Virginia Interstate/International Child Support

How do you collect child support from someone living outside of Virginia?

If you don't already have a court order, you'll need one. You may do this in one of several ways:

(1) Get a court order for support in the state where you live if that state has "personal jurisdiction" over the other parent. Personal jurisdiction means the court has the power to make that person do something. A state almost always has personal jurisdiction over someone who lives there. If she doesn't live there, every state has what is known as a "long-arm" statute allowing the court to exercise personal jurisdiction over her anyway, if certain conditions are met. In Virginia, the court may have personal jurisdiction to order someone to pay support if she:

1. signed a separation agreement in which she promised to pay spousal or child support to someone who lives in Virginia, or
2. was ordered by a Virginia court to pay support (of course, in this case, you would already have a court order), or
3. conceived or fathered a child in Virginia. It doesn't matter where the child was actually born.

Every state has different requirements! If you don't live in Virginia, consult a local attorney about your state's law.

(2) If you can't get personal jurisdiction, use the interstate child support system by filing a "URESA" petition. URESA stands for Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act. This Act has been passed in every state, and requires each state to cooperate with other states in collecting child support from its own residents. Your local Child Support Enforcement (CSE) office can file this petition in your state's court at no cost to you. Your court then forwards the petition to the state where the other parent lives, and that state takes action against her. This is complicated and often time-consuming, and you might not receive your first check for a year or more. The support you receive will be based on the law of the other state rather than the state where you live.

(3) Some states also have agreements with some foreign countries for support collection procedures similar to URESA. This may be your only alternative if your deadbeat is a civilian working overseas. If she's active duty military, it might take less time simply to wait until she rotates back to the US and file an ordinary URESA petition then. Tip: if you already have a court order for support, it doesn't matter where the other person is stationed. You can usually get payment by involuntary allotment without having to take her back to court.