I am getting married and am needing to relocate with my 4-year-old to Australia from Texas, Her father and I were never married and she has never lived with him, as we were separated before my daughter's birth. We have the standard order of possession with no geographical restrictions. Moving that far away though, would obviously still require modification though. What is the best course of action from here?
In your SAPCR order you are probably required to give the other side notice of your intended move. Once you provide this notice you may find that the other side files something with the Court seeking to modify the order to request that a geographic restriction be put in place.
Obviously visitation under an SPO schedule may very likely be unworkable when the parents live that far apart. You can seek to have visitation order amended and/or seek long distance travel provisions be inserted into the order. If you file a Motion to Modify I would be prepared to expect that the other side may want to revisit child support issues, as the cost to exercise possession of child will be significantly higher than if everyone was still residing in Texas. Usually in the standard language in many SAPCR orders the visitating parent is ordered to return the child to the custodial parent at the end of the visitation period. However, if both parties live in the same county when the order is put in place and then the custodial parent moves out of county and the noncustodial parent does not move out of county, then effective on the date of the move you would be responsible for picking up the child from the noncustodial parent at the end of the visitation period.
To maximize your chances of being able to relocate you should likely plan to work with an experienced family law attorney in your area.
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