International Custody and Return of the Child

Relocation of the Child to Another City or Abroad

The relocation of the child to another city or country may have direct consequences for the education arrangement, social environment, continuity of care and the workability of personal contact with the other parent. The scope of the right of custody, the existing court decision, whether the trip is temporary or permanent, the country of destination and the concrete risks must be examined together.

There is no single answer that applies to every case on the issuance of a passport, travel consent, preventing exit from the country or taking the child to a new place of residence. No generalization should be made without assessing the existing custody and personal contact decision, administrative practice, the parents’ legal situation and the foreign-country connection.

If the relocation makes the existing personal contact arrangement unworkable, the contact periods, holidays, transportation costs, remote communication and handover conditions may need to be rearranged. If there is a risk that the child will not be brought back or will be retained in another country without permission, temporary legal protection routes must be assessed without delay.

International Custody, the Hague Conventions and Return of the Child

Where one of the parties or the child is a foreign national, they live in different countries, the child was born abroad, there is a foreign court decision or the child has been taken to another country, the applicable law, international jurisdiction and international conventions must be examined separately. The nationality of the child or the parents is not decisive by itself; the child’s habitual residence and the international connections of the specific case are particularly important.

International Child Abduction and the Return Process Under the 1980 Hague Convention

The removal of a child from the country of habitual residence to another country in breach of custody rights, or the non-return of a child after a lawful trip, may give rise to the return process under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and Law No. 5717.

The following points in particular are examined in the legal assessment:

The child’s habitual residence before the removal or retention
Whether the Convention is in force between the states concerned
Whether the applicant has custody rights and actually exercised them
The dates of removal or non-return and the time elapsed until the application
The age range to which the Convention applies
The return request and the exceptions to return provided in the Convention
Assessment of the child’s views in terms of age and maturity
Temporary legal protections that can ensure the child’s safe return
The application routes to be followed before the central authority and the competent judicial authorities

International child return proceedings are not a custody case that conclusively decides whether custody is given to the mother or the father. The review focuses on wrongful removal or retention and on the conditions for return. A decision on the merits of custody may be the subject of separate proceedings before the courts of the competent country.

The 1980 Hague Convention should be assessed not only with regard to the return of the child, but also with regard to applications concerning the effective exercise of cross-border personal contact or access rights.

The 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention

The 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children regulates, in cross-border disputes, parental responsibility, international jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of protective measures taken regarding the child, and cooperation between states.

Within this scope, the following topics in particular may be addressed:

Determining international jurisdiction according to the child’s habitual residence
Temporary and urgent protective measures
The effect of custody and personal contact decisions given in a foreign country
Recognition and enforcement of decisions and measures on parental responsibility
Cross-border protection of the child’s person and property
Information sharing and cooperation between the competent authorities

The 1980 and 1996 Hague Conventions do not serve the same legal function. In a specific case, which convention applies must be determined by examining together the status of the states concerned as parties, the Convention’s entry into force between the two states, declarations and reservations, the child’s habitual residence and the nature of the legal protection requested.

The Effect in Türkiye of Foreign Custody and Personal Contact Decisions

Whether a custody, personal contact or child protection decision given by a foreign court or competent authority has direct consequences in Türkiye is assessed within the framework of the nature of the decision, its finality and enforceability, the relevant international convention and Law No. 5718 on Private International and Procedural Law. Recognition, enforcement, administrative action and the use of the decision as evidence must be distinguished from one another.

Service of documents abroad, apostille or certification, translation, obtaining foreign school and health records, and the enforcement in another country of a decision given in Türkiye must also be planned separately with regard to the law of the country concerned and the international cooperation mechanisms.

Time matters in international child abduction files. When the removal or non-return becomes known, the countries, dates, existing decisions, travel documents and communication records must be assessed in chronological order.

Why Do Age and the Time of Application Matter?

The 1980 Hague Convention applies to children who have not completed the age of 16. Whether the Convention is in force between the two states is also checked. The one-year period in Article 12 of the Convention is not a general time limit that automatically ends all applications at the end of one year; the time elapsed and the child’s settlement in the new environment may affect the review. One should not wait for this period to expire before applying.

Custody services main page

Legal basis

Depending on the nature of the claim, the Turkish Civil Code and the relevant provisions on procedure, protection and private international law apply together.

This content is general information. It does not replace a review of the specific file. Submitting an inquiry alone does not create an attorney–client relationship and does not stop statutory time limits.