Access Proposal

ACCESS PROPOSAL

I would like to reveal the following facts before I lay down my Access Proposal:

1. Financially, I am not in a position to fly overseas every first and third week of the month to exercise my visitation right to see my son Christopher, as determined by the Bulgarian court and the Bulgarian divorce decree. My visitation rights do not account for the fact that I am a permanent resident of the United Statets for 11 years, that I am a citizen of United States of America, and that my vacation time in one year is 15 days.

1. Mila Gueorguieva is a citizen of United States of America and as such, she has a duty to obey both Bulgarian and U.S. laws. To date, Mila Gueorguieva is holding my son Christopher in Bulgaria, conforming only to the Bulgarian laws.
   Before Mila Gueorguieva decided to stay in Bulgaria with my son Christopher, she had not taken any legal steps in the US courts in order to make her decision legal. In doing this, Mila Gueorguieva has violated many laws of the State of Indiana as well as some Federal laws. One of the federal laws is the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993. By this act, whoever removes a child from the United States or retains a child (who has been in the United States) outside the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercising of parental rights shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both.

1. Since the Bulgarian court issued its decision of dissolution of marriage on March 22, 2007, Mila Gueorguieva has not made the attempt to take the necessary legal steps to legalize the dissolution of marriage in the United States of America. The marriage was initiated in the USA. I was not informed in accordance with the law of the dissolution of marriage, although my address in USA has been well known. The Bulgarian judicial authorities have not taken any steps to inform the judicial authorities in USA of its decision neither.
   After, by chance, I found out about the divorce, I took the necessary steps with the judicial authorities in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to legalize the dissolution of marriage. Steps, which took a lot of effort, stress, and finances.

1. On April 7, 2008 I was forced to apply for dissolution of marriage between Mila Gueorguieva and myself. On this case for dissolution of marriage I was represented by an attorney. Mila was served with summons and was represented by an attorney as well. My attorney claimed the decision for the dissolution of marriage by the Bulgarian court is invalid in the USA and refused to present it as evidence to the Court with his application. Mila’s attorney claimed that the dissolution of marriage of the Bulgarian court is a valid document. This was a statement I agreed with. My objection to the decision for dissolution of marriage by the Bulgarian court was the part regarding my visitation rights and visitation arrangements. I disagreed with the fact that the divorce hearing took place in a Bulgarian court and for that reason I refused to participate in it.  A decision which I coordinated with the US State Department. If the divorce hearing took place in USA, I would have established my parental right to see my son, which is a basic part of any divorce in the United States when no extraneous facts are present.  I would have never allowed my son to be taken to live in Bulgaria.  I will finish with the decision of the USA court:
   
   “The court gives full faith and credit to the Dissolution of the District Court Veliko Tarnovo, Republic of Bulgaria.”           
   With this decision, the
   US Court
   refused to answer if Mila Gueorguieva has violated some US State and Federal laws. The Court disregarded the presented facts that I am not able to exercise my visitation rights, as determined by the
   Bulgarian Court
   , since if I visit my son in Bulgaria I will not be able to return back to USA.  The Court disregarded my statement that Mila Gueorgueva does not allow me to talk to my son by telephone. The USA court did not determined any visitation rights in case Mila and my son return to the USA. Rights that every parent gets in case of divorce in USA.Regardless of my petition to the court, the Court did not issue a declaration for my parental rights at the time Mila Gueorguieva unlawfully refused to return my son from Bulgaria. This declaration was requested by the US State Department in order to precede with my application for access to my son through the Hague Abduction Convention.

1. On February 8, 2008 my mother received summons for me from the District Police, city of Veliko Turnovo. The summons indicated that I owe a significant amount of money. А measure has been enforced by the Bulgarian Identity Document Act (BIDA), Art 76 (3), in connection with a case for a claim for significant amount of money. To this date I have never seen the order itself, the reasons for it, or the date it was issued. I do not know who has ordered the measure. I know that it has been endorsed by the request of Judgment Enforcing Agent (JEA) Maria Glushkova. After I received that summons I made a phone call to the office of JEA Maria Glushkova.  My mother visited the office of JEA Maria Glushkova  in Veliko Turnovo in order to get information about this claim. It turned out that it was a claim for a child support. Since, for a long time, I had not been informed about the fact of the divorce and the ordered child support, I had not made any payments. A week after this visit the full amount was paid. The amount of money according to the claim, the interest and fees related to the claim were 2825.26 leva. According to Art 1 (5) of BIDA addendum, a significant amount of money is owed if the amount is more than 5000 leva.
   I claim, that the restriction applied according BIDA is illegal, since I owed 2825.26 leva which is much lower than 5000 leva required by the law to make the claim and restrictions legal. To date I have paid all the money I owe and I am paying my child support regularly. I hired the attorney Plament Chervenkov from city of Veliko Turnovo in order to take the necessary legal steps for lifting my restriction by BIDA. To this date this restriction is still active regardless of his efforts.
2. According to Art 75 (4) of BIDA, leaving the borders of Bulgaria is not allowed and BIDA does not allow the issue of travel documents, and substitute of travel documents, to a person who has been sentenced to pay support, if this person has not secured the payment for the period of time spent out of the country. According to this requirement, I have to provide the child support for my son in full until his 18^th year. This means that if I return to Bulgaria to exercise my visitation rights, I am not going to be able to return back in the USA, where my permanent residence, my work and citizenship are, until I pay my child support for 12 years in advance. I do not have any real estate property in Bulgaria in order to secure these payments.
   

