Uk Citizen Married To Us Citizen With 2 Children From A Former Marriage

[cakelady]

My son is living and working in UK. His wife is living and working in USA. They have a house in USA and my son has flexible arrangements at work so visits the USA every three months for around 6-8 weeks.
At present this is the only way they can manage financially.
They have rights to bring the children out of USA for up to 30 days without the ex -husband's permission, and longer with his permission.
They would like to visit UK for a year so that my son can take up training to fit him for work in USA and he would then settle there. The ex is waxing and waning about allowing this.
Recently he has petitioned for greater visitation rights but he has forgotten to attend the court to obtain these and the judge lost patience and threw out the petition.
Son and wife feel totally trapped in this unfortunate lifestyle and both want to ultimately live in USA but will need a decent income, which can only be achieved by him taking some steps within his job to fit him for this.

If they came to UK anyway, and went back after a year, would they be breaking the law, and would penalties apply?

[FredPuli43]

The obvious answer is to present a case in the American court to allow that proposed arrangement.

Taking the child out of the US court's jurisdiction and not returning it in due time would be seen as a) a breach of a court order, punishable on the offender's return to the US b) possibly kidnapping under US law by taking the child outside the jurisdiction without consent of the other parent; this is an offence here, created to meet cases of parents who snatch the child and keep it abroad [Child Abduction Act 1984 section 1] but the Act applies only to taking a child from the UK.

[cakelady]

thanks Fred. They are trying to do it amicably with the EX but may have to take the route you suggest.

[dzug2]

The other possibility is that he may lose his right to live in the US - not through breaching the order, but by staying out of the US too long. Depends on his visa status