Immigration Corner | What can I do about my child?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I have a five-year-old daughter who was born in Jamaica. She lives there with her mother. I built a house for them and bought the mother a taxi so they’d have money. However, she’s always complaining that she has no money as she decided to use the taxi for her own personal use. I therefore have to be sending her money on a weekly basis, but s0he still complains and curses me saying that it’s not enough, even though she has the taxi that should be on the road.

Yesterday she told me that she’s going to sell her body to make more money. I feel like my child is in danger, because I don’t believe she is fit to be her mother, especially after she said she’s going to sell her body.

I’m an American citizen and I’d like to take my child away from her and bring here where I know she will be safe. Can you please give me any advice or thoughts? Do I need to go to a Jamaican court to plead this case because I am a foreigner and I don’t know the laws.

Thank you in advance.

Concerned Father

Dear Concerned Father,

If you were a US citizen when your child was born, she could be eligible to become a US citizen – a derivative American citizen. You did not say, but it appears that you may have been a born American citizen – you said you are a foreigner – and not a naturalised US citizen.

An American citizen who has a child outside of the United States can apply to the US Embassy or Consulate in the foreign country to register the foreign birth of their child and simultaneously get a US passport. It is an involved process that, among other things, requires the US citizen to prove residence in America for certain periods of their life – usually done with school transcripts and tax records. It is not automatic, and the steps must be followed to bestow US citizenship on the child.

In your situation, the Jamaican mother of the child may not want to cooperate with you to establish US citizenship for your child as she might fear that you will take the child to America and she would lose her access to the money that you have been providing. You need to immediately hire a lawyer in Jamaica who practises family law to explore whether you can file a petition with the court in Jamaica for custody and control of your daughter.

It will not be an easy process but from what you have written, your child is in an unhealthy and insecure environment. The courts always look to the best interest of the child, ensuring that the child has access to both parents while balancing the established law of the land.

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 mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com