The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act

To enforce child support orders when the child lives in one state and the obligor lives in another state, the laws can be used to establish support orders and collect payments. The main law in this area is the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). All 50 states have adopted UIFSA (or different versions of it). A key provision of the act is “continuing, exclusive jurisdiction”, which means that once a state enters a valid child support order, no other state may modify that order as long as either of the parties or the child for whose benefit the order was entered continue to live in that state. Thus, if a parent wants to modify a child support order, the parent needs to do it in the state where the order was entered.

If all parties and the child have left the state and a party wishes to modify the order, the party who wishes to modify the order must submit himself or herself to the jurisdiction where the other party resides. For example, assume a mother and father obtain a divorce in Minnesota where they had lived during most of their marriage. After the divorce, the mother and child moved to Wisconsin, and the father moved to Iowa. If the mother seeks to increase child support, she would need to have the case decided by the Iowa courts where the father lives. If the father seeks to reduce child support, he would need to have the case decided by the Wisconsin courts where the mother lives.