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Daniel 2peter

Hi everyone,
I'm from Ghana, I have been living in Romania, during my study I meant my girlfriend along the line we got married and we have a child . After my study in Romania we decided to move to Netherlands at the end of 2017 . By May 2018 I got residence endorsement sticker on my passport which was valid for six months, during the period of IND procedure, she has decided that she do not want the marriage anymore and have applied for divorce in October 2018, the IND have sent me a letter to reject me  right of residence permit because she have apply for a divorce. What can I do? During the time of the marriage we had a son who was born in Romania and currently lived with the mother here in the Netherlands. The marriage does not last up to three years. I have not had first residence permit before in the Netherlands except the endorsement residency sticker on my passport, I have been working in a paid job since August 2017 till March 2018. the mother have no residency permit here in the Netherlands but she living here because of Romania is part of the EU. Please What should I do? because my son is living here in the Netherlands. The IND have as me to leave the Netherlands within 4 weeks or I should appeal to the court but I am not aloud to wait for the decision in Netherlands. I have contacted a lawyer and she advised me to start a new procedure for right of residence with my child, will this be possible? because I don't have residence permit before in the Netherlands except in Romania. Any chance of me getting new residency in Netherlands? I have visitation right to see my son and some amount of money I have to pay as child support but the visitation have not started yet because the mother doesn't want me to come to her house and preventing every possibility of me seeing my child, the institution is working to arrange the meting between me and my child but it will take a long way because of the investigation involved
thanks in advance

Cynic

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Difficult one and without your wife's co-operation will be almost impossible to resolve.

To put simply, you are all living in the Netherlands, but none of you has Dutch citizenship.  Your wife could pack up and leave tomorrow and go anywhere in the EU, taking your son with her and you couldn't stop her from doing so; there are no EU family courts that can stop her.

Your lawyer is correct as far as the Netherlands is concerned, you need to appeal the IND decision so you can remain in the Netherlands, if you don't, you could be deported.  I suspect that you will only qualify for one of the "other reasons" visas that the IND describe on their website.  There are a couple there that I could see as being possible, however, a lawyer will know which will have a better chance of success.  You've already been granted visitation rights to visit your son and are paying maintenance towards his upkeep, so the process already has some legal dealings behind it.

My advice - keep with your lawyer and I wish you and your family the best of luck in this difficult time.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Daniel 2peter

Thank you for the advice, the lawyer said exactly as you described. Her none-coperanting is the big challenge. As the child have been place under RVDK supervision for a period of one year. She have made it impossible for me to see our child for over 8 months.

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