Discovering what state or country has jurisdiction to decide custody and visitation over a military child or the child of a DoD civilian or contractor is not as difficult as it may first seem. The rules are really pretty simple. Child custody and visitation jurisdiction is governed by where the child(ern) is physically located for a period of six months or more. In the case of an infant, it is where the child was born or has lived for a majority of his or her life. Which means that if you PCS to Germany, England or any other country with your child and the child is there for more than six months that foreign court has jurisdiction over your child for the purpose of deciding who is awarded custody and how visitation is to be accomplished. The complications arise when people, not just the parties wanting the custody decision, but lawyers and judges as well, try to use citizenship or the parents’ state or country of residence as part of the jurisdictional decision. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard all sorts of people ask how a German court can have jurisdiction over a US citizen child. This law should not be strange to family law practitioners. The law is the same under the UCCJEA a model law adopted by most US states.
