Austin Child Support Lawyer

International Child Support

Parents need to provide support for their children that do not live with them even if they live in different countries. For this reason, there was a recent Child Support Convention at The Hague to address issues in collecting international child support.

The United States estimates that roughly $24 billion in international child support goes unpaid and uncollected every year. This is partly due to a lot of murky areas and a lot of states don’t want to participate. The United Kingdom does not have a bilateral program in place to help people on either sides of the pond collect child support. Instead, they have negotiated agreements with 33 of the 50 states.

Other obstacles include exchange rates and lack of information. Lack of information basically means that countries don’t necessarily keep track of their citizens very closely as in keeping an accurate or current address on file. Another big problem is when one parent moves to a new country and can no longer afford the child support payments because their salary has taken a hit or the cost of living is higher. Some countries don’t actually require child support be paid to the parent that has the kids. The laws of many countries are not compatible.

It is for these reasons that there was a recent convention at the Hague to settle a bunch of problems. The representative from the United States is viewing the whole thing as a success as it will make it easier to collect international child support payments from various countries. The recently signed convention creates a comprehensive system of cooperation and of organization among child support collection agencies. This is believed to make the child support collection process easier and faster.

If you or someone you know has a child with a parent living in another country and not paying child support, the Austin Child Support Lawyers of Slater and Kennon are here to help you. Contact them to discuss legal options.


Centrally located in the Arboretum area of north Austin, the Slater & Kennon law firm represents clients in Travis County, Bastrop County, Burnet County, Williamson County, and Hays County, including the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Bastrop, Burnet, and Georgetown.