Moving Abroad With Your Children After a Divorce in France: What the Law Allows

Family Law · 5 min read · By Olivia Uzan

Emily moved to Lyon from Boston eleven years ago for her husband’s job. The marriage ended last spring, the divorce was finalised in France, and the children, nine and six, live with her during the week and with their father every other weekend. Her parents are ageing, her career has stalled, and she has been offered a position in Massachusetts that would change her life. She wants to go home. Her former husband has said no.

Among American and British parents who consult a family lawyer in Paris after a French divorce, the wish to return home with the children is one of the most frequent requests, and one of the least understood. The parent in Emily’s position usually arrives with two wrong ideas. The first is that because the children live with her, she can decide where they live. The second is that if she simply goes, the worst that can happen is an argument. Both mistakes are expensive, and the second one can be irreversible.

You are free to move. The children are not.

French law does not stop a parent from leaving. What it stops is a parent taking the children without the other parent’s agreement, because both parents keep parental authority after a divorce, whatever the residence arrangement. A decision that changes where the children live and how they see their other parent is a decision for both of them, and if they cannot agree, it is a decision for the judge.

The parent who intends to move has to tell the other in advance. If the other parent objects, either of them can bring the matter before the family court, and it is the court, not the parent with primary residence, that decides whether the children go too. The judge cannot forbid Emily from moving to Massachusetts. The judge can decide that the children stay in Lyon with their father if she does.

What a French judge is looking for

There is no presumption for or against relocation. The question is the children’s interest, and it is answered on the facts of each file. In practice the judge wants to know four things.

Is the move genuine and considered? A job offer with a start date, a signed lease, a school that has confirmed a place, weigh far more than a general wish to be closer to family. A move imposed by an employer is read differently from one chosen for personal reasons, though both can succeed.

What will the children lose? Their school, their friends, their language, their other parent’s presence in daily life. The judge will ask how old they are, how settled, whether they speak English well enough to start school in Boston, and what their relationship with their father actually looks like week to week.

How will the other parent’s relationship be preserved? This is where most relocation requests are won or lost. A parent who proposes long summers, every school holiday, video calls at fixed times, and offers to share or carry the cost of travel, is asking the judge for something the judge can grant. A parent who says the father can visit whenever he likes is not.

Can the arrangement be enforced once the children are abroad? A French judge who sends children to the United States wants to know that the American courts will respect the contact schedule. That question has an answer, and the file should contain it.

The parent who opposes the move has work to do as well. Saying no is not enough. He has to show what the children would concretely lose and propose what should happen instead, including, if he means it, that the children live with him.

The mistake that cannot be undone

Some parents, tired of waiting or convinced they will lose, go anyway. They take the children to the United States for the summer and do not come back.

France and the United States are both parties to the Hague Convention on international child abduction, and leaving with the children without the other parent’s consent, or keeping them abroad after an agreed visit, is a wrongful removal under the Convention. The American court that is then asked to return the children will not examine who is the better parent or whether life in Boston would be better for them. Its only job is to send the children back to France so that the French court can decide. Return is the rule. The exceptions are narrow and the threshold is high.

The proceedings are meant to take six weeks and usually take several months. During that time the parent who left has to explain to a foreign court why they did, and when the children are returned, the French judge who then hears the relocation request will have that history in front of them. In France it can also be a criminal offence. A parent who might well have obtained permission to move by asking for it can lose the possibility by not asking.

How to prepare a relocation request

Start early, ideally a year before the intended move. Build the file around the children rather than around yourself: the school, the housing, the healthcare, the extended family, and above all a detailed and generous proposal for contact with the other parent. Be realistic about travel costs and say who will pay them. Get the American side ready too, so that the French judgment can be registered and enforced in the state where you are going.

Then talk to the other parent before filing anything. A relocation agreed between the parents and submitted to the judge for approval is faster, cheaper and far more likely to hold than one imposed after a contested hearing. Mediation is available and sometimes required. Where an agreement is not possible, the request goes to the family judge, and the quality of the preparation is what decides it.

Emily’s case, for what it is worth, was settled. The children moved with her at the end of the school year, their father has them for six weeks every summer and alternating Christmases, they speak three evenings a week, and she pays for the flights. He did not get what he wanted either. But both of them can live with it, and the children are not in the middle of a court case.

If you are considering a move abroad with your children, or your former spouse has announced one, the earlier you take advice the more options you have. You can read more on the page on child custody and international relocation under French law and, if the divorce itself is still ahead of you, on international divorce in France. Contact us for a confidential consultation.

This article is general information and not legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, please consult a qualified lawyer.