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Manhattan, New York City, Westchester, Long Island and beyond
+1 646-241-8602
If your child was wrongfully taken out of their home country or kept in another country without your consent, the Hague Convention lets you ask a court to order the child’s return. In New York City, these cases are filed in federal court. You should speak with a Hague Convention lawyer within days, not weeks, because filing within one year gives you the strongest path to a fast return.
If your child was wrongfully taken out of their home country or kept in another country without your consent, the Hague Convention lets you ask a court to order the child’s return. In New York City, these cases are filed in federal court. You should speak with a Hague Convention lawyer within days, not weeks, because filing within one year gives you the strongest path to a fast return.
The Hague Convention is a treaty signed by more than 100 countries. It has one main goal: when a child is wrongfully taken across a border, the child should be sent back quickly to the country where they normally live. That home country is called the child’s habitual residence.
Here is the key point many parents miss. A Hague case does not decide who gets custody. It only decides which country should decide custody. Once the child is back home, the courts there handle the custody fight under their own laws.
The United States follows the treaty through a law called ICARA (the International Child Abduction Remedies Act). This is the law your lawyer uses to file your case in a New York court.
Short example: A mother and child live in Spain. During a summer trip to New York, the father keeps the child here and refuses to send the child back. The mother does not have to fly to New York and start a whole custody case. She can file a Hague petition, and a New York federal judge can order the child returned to Spain. The Spanish courts then decide custody.
As your international child custody lawyer in NYC, we represent both sides of these disputes. Some parents come to us to bring a child back. Others come to us to fight a wrongful return demand. We handle both.
If you are the left-behind parent, we build the proof that your child was taken or kept wrongly, that the child’s home was another country, and that you were acting as a parent. If you are the parent being accused, we look hard for a valid defense, such as a real risk of harm to the child.
International child custody cases move fast and follow strict rules. Small mistakes, like filing in the wrong court or missing a deadline, can cost you months. That is why a lawyer who knows Hague cases matters so much.
Wondering how a case actually works? Here is the path a Hague Convention attorney in NYC will walk with you.
We file a return petition in federal court. For most of New York City that is the Southern District of New York (Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester) or the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island).
These cases are meant to be quick. A judge often sets a hearing within weeks, not years. The court can also order steps to keep the child in the country while the case is open, so no one flees again.
You must show three things: the child's home country was somewhere other than the U.S., the child was taken or kept in a way that broke your custody rights, and you were using those rights.
If the court agrees the removal was wrong and no defense applies, it orders the child returned. Many Hague cases in New York finish in a matter of weeks or a few months, far faster than a normal custody case.
If your child was just taken, the first days matter most. As a child abduction lawyer in NYC, here is what we tell parents to do right away.
Acting fast does two things. It protects the one-year window, and it stops the other parent from claiming the child has “settled” into a new life abroad.
What to have ready for your first call. You do not need everything at once, but the more you bring, the faster we can move. Helpful items include the child’s full name and date of birth, a copy of any custody or divorce order, the child’s passport and citizenship details, proof of where the child lived and went to school before the trip, the date the child was taken or was due back, and any messages where the other parent talked about leaving. Even a rough timeline written on your phone helps. If you are missing some of this, call anyway. Part of our job is helping you find and pull together the proof that a court will want to see.
Not every cross-border case starts with an abduction. Many parents call us before anything goes wrong. Cross border custody in NYC also covers relocation, travel, and prevention.
Maybe you want to move abroad with your child and need the court’s permission. Maybe you fear your co-parent will take the child overseas and not come back. We help with both.
To lower the risk of a wrongful removal, we can ask a New York court to add safeguards to your custody order, such as holding the child’s passport, requiring written consent before any foreign trip, or setting clear travel rules. When a case crosses U.S. state lines instead of national borders, a different law called the UCCJEA controls, and we handle those matters too. You can read more on our custody and jurisdictional disputes pages.
A Hague case rarely stands alone. As an international family lawyer in NYC, we see the whole picture around it. Families with ties to two countries often face several legal issues at once.
We help with foreign custody orders that need to be recognized here, service of court papers on a parent living overseas, and coordination with lawyers abroad. New York City is home to families from every corner of the world, and we are used to cases that cross languages, time zones, and legal systems.
Our goal is simple: keep your child safe and protect your role as a parent, no matter how many borders your family spans.
When parents split across borders, the child issue and the divorce often move together. An international divorce lawyer in NYC has to answer a big question first: which country’s court has the power to decide?
Where you file can change everything, from how property is split to how support is set. Filing in the wrong place can waste time and money, or lead to two courts fighting over the same case. We map out the right forum before you file, and we tie your divorce and custody strategy together so one does not hurt the other.
If a child has already been taken abroad, we can run the Hague return case at the same time as the divorce, so both stay on track.
If you are the parent being asked to return a child, you are not without options. A Hague proceedings attorney in NYC knows the defenses the treaty allows. They are narrow, and you must prove them with strong evidence, but they are real.
The main defenses are:
On the grave-risk defense, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Golan v. Saada, gave judges room to weigh whether safety steps could protect the child, but did not force them to. These cases turn on the facts and the proof. We build that proof, line it up with the treaty, and present it in a way the court can act on.
Because Hague cases are filed in federal court, where you live in the New York City area points to which courthouse hears your case.
Call +1 646-241-8602 or reach out through our contact page. We serve clients across Manhattan, Westchester, Long Island and the greater New York City area.