Right of visiting their children online: it is possible outside Italy also for foreigners

During the latest years, the Italian Courts have allowed the separated parents to exercise their right of visiting their child online when they live outside Italy due to their job or because their country of origin is a foreign country. In these cases, it is advisable that the mother (madre) or the father (padre) may appoint an Italian qualified lawyer specialized in family law, who could advise them the various options provided for under the Italian law, concerning child support (figli) and the best possible strategy to carry out on this purpose.

The distance between parents and children has no influence with regards to the assignment pursuant to Italian law

A foreign parent who moves back to the country of origin after the separation or the divorce or who leaves Italy due to his/her job is forced to go away from his/her children, with the awareness that the geographic distance shall obstruct him/her to see them frequently.

As a general rule, a similar situation – as painful as it can be – has no influence on the assignment of minors pursuant to the Italian law. The geographic distance between the places of residence (residenza) of the parents, indeed, does not rule out the chance to maintain the shared custody. On the other hand, the distance has no influence on the capacity of a parent to grow up, develop and educate his/her child, as well as staying close to him/her and behaving like an inspiring role. It will be appropriate to make some further attempts, evaluating manners and timing of presence of the minor with the other parent: for example, if the father moves to a foreign city, he shall not be able to drive the children from home to school and vice versa as well as he shall not be able to stay with them one evening per week. However, the parents (on the basis of the distance of the foreign country) shall be able to get an agreement, in order to evaluate some options which may allow that the parent and the children shall meet every time it may be practical.

In Italy, it is allowed the right of visiting children online

As we already mentioned, when the separated (or divorced) parent moves abroad or in case the children move abroad, the terms and conditions of visiting the children shall be modified. To this purpose, a help could be brought by new technologies. The Italian Courts allow the possibility to integrate the visits to children – which may be more difficult and expensive due to the distance – by means of online visits, using a webcam [we all know how this may be technologically easy: the webcam is already installed on every smartphone (Apple ©, Android ©, and so on) or it could be installed on laptop, if needed: and everybody could talk to anybody worldwide also in case of a distance of thousands of km thanks to a program, usually already installed on the mobile phone (FaceTime © on iPhone © and so on), or easy to download free of charge like, for example, Skype ©].

Of course, the online one shall not be enough if it is the only way of communication and contact with his/her own children. Indeed, even though the video-call represents without any doubt a more involving way compared to the ordinary phone call (because it allows a greater interaction) thanks to the possibility of catching also the non-verbal aspects of the communication, it cannot in any way be considered as a replacement of the meeting in person. That’s why it shall be appropriate to keep the online visiting only as an integrative way, as a way of supporting the real meetings in person with children, real meetings that cannot be eliminated.

Marzorati Law Firm is specialised in family law, also internationally, and its lawyers usually deal with separations, divorces, child support and family support. To advise all its clients all over Italy and worldwide, Marzorati Law Firm has also developed a network, made also of at least a barrister/solicitor, an attorney-at-law, an abogado, and an avocat à la cour, all qualified in their respective country of practice.