Applying for custody or visitation in Connecticut without a divorce

The Connecticut connection

The application asks why Connecticut is the right state to decide about your children. The common basis is that Connecticut is the children's home state: they have lived here for the past 6 months, or since birth for a child younger than 6 months. The form lists the other bases, including a significant connection to Connecticut or an emergency affecting a child here. Check every one that is true.

The packet you file

Four forms travel together:

• Custody/Visitation Application (form JD-FM-161). What you are asking for: legal custody (sole or joint), a parenting responsibility plan, primary residence, a parenting schedule, child support in a custody application, including post-high-school educational support.
• Order to Show Cause and Notice to the Respondent (form JD-FM-162). The court fills in your first court event, a Resolution Plan Date, after you file.
• Notice of Automatic Court Orders (form JD-FM-158). Court orders that take effect against you when you sign the application. See our guide on the automatic orders.
• Affidavit Concerning Children (form JD-FM-164). Where the children have lived for the past five years and what other cases exist about them. Required before the court can make any order about the children.

You file the packet with an Appearance (form JD-CL-12) that includes a current, valid email address, and the filing fee. If paying the fee would be a hardship, see our guide on court fee waivers.

Proof of parentage

By your first court date, you must also file the documents that prove the legal relationship between the parents and the children, such as a birth certificate or an acknowledgment of parentage. Personal identifying information must be redacted from them before filing; the clerk's office can tell you what to remove. If you are relying on an acknowledgment of parentage, the original must be completed and filed with the Department of Public Health before you file the application.

Public assistance

If you, the respondent, or any child listed has received financial support or HUSKY from the State of Connecticut, a copy of the full packet goes to the Office of the Attorney General, and you file a Certification of Notice (form JD-FM-175) with the clerk. If support came from a city or town, the copy goes to that city or town clerk instead, with the same certification.

Serving the respondent

After the clerk sets the Resolution Plan Date, the other parent must be served by a proper officer with the application, the Order to Show Cause, and the automatic orders at least 12 days before that date, and proof of service must reach the court at least 6 days before it. The Resolution Plan Date itself is set no more than 35 days from the filing, so these clocks are tight; build the marshal's time into yours.

Orders already apply to you

The automatic orders take effect against you when you sign the application, and against the respondent when served. In a case about children they include not removing the children from Connecticut permanently without consent or a court order, keeping the children's insurance in place, and completing the parenting education program within 60 days of the filing of the application.

What happens next

At the Resolution Plan Date you talk to Family Services about the case. Agreements reached there go to a judge the same day; otherwise the court issues scheduling orders and the case moves toward hearings. The court decides custody and visitation according to the best interests of the child, and no order about the children enters until the Affidavit Concerning Children is on file. Our guide on responding to a custody or visitation application covers the other party’s side of this case.

Where to get help

Connecticut's Court Service Centers offer free help for self-represented parties. The clerk's office can answer questions about procedure but cannot give legal advice. Legal aid organizations serve people who qualify. If you want legal advice, talk to a licensed Connecticut attorney.