No one has custody, what are my options?

[Jay]

I'm 26 years old. My child is 5 years old. Right now my child has been 3 weeks in Florida with me. He lives in New Jersey with his mom, grandmother and aunt in a 2 bedroom apartment. His mom is illegal in this country.

Currently i have a permanent job with the aviation authority and I own a home with my wife. I'm planning to take my child back to his mom on Sunday. His mom had threatened me many times stating I wont see him again and many other things over the years.

Every year is a mission to be able to see my son, and during the year she bearly lets me speak with him. His mom moves constantly and for me is really hard to track her down beacuse of her illegal status, I'm afraid she will dissapear my son when I least expected.

We were never married, we only lived togheter. I have his birth certificate wich shows me as the father. Since he is here with me now in Florida, yesterday I got the packet to file for temporary custody. But I spoke today with a pro-bono lawyer at the court, and she think I can only file for custody in New Jersey.

1) Is it true that I need a paternity test even though my name is in my son's birth certificate?

2) Even though we have never been to court for custody, I will have to fiel in New Jersey instead of Florida?

3) Would the court may take into consideration her illegal status?

4) What can I do?

[socrateaser]

>1) Is it true that I need a paternity test even though my name
>is in my son's birth certificate?

No, but you will need a judgment of paternity from the court, which may be part of a stipulation between yourself and the other parent, or based on your signing an affidavit acknowledging paternity.

I would get a paternity test anyway, just to be absolutely certain that the child is yours, before you start what will be a very expensive and uncomfortable legal action.

>
>2) Even though we have never been to court for custody, I will
>have to fiel in New Jersey instead of Florida?

Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, until the child resides in FL for six months, or neither parent nor the chid resides in NJ, NJ retains authority to make an initial custody determination.

>3) Would the court may take into consideration her illegal
>status?

A state court will not consider the issue with respect to custody, because it's irrelevant. However, if immigration authorities were to detain the mother, that could make her exercise of custody impossible, which would permit you to obtain a temporary custody order in FL, and if this situation remained for a long enough duration (6 months), NJ would probably relinquish jurisdiction to FL.

>4) What can I do?

Move to NJ.

Convince the other parent to move out of NJ.

Allege that the other parent is abusive to the child and use that as a means of obtaining a temporary order in FL. Of course I can't suggest that you lie to the court. But, if this were true, it would give you the advantage you need.

Report the other parent to INS and hope that she's arrested. This could backfire, because the state family court may find your actions not in the child's best interests and thereby deprive you of anything more than supervised visitation in NJ.

If the child wanted to stay with you and was old enough to provide competent testimony concerning the issue, that could help. But, I'm betting this child is pretty young, so the testimony would be viewed as unreliable.