Agreement on changed domicile for children and alimony

A digital contract for a changed domicile for a child is part of a major digital journey for The District Commissioners and the first digital application in family matters. The Division of Family Services at the District Commissioners shall be responsible for confirming agreements between parents who have separated on the affairs of their children, e.g. custody, contact, and child support. When parents do not agree, conciliation is needed. This is therefore a sensitive area where the representatives of the district commissioners seek to put the best interests of the children first.

The project focused on simplifying and digitising an agreement on the transfer of the legal domicile of children between two parents with joint custody. The transfer of domicile entails, for example, the right to daily decisions about the child's interests and the legal parent's right to alimony from the other parent. The previous process involved a contract form on paper, which required the signatures to be certified as well as a certificate of custody from the National Registry.

In the new digital process, both parents go through a simple flow in the application system of Iceland.is with an automatic consultation in the National Registry, concise information on what the change involves and finally the electronic signing of both parents. The status of the processing is then accessible to parents on Iceland.is and the contract is returned directly to the information system of the relevant district commissioner.

The project saves parents effort and trips with paperwork and certificates, and district commissioners, in about 200 cases a year nationwide. In addition, it paves the way for further transformation of services and processing of children and family matters at the county level, e.g. through a proven flow of applications, a new connection to the custody data of the National Registry of Iceland, and the connection between Iceland.is and the information system of the county magistrates.

The Kolibri development team worked on the project, along with district commissioners, the National Registry of Iceland and Digital Iceland.