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Divorced foreign woman asks court to allow shared custody of daughter so she can study and live in Singapore
The judge said the woman cannot take a shortcut in the immigration process this way.
File photo of the Family Justice Courts. (Photo: CNA/Lydia Lam)
Lydia Lam
@LydiaLamCNA25 Aug 2023 11:56AM(Updated: 25 Aug 2023 11:58AM)
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SINGAPORE: A Vietnamese woman who had a child with a Singaporean man but divorced after a few years of marriage now wants her ex-husband to have shared care and control of their Vietnamese daughter, so she can study and live in Singapore in the future.
If the order is granted, immigration authorities might permit her and her daughter to stay in Singapore permanently, and may even grant her permission to work here, the woman said.
In a judgment by a Family Court made available on Friday (Aug 25), District Judge Patrick Tay Wei Sheng made no order on this application, asking the parents to apply to immigration authorities for the necessary residential permissions first.
He said it would be "unfeasible" for shared care and control over the child to be exercised in two countries, unless both the woman and her daughter are granted permission to stay in Singapore.
The court heard that the girl's Vietnamese mother and Singaporean father married in August 2017, four months after the child was born.
After the marriage, the Vietnamese woman moved to Singapore to live with her husband and their daughter.
However, the marriage was short-lived, noted the judge. The woman moved out of the matrimonial home in October 2020 and took the girl with her.
They returned to Vietnam and she commenced divorce proceedings in August 2021. At the close of proceedings, she was granted sole care and control of their daughter.
However, the woman now wants her ex-husband to be granted care and control of their daughter.
She said that this arrangement would facilitate "a future application for the child to remain in Singapore permanently and to study at a primary school in Singapore".
"She adds that these events would in turn allow her to obtain permission to stay in Singapore with the child and even to work in Singapore to support the child," noted the judge.
The woman's ex-husband went along with the application, taking her side.
Judge Tay said it was good that the parents had an intention to co-parent their daughter, and called it "commendable" that they shared a desire on how and where the child should be raised and educated.
THE SUGGESTED ARRANGEMENT
The parents suggested an arrangement where the woman will have care and control of the girl from Monday to Friday, while the father has her on Saturdays and Sundays.However, the judge said that the child will struggle to spend her weekdays with her mother and her weekends with her father, as her parents live in different countries.
"It is impracticable for them to both have, on a day-to-day basis, physical time with the child, caregiving of the child, and residence with the child," said Judge Tay.
"It is improbable that they can simultaneously be the primary caregivers of the child. It is also doubtful that the child can have two homes from day to day in different jurisdictions: one in Vietnam and the other in Singapore," he said, calling such an arrangement "unworkable".
This is exacerbated by the fact that the child is not a citizen of Singapore "and does not even have permission to reside in Singapore", said the judge.
The girl's mother similarly is not a Singaporean citizen and does not have permission to stay here.
"Unless the child and (her mother) are both granted permission to reside in Singapore, it will be unfeasible for (the mother) to exercise care and control over the child in Singapore," said Judge Tay.
"PREMATURE" ASSUMPTION
The woman argued that immigration authorities may grant permission for her daughter and her to stay in Singapore permanently once an arrangement of shared care and control is ordered.She may even be granted permission to work in Singapore to support herself and her daughter, she said.
The judge said such an assumption is "premature" and said that the Family Courts assess applications in the circumstances that exist, and not in the circumstances that could exist.
"If the desire of the parties is that the child and (her mother), who are both citizens of Vietnam, relocate to Singapore to live and/or to work, they should first seek the permission of the immigration authorities to do so," said Judge Tay.
"They cannot shortcut this immigration process by seeking an order from the Family Courts on the possibility that such permission could (be) granted by the immigration authorities, then point to that order to persuade the immigration authorities to grant such permission," he said.
Other than these difficulties, the judge said it was unclear that the proposed arrangement of weekdays with the mother and weekends with the father constitutes "shared care and control".
Shared care and control entails each parent approximately equal time with the child each week.
The judge concluded that it was "heartening" that the parents now desire to co-parent their child, and that they agree on how and where she should be raised and educated.
He asked them to apply to the immigration authorities for the required permissions, and said they could apply again for a court order of shared care and control if the circumstances change.