According to the illegally enforced restriction on my travel passport by BIDA and according to the above mentioned article of BIDA, I claim that my visitation rights are violated and could not be exercised.

My rights are violated in Bulgaria and in USA as well. The judicial authorities in the USA have given full faith to the divorce decree of the Bulgarian court and their determination of my parental rights. The judicial system in the USA has refused to apply its own laws to protect my parental rights, relying only to the Bulgarian law.

The Bulgarian law violates my human right of freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. It violates my right to leave any country, including my own, and to return to my country. These rights are written in the Declaration of the Human Rights Art. 13 (1) & (2).

I would like to quote Indiana Code (IC 31- 21-1-3) Sec 3 (c) 

Child custody determination made by a foreign country may not be respected, if this country violates the fundamental principles of human rights.

By virtue of the presented facts I claim that I have been refused to exercise effectively my visitation rights in Bulgaria and in the USA.

I appeal to the State and Federal judicial authorities in the USA to review their decision regarding determination of my parental rights, which would apply on its land.  I appeal to the U.S. courts to apply U.S. law in order to protect my rights as a parent, and my son’s rights, both of us citizens of U.S.

In this regard I would like the U.S. Courts to recognize a judgement in a similar International Parental Abduction case:

110 F. 3d 873 65 USLW 2695 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Ahmed AMER, Defendant-Appellant. I offer a brief summary of this case (see attached summary).

Translation in Bulgarian is not provided, since it a case from the US jurisdiction and it does not apply to the Bulgarian Law.

According to the facts I provided:

1.  The illegal restriction to my travel passport and the restriction to leave
Bulgaria to be lifted. This measure frustrates my visitation rights, in case I visit Bulgaria to exercise my visitation rights.

2.      I would ask that the authorities, who requested the restriction on my travel passport, to bear legal responsibilities for their actions, if this restriction has been enforced illegally. With this action this authority has intentionally restricted my son to have contact with me. An action which could have emotional consequences for Christopher in his life.

3.      I would ask to be compensated for the missed opportunities to visit my son for all these years. This should be taken in account determining my visitation rights in the future.

4.      I would ask the Bulgarian State Agency for Child Protection to exercise their rights and knowledge to introduce me as a father to my son Christopher, without any harm for his emotional status.

5.      I would like to be allowed to contact my son through a phone, at my expense. I would like to be able to talk to him for one hour a day. I understand that I am not going to be able to exercise this right strictly every day and exactly for one hour. I understand that every conversation could be shorter in time, but I would like to get this right, so that in the future we could not have any misunderstanding, and this should not to be a reason to go to the court. I understand that 1 hour on the phone with a child would be boring for him and sometimes impossible.
I could talk with him in the weekdays between 19:00h and 20:00h Bulgarian time, which is my lunch time here. On Saturdays and Sundays, the phone calls could be arranged for a convenient time for Mila and Christopher and we could arrange these calls every time in advance. I would like to be able to call a landline (not a mobile) phone, provided by Mila Gueorguieva.

6.     I would ask to be allowed to contact all of his kindergarten, middle school, and high school teachers. I also ask that I am allowed to contact my son while he is in school in case of emergency. I would like to have the same right to contact my son’s teachers, as his mother has.

7.      When the age and skills permit Christopher to use the internet, I would like to be able to contact him through e-mails and audio programs, such as Skype.

8.      I would like my son to visit me for two months in the USA in his summer brake. The expenses of his plane ticket and of his overall visit will be covered by me. I would like to be taken in account the fact, that I will not be able to see him throughout the year, and the fact that until his sixth birthday he has not been able to communicate with me at all. The time spent in the USA would give him a chance to know his country of birth, the country of which he is a citizen, its culture and traditions. In my home in USA lives his sister Diana Petrova, whom he doesn’t know. I would exercise my right to bring him in the USA depending on my financial ability. If I am not able to bring Christopher in USA, but I am able to visit Bulgaria, I would like to take him with me in Sofia, during his summer brake for two months. Two months spent in Bulgaria are not possible for me, since I have 15 days vacation. But I would like to get this right.

9.      Mila Gueorguieva should be obligated to inform me for the address of Christopher’s residence, to give me a valid e-mail address by which we could exchange questions and information regarding our son, including pictures.

10.  If Mila Gueorguieva returns to the United States of America, she should be obligated to return to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in order to settle our parental rights and obligations according to the US federal and state of Indiana Law. This is the state and the city I live in, the city where Christopher was born and the city where Mila Gueorguieva  refused to return Christopher, regardless of my requests.

11.  I will give my consent for Christopher to leave the borders of Bulgaria only for the time he travels to the USA to visit me.

Hristo Petrov

June 20, 2009