Moving With Your Child in Georgia

The notice requirement

Except where a court order provides otherwise, in any case under § 19-9-3(f) in which a parent changes residence, that parent must notify the other parent of the change. If the parent moving is the custodial parent, notice also goes to any other person granted visitation rights or parenting time under Title 19 or a court order. The notification must be given at least 30 days before the anticipated change of residence and must include the full address of the new residence (O.C.G.A. § 19-9-3(f)(3)).

Read your own order first. Because the statute applies “except where otherwise provided by court order,” your custody order or parenting plan may set different notice terms.

Related notice rules

• Notifying the court. A court that enters a custody judgment keeps jurisdiction of the case for the purpose of ordering the custodial parent to notify the court of changes in the child’s residence (§ 19-9-3(f)(1)).
• A new pickup and drop-off address. Where the noncustodial parent has visitation or parenting time and the court orders notice of a change in the place for pickup and delivery of the child, the custodial parent must notify the noncustodial parent in writing, with a street address or other description of the new location (§ 19-9-3(f)(2)).
• Deployed military parents. A temporary modification order entered because of a military parent’s deployment must require the nondeploying parent to give the court and the deploying parent at least 30 days’ advance written notice of an intended change of residence address, telephone numbers or email address (§ 19-9-3(i)(10)). A relocation by the nondeploying parent during such an order does not end the court’s exclusive and continuing jurisdiction for later custody decisions (§ 19-9-3(i)(9)).

If the other parent objects to a move

Apart from the notice duties above, Georgia’s custody statute does not create a separate relocation petition or a list of relocation factors. Instead, a judge may enter a judgment relating to custody in a new proceeding based on a showing of a change in any material conditions or circumstances of a party or the child (§ 19-9-3(b)), and custody is decided on what is in the child’s best interest, using the factors in § 19-9-3(a)(3). How courts weigh a parent’s move under that standard comes from appellate case law, which this guide does not summarize.

1. The complaint. A request to change legal or physical custody is brought as a complaint filed in compliance with the venue provision of the Georgia Constitution (§ 19-9-23(a)), which generally places civil cases in the county where the defendant resides. The other parent may bring a counterclaim for modification in response (§ 19-9-23(d)).
2. Not in response to enforcement. A complaint to change custody may not be made in response to a petition for habeas corpus or any other action or motion to enforce a custody order, including a motion for contempt (§ 19-9-23(b)).
3. Temporary orders. Once an action for a change of custody is filed, the judge may change custody on a temporary basis pending the final judgment, and a temporary award does not decide the parties’ rights (§ 19-9-3(e)).
4. A parenting plan. Modification actions require a parenting plan, which must cover transportation, including how the child is exchanged, the location of exchanges and how transportation costs are paid, unless the court orders or the parties agree otherwise (§ 19-9-1(a) and (b)(2)(C)).

Children 14 and older

A child who has reached 14 has the right to select the parent with whom he or she wants to live, and that choice is presumptive unless the selected parent is found not to be in the child’s best interests. The selection may itself be a material change in a modification action, but only once in a two-year period from the previous selection, and the best interests standard still applies (§ 19-9-3(a)(5)).

Travel costs and child support

If court ordered parenting time travel expenses are substantial because of the distance between the parents, the court may allocate those costs by a deviation from the presumptive child support amount, taking into account the parents’ circumstances and which parent moved and why (O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(i)(2)(E)).

Primary sources

Laws, rules and forms change. Check the current version at the source before you file.

• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-3, establishment and review of custody, including (f) notice of change of residence
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-23, actions to change custody
• Georgia Constitution, Art. VI, Sec. II, Para. VI, venue
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-1, parenting plans
• O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15(i)(2)(E), travel expense deviation