• Can you collect child support obligations when the non-custodial parent lives in another state?
• Can you collect child support obligations when the non-custodial parent lives in another country?
• Why does it take so long for my case to proceed?
• What is Registration of Foreign Order and why is it necessary?
• Why does my order have to be registered out of state?
• Why can't Sacramento County enforce my child support order?

A: Yes. We can request the other state to obtain and enforce a child support order, or depending on jurisdiction, we can obtain and enforce the order across state lines.

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A: If the United States has a reciprocal agreement with the other country, we will contact them to obtain and/or enforce a child support order. If not, we have no jurisdiction to enforce and will have to review the case for closure.

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A: Once we have determined that an out-of-state referral is necessary, a request is sent from our office to the other jurisdiction. The other jurisdiction has ninety days from the date we sent the referral to open the case. The only contact we can make with the other jurisdiction during that time period is to request an Acknowledgement letter after thirty to forty-five days. After ninety days, we can send requests to the other jurisdiction asking for the case status of your case.

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A: Registration of another county or state's court order is done to make it an enforceable Sacramento County order. With an enforceable order, we can serve income withholding orders, national medical support notices, submit balances for IRS, FTB, Unemployment and Disability intercepts, and many other enforcement tools to enforce the order. Without the registration process, we have no legal means of enforcing the order.

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A: Once we have exhausted all available court order enforcement measures within the state of California, we will request the other state to enforce an order on our/your behalf. In order to enforce our California order in another state, the other state must first "register" the California order to make it an enforceable order in their state. This allows them to serve income withholding orders, national medical support notices, submit balances for IRS, FTB, Unemployment and Disability intercepts, and many other enforcement tools to enforce the order. Without the registration process, the other state does not have any legal means of enforcing the California order.

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A: Prior to requesting the assistance of another state, we review every case to determine if California has jurisdiction to either to establish and/or enforce an existing child support order. If we determine that California has no jurisdiction, we send a request to the other state asking them to establish and/or enforce an existing child support order as we do not have legal jurisdiction to do so in the case. Jurisdiction is determined pursuant to Federal and State laws and regulations.

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