HELPFUL WEBSITES RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL CHILD SUPPORT

The European Community website, http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/

This website is managed by the European Commission. It contains information about the Member States, European law, and various aspects of civil and commercial law. To access child support information, follow these steps:

• In the toolbar on the left, click on the topic "Maintenance."
  This home page provides general information on maintenance.
  
  
• To learn more about a particular country’s child support laws, click on the appropriate European flag on the right. Each country answers 20 questions related to family maintenance. The questions address topics such as that country’s definition of maintenance, duration of support, the entity to which an applicant may apply for maintenance, any associated fees, and the type of government assistance provided (if any). They are very general questions, and do not drill down to the level of information provided in OCSE’s Interstate Referral Guide (IRG).

The Hague website, www.hcch.net.

This website is managed by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague. It contains information about various Conventions promulgated by the Hague, as well as related publications and reports. To access information about the most recent Convention related to child support, follow these steps:

• On the initial screen, click on "Welcome" for English.
  
  
• On the home page, click on the section titled "International Protection of Children." Among the Conventions listed is the Recovery of Maintenance (2007). This is the Hague Convention on International Recovery of Child Support and Other forms of Maintenance.
  
  
• Return to the home page. On the left column, click on "Work in Progress." From there, click on "Maintenance." This will take you to a link to the draft Explanatory Report for the Convention. [ROB, at some point, this will no longer be a work in progress so don’t know whether you want to include.]

OCSE's international resources, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/international/.

This website is managed by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. It contains a list of international resources, such as the IRG international addresses and a list of foreign reciprocating countries. There is a link to OCSE policy issues related to international child support. These include Dear Colleague Letters (DCL), Information Memoranda (IM), and Policy Interpretation Questions (PIQ). Among the federal resources are caseworker guides addressing international case processing for various reciprocating countries.

The State Dept's information on child support, http://travel.state.gov/family/services/support/.

This website is managed by the State Department. The home page on child support contains links related to the following topics:

• Passport Services and Child Support Arrears
  
  
• Federal Bilateral Child Support Agreements in Force
  
  
• U.S. DoS International Child Support Enforcement
  
  
• Child Support Enforcement Abroad (Circular)

There is also a section entitled Country Specific Information, which contains links to specific country information on international child support enforcement procedures.

The National Child Support Enforcement Association, www.ncsea.org.

This website is managed by the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA). To access international support information, follow these steps:

• On the left column, click on the link for "International Information." There are four subdirectories:
  US website visitors, International website visitors, Helpful websites, and Q & A. Click on the relevant link.
  
  
• The U.S. Website Visitors Homepage includes NCSEA’s International Directory, as well as contacts, overviews, relevant laws, international forms, and procedures for numerous countries.
  
  
• The Q & A Home Page includes responses to questions such as closing foreign cases, forwarding documents to foreign countries, and serving process.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, www.nccusl.org.

This website is managed by the Uniform Law Commissioners. It contains information about various civil and commercial model laws developed by the Commissioners. To access information on child support, follow these steps:

• Click on "Final Acts and Legislation."
  
  
• Under the Section entitled "Select an Act," scroll down and click on "Interstate Family Support Act." This will take you to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). You can also learn which states have enacted UIFSA, and access explanatory information about the Act specifically directed to state legislators.