Visitation Rights

[SINCITY89103]

What is the name of your state? NC
I live in NC my ex-wife lives in NY. I pay child support. No custody has been filed and my-ex refuses to let my daughter go out of state to see me. It is very hard for me to travel/get time off of work to go to NY all the time. She says she will not allow this for at least two more years, I NEED to spend time with my daughter. I've missed so much already, what are my rights? Do I need her permission to take my own daughter out of state? I trying to get her for the summers. Living out of state aren't I entitled to out of state visits? Do I need to get a lawyer for this?

 

[Grace_Adler]

Yikes! It always gets sticky with interstate laws.

I'm not really sure where to start.

How long has she been living in NY?

I don't really know who has jurisdiction now, that's the thing.

You really should go research NY laws on custody, if she has established residency there. Most states say 6 months of living in that state, but NY may be different. Most if not all states have a website you can go to that list the state's statutes.

You have rights of course, but they need to be enforced by a court order. So you really need to file for custody and visitation. You may even have to file in NY if she has established residency there. You can do it yourself but it is complicated and it would be best if you hired an attorney.

When you do file, for your visitation, you need it to be specific. Include dates, phone calls if applicable and emails, drop off and pick up times and locations, methods of pick up, who is responsible for transportation fees, make up for missed time, what to do if someone is late or a no show, etc. Everything you can think of. Don't put any of that stuff in about "at the discretion of" or "reasonable visitation" etc. You can get really messed up that way.

Anyway, I would be reading up on NY statutes and what the residency requirements are for this, then go from there.

I hope this helped some. Good luck!

Oh yeah, I'm not sure about NY, but I imagine if she continues to withhold the child from you, you can file for custody if you like. There are also different types of custody, joint legal, joint physical, sole, primary, which sole and primary are pretty much the same thing depending on what you're talking about etc. However, NC does not really recognize joint custody and doesn't usually put that in a court order, they just assign a certain amount of days, etc. but you probably won't be dealing with NC, it will probably be NY.