Immigration Corner | Am I giving up my child?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I have a current situation where I need some guidance. My child is four years of age. Her father, who is married in the USA, is filing for her. However, it appears as if he’s being dishonest about his true motive. He wants me to write a letter stating that the child lived with him before he left the country, and the child is currently living with his mother. He wants me to write and sign this and send him a picture, which he will take to a lawyer on Thursday. Does this mean that he’s seeking full custody of the child?

Your response would be very much appreciated.

NL

Dear NL,

This entire scenario is fraudulent, according to your own representation. If the child did not live with her father and is not currently living with her paternal grandmother, do not put this in writing. How will you be able to come back later to say it wasn’t true? No one is forcing you to be untruthful.

Too often, and I restate, too often we see parents, in wanting to give their children opportunities, end up placing the children and themselves in worse situations. Parents unwittingly surrender their rights to their children by having one parent petition for a green card and then refuse to allow the child to have communication with the parent in Jamaica. Or, in other scenarios, parents send children to live with a biological parent and a step-parent and the relationship turns sour very quickly. We see scenarios of abuse, abandonment and neglect of the children, even leading to the involvement of local child protective services. At other times, children are literally dropped off in Jamaica without their immigration documents and passports.

This is not to say that children have not successfully migrated to America with a step-parent. My advice is, before you permit your child to migrate, ensure that you know the biological and step-parent well, and that you can maintain a relationship with the child. If there is an issue of custody, hire a lawyer in Jamaica to get a custody order that clearly indicates who has custody of the child before you allow a green card to be filed for on behalf of a minor.

Be advised that a child is considered a child for immigration purposes until age 21, and a US citizen parent or step-parent filing for a child is considered an immediate relative; and that age is locked in at the time of filing. The step-parent can file for their stepchild (even after age 21) as long as the marriage that created the step-parent relationship occurred before the child was 18 years old. There is no rush to file for a child of four – unless you are prepared for your tender-age child to live in America without you.

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