If you are married to and/or have children with a person who is a citizen of another country, when it comes to divorce, your fears of that person fleeing to that country with your children is justified.
Furthermore, your co-parent doesn’t even have to be a citizen of another country to take the kids and abscond with them across the borders of the United States. When that happens, it can be exceptionally challenging to locate the other parent and bring your children home.
Can the Hague Convention help you locate your children?
Potentially, yes. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but the Convention has its own Central Authority for each country in its membership. This is the source of information and contact for the United States government, member countries’ governments and the parents involved.
The Central Authority has the responsibility to locate children taken in parental kidnappings, among other duties. They can, and often do, arrange reunification with the parent from whom the children were abducted.
Locating the kids doesn’t guarantee their return
There are many factors that go into a parental reunification using the Hague Convention. In some cases, they may determine the children’s physical and mental health would be at risk if they were reunited with the petitioning parent. In other situations, if the children are of an age to give an opinion, the Convention may consider their desire to remain where they are.
Utilizing the Hague Convention to reunite with your abducted child can be a complex undertaking best managed by professionals with experience in that field.