Child Support?

Question

If a parent lives out of state does he have the right to modify his child visitation rights and request for the kids to go out of state to visit for months at a time?.. Quick background. The guy never visited his children even though he has the right and does not pay child support.. so out of the blue he is requesting to see them, but he won't come to the state..

Answer 1

This is something to take up with your lawyer!!!!!!

Answer 2

child support and visitation rights are separate issues and you cannot prevent a non-custodial parent from seeing his children even if he/she is not paying child support. now, this months at a time thing... a standard visitation order usually stipulates when the parents live within a certain mile range and when parents live outside a certain mile range and how that can be arranged between the parents. if this months at a time visitation is going to interrupt schooling and is out of state, the state that the children live in should be the governing state. you can register the visitation order (and the child support order) with the state the children live in if the orders are from another state. this will help with enforcement, however in some situations, the home state of the non-custodial parent take precedence.

and no person has the right to modify any court order. only a judge can do that. both parents can agree to change the order without a judge, but it's better to get it changed legally in case there's any altercations.

Answer 3

A parent has a right to modify their visitation rights if they lodge an application with the family court. This is called variation of parenting order. You can apply for a variation at any time. Generally speaking if a parent chooses to leave the state they are allowed to. The contact parent would be entitled to 1/2 the school holidays. In some instances the contact parent would have to pay 1/2 the air fare/train fare expenses. Or both parties would be liable to pay 1/2 depending on the judge. If the usual place of residence was say NSW and the contact parent moved to VIC that may be taken into account. If the contact parent never visited his children that would not be taken into account because it is in the childs best interests that they know each parent. It could be brought up in Affadavits and used as evidence but In my case the contact parent dissapeared for months on end and wanted contact rights and was entitled to it. Child Support and contact is a separate issue when it comes to contact.

Answer 4

Your state, his state, don't matter. It is what is filed with the court in whatever state the separate maintenance or divorce were filed. Fact is that either party can petition the courts for anything. The only thing guaranteed to change is the amount you owe your lawyer.

While I see many comments here about child support and visitation being separate issues, you can easily deny the father visitation and let him file with the courts to enforce his rights. End result of that filing is that you probably will start getting money. While the court will not bar visitation while arrears exist, they will not enforce visitation without him making some arrangement satisfactory to the court, on the arrears.

As others have suggested, you should seek the advice of an attorney. The best attorney to contact is the one who handled your divorce.

Answer 5

He has the right, but it's unlikely it will be granted. You do need to understand that child support and visitation are separate issues. However unfair it may seem, a father does not lose visitation rights by failing to pay child support. Child support would be enforced in a different action and you should fight for that. You know you can garnish his wages and take his tax returns, right? The Courts in my state would not let him take the children out of state. They don't even know him! At worst--my Courts would require him to come to your state and get to know the children through a supervised re-integration period. There are important issues I need to know. How old are the children? Where do you live? (I understand if you don't want to give out that information, but it limits my answer) In my state, the children have a right to talk to the Judge and express their wishes. Don't know if your state does that or not. I'd spend the money and consult an atty. You have the right to rely upon the strict terms of your divorce decree. Does it allow out of state visitation? I'd do whatever is necessary to consult a family law atty in your area to get these answers. If you were in my state, I think you would succeed.

Answer 6

Do you have court awarded custody and was he ordered to pay child support? If he has not paid court ordered support,then til he catches up he can do nothing. Also if you are legal custodian of the children then you can refuse the request via the courts on the fact that this could lead to possible parental kidnapping not to say the hardship caused to the kids. You can agree to having him come to your state and have supervised visitation on the same grounds. Just because one parent suddenly reappears doesnt give him any right to altar his/her past family life and in all cases the judge has the final say and majority of time he will stand behind the custodial parent in denying any request. He has every right to request a remodification hearing anytime he wants, but that does not guarantee the courts will agree with him no matter what unless he has one of a hell excuse for his actions that would even make God feel sorry for him. Aint going to happen so you have nothing to worry about

Answer 7

Yes he does. Alot of people gets the child support and visitation confused. Just because he doesn't pay child support does not mean he can not have visitation. Most states will not go looking for dead beat dads who don't pay their support out of the state. But they will pick him up in the support state if he comes back. That may be the reason he will not come to the state to visit his kids, for he knows about that.

Answer 8

Yes, but you can somewhat fight it. I'd say if he never visited the kids, cool your heels, wait and see how it goes. I'm thinking he's a lazy bum and won't. If he does get a lawyer to help you out, don't fight it alone. If he does win visitation changes, make sure in the order he's to pay for the trip over, that way he at least has to front the money to visit. Also it might be in your best interest to file for the back support. The support isn't for you, it's for the kids and you are only shortchanging them, Plus it will help offset your half of cost for travel. Good luck

Answer 9

well , child support and visitation are two totally separate issues,,,, a man should pay child support, and he also should see his children,,,,, normally court orders are given, that describe both,,,,,,,, if not,,,, i would , if the mother, set up or file for child support, then consider a couple of weeks in the summer visitation, if the children feel comfortable with that,,,,,, if not, since he hasnt seen them,, offer to let him come and visit them,,,,,,, not at the mothers home, but have them available for a couple of days when he can visit ,,,,,, to modify his visitation, he would of had to of established some type visitation in the past, if he did and didnt live up to it,,,, it wouldnt look well for him to ask for more time

Answer 10

Child support has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with visitation. But if there is a written or court ordered agreement then no he cant change it without going back to court. Although, it is usually in the best interest of the childern to have both parents involved, I dont know any particulars about this specific situation.

Answer 11

Yes, he has the right. Even when he doesn't take advantage of the right, he can come back years later and ask for it. It doesn't mean he'll get it, but he can still ask. The only way around it is for him to relinquish his rights to a new parent - someone who would adopt your child.

You can't dangle lack of child support in the way of any of that.