Child support is for the financial support of your children, not a fee (or “ransom”) you pay to keep the children near you.
Regardless of where your children live, they still require financial support. Simply living in another country or in another state does not change that fact.
The obligation to pay child support isn’t normally conditioned upon the ex’s compliance with the parent-time orders (indeed, in Some jurisdictions there are laws that prohibit conditioning the exercise of parent time upon the payment of support or the payment of support upon the custodial parent facilitating the exercise of parent time).
Is your ex violating the visitation orders (also known as a “parent-time” order in some jurisdictions) by living in another country (or in another state)? Sometimes an award of custody to a parent is conditioned upon that parent living within a certain geographical Proximity to the other parent. If your ex has moved to a different country or out of state in violation of the court’s geographic proximity limitations, you may have grounds for seeking a modification of child custody such that custody of the children is awarded to you, if the parent does not return to a location within the geographic proximity boundaries.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277