Child Custody
All My Exes Live in Texas: What That Means for Your Custody and Support Orders
George Strait made the phrase famous, and Texas family courts live it every day. When an ex lives in Texas, Texas law decides where your conservatorship orders, the state’s term for what most people call custody, can be modified, how your support orders are enforced, whether you can move with your children, and what happens to those orders when one of you remarries.
This applies whether you both stayed in San Antonio, one of you landed in Fort Worth or Houston, or you took the song’s advice and now hang your hat in another state entirely.
Dealing with a divorce, conservatorship, or support order tied to Texas? Schedule a consultation with the family law team at Melone Hatley to talk through your options or reach our Texas team at (800) 479-8124.
Who Decides Your Case When Your Ex Lives in Texas?
Under the laws governing conservatorship and support jurisdiction, a Texas court that signed your decree generally retains authority over modifications as long as your ex or your child still lives in the state. Moving to Tennessee, or anywhere else, does not take your case with you. A parent in another state who wants to change a Texas conservatorship or support order will usually be litigating that request in Texas.
Within Texas, the case follows the child. When a child subject to a conservatorship order has lived in a new county for six months, Texas law requires the case to transfer there. An order signed in San Antonio belongs in Fort Worth once the child has spent six months in Tarrant County, and a Houston family that started its case elsewhere can bring the file to Harris County the same way. Filing a modification in the wrong courthouse adds months of delay, so confirming where your case currently sits is step one.
Can You Move Away From Your Ex With the Kids?
Most Texas conservatorship orders say no, at least without permission. Decrees in San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Houston routinely include a geographic restriction limiting the child’s primary residence to the county of the decree and the counties touching it. The restriction exists so the other parent’s time with the child survives the breakup, and it stays in force until a court modifies it.
Before you start packing, run through three questions:
- Does your decree contain a geographic restriction? Look for language limiting the children’s primary residence to a specific county and the counties touching it. Most Texas decrees involving children include it.
- Is the new home inside that area? A move within the restricted counties generally requires no court involvement, and a move beyond them does.
- Will the other parent agree to the move in writing? A signed, agreed modification order makes relocation possible without a contested hearing.
If the move falls outside the restriction and the other parent will not agree, you need a court order lifting it before you go. Judges weigh the move against the children’s relationship with the parent staying behind, and job offers, family support, and the children’s opportunities in the new location all factor into the ruling. Moving first and asking later can cost a parent the exclusive right to designate where the children live.
When parents already live more than 100 miles apart, the Texas Standard Possession Order shifts. The distant parent can elect one weekend per month in place of alternating weekends, and extended summer possession grows from 30 days to 42. Long-distance parenting in Texas is built into the statute, with schedules designed for parents separated by the size of this state.
What Happens to Child Support When You or Your Ex Moves?
Child support orders follow both of you. If a move has happened on either side, two questions sort out what comes next:
- Do you need to collect or to change the amount? Collection works anywhere. A Texas support order remains enforceable wherever the paying parent goes, and every state cooperates through wage withholding, license suspension, tax refund interception, and contempt proceedings. An obligor who leaves San Antonio for Houston, or for another state altogether, takes the order along.
- Does either parent or the child still live in Texas? If yes, Texas generally keeps exclusive authority over the amount, and a request to raise or lower payments gets filed in a Texas court. Once everyone has left the state, that authority can shift to a new state under the interstate support rules, which changes where and how a modification proceeds.
Whichever court hears it, support can be reviewed when circumstances change materially or every three years when the guideline amount would shift by 20 percent or $100. Texas charges interest on unpaid child support, and arrears survive bankruptcy, remarriage, and the child turning 18.
Does Remarriage Change Your Texas Orders?
Remarriage ends one order on its own: spousal maintenance. Payments terminate automatically when the receiving spouse remarries, and Texas applies this to informal marriage too.
A former spouse who agrees to be married to a new partner, lives with them in the state, and presents them to others as a spouse, through introductions, joint tax returns, or shared accounts, is legally married without any license or ceremony, and the maintenance ends just the same.
Courts can also terminate maintenance when the receiving spouse lives with a romantic partner on a continuing basis, though that route requires going back to court with proof, so paying spouses who suspect cohabitation should document it before filing.
Child support and the parenting schedule stay as written. A new spouse’s income is excluded from the net resources calculation, so marrying someone with a high salary will not raise your obligation, and your ex marrying well will not lower it.
Conservatorship and possession orders also continue unchanged, and a new household becomes relevant only if a parent files a modification case and shows it affects the children.
Talk to a Texas Family Law Attorney in San Antonio, Fort Worth, or Houston
At Melone Hatley, P.C., we help Texans, and former Texans with orders still anchored here, handle every stage that comes after a decree.
Our family law team modifies and enforces conservatorship and support orders, lifts and defends geographic restrictions, and terminates maintenance when the law allows it. Wherever your exes live, if your orders live in Texas, we can help you manage them.
Schedule a consultation with our team today or reach our Texas offices at (800) 479-8124.
