Abargil

Appellant Aharon Abargil appeals from the judgment allowing Michal Ultman Abargil to move to Israel with their five-year-old son, Yuval. After review, we affirm.

*1297 Procedural and Factual Background

Aharon Abargil and his former wife, Michal Ultman Abargil, are Israeli citizens. Aharon moved to the United States in the 1980’s and Michal arrived in 1992. Both came to this country on tourist visas, which each of them violated by overstaying. Aharon has two applications for permanent residency pending with the federal government and may remain in this country while they are pending; we shall discuss the implications of Michal’s visa violation shortly.

Aharon and Michal married in 1994. In November 1997, their son, Yuval, was bom. For the first few months after Yuval’s birth, Michal took care of him with her mother’s help while continuing to run hfr ceramics business. Eventually finding it too hard, however, to balance caring for Yuval and owning her business, she closed the shop when Yuval was about one year old and became a stay-at-home mom.

In her role as Yuval’s primary caretaker, Michal was a sensitive and engaging mother. She also assumed primary responsibility…