In the past, we have posted about the increased difficulties a parent can face in child support and custody disputes when the other parent lives abroad. Two months ago, we noted an agreement reached between New Jersey and the Dominican Republic that pledged mutual cooperation between the two jurisdictions in enforcing child support orders. Now the federal government has gotten into the act.

In 2007, a treaty was created that offered the potential for a parent in one nation to enforce a child support order against a parent living in another. The treaty has a relatively cumbersome but descriptive name: the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. The U.S. has already signed the treaty–along with a number of other nations–and now is on the cusp of becoming only the second to ratify it.

According to testimony given before a House Ways and Means Committee, such a treaty is dearly needed. While the U.S. is diligent about requiring parents who live here to abide by child support orders from overseas jurisdictions, other countries are not so eager to reciprocate. Currently, many parents must endure long waits to receive court-ordered payments from parents dwelling abroad.

So far, the House of Representatives has lent its approval to legislation that would ratify the treaty. The Senate will now choose whether to place its imprimatur on the legislation. If ratified, the treaty could provide a boon to parents in New Jersey and across the country seeking to ensure that overseas parents live up to their child support obligations.

Source: Associated Press, “House acts on international child support treaty,” Jim Abrams, June 5, 2012.