the child is 18, he is no longer subject to his mother preventing his migration, and you would be able to petition for him without the need for a court order or her permission. The downside is that separating the child from his father, with whom he has resided, may have an emotional impact on him that could interfere with his development and school performance.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator, and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com