My ex girlfriend and i recently broke up and we have a 5 year old son together and live in Chicago. I have asked her to move out of the apar...

Question

My ex girlfriend and i recently broke up and we have a 5 year old son together and live in Chicago. I have asked her to move out of the apartment which is only in my name. If she moves out she says she has no where to stay in chicago, so she would like to take my son and move back to Poland, which is where she is from and is a citizen. I do not want her to be able to take my son out of the country with her because I would never get to see my son. There are several issues with our situation. 1. If she moves out, she does not currently work, her only source of income is the $400 of child support i pay her every month, so if she is not able to provide a full time residence for my son, is she able to maintain custody of him? 2. I would like custody of my son but I do have a full time job so i would need to have a caretaker watch him during work hours, would a judge see this as neglect on my part because i am not able to spend the majority of time with my son? 3. If my ex does get custody of my son, can she be forced to stay within a specific distance of my residence?

Answer

The best thing you can do is make up with your girlfriend. It would solve all your problems. Baring that, you should consider what the attorney fees and other costs would be involved in a custody fight and use that money to set her up in her own apartment nearby. It sounds like she would qualify for free legal services so you are the only one who is going to be paying for the custody battle and as long as she is getting free services she has no motivation to settle the matter. There are also immigration issues. She is unlikely to be deported and the courts will generally not onsider her immigration status in awarding her custody. You don't say what the $400.00 a month child support is based on nor what your income is. The court could also award support based on the needs of the child for food, clothing and shelter which could be considerably more than 20% of your net after tax income.

I strongly suggest that you talk to a lawyer to find out what your legal rights, duties, and obligations are as a parent and that you deal with the matter from a practical rather than emotion position. Good Luck.