If the obligor, the individual obligee and the child have permanently left New York, Family Court no longer has jurisdiction to modify its own child support order. Thus, New York may lose its continuing, exclusive jurisdiction to modify its order if the parties file a written consent for another state to assume jurisdiction to modify it, even though one of the parties or the child continues to reside in the New York. It may include related costs and fees, interest, income withholding, attorney's fees, and other relief. However, a temporary support order issued ex parte by another state's tribunal, or pending resolution of a jurisdictional conflict, does not create continuing, exclusive jurisdiction in the issuing tribunal. It should be noted that nothing in FCA 580-205 is intended to deprive a tribunal that has lost continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of the power to enforce arrears that have accrued during the existence of a valid order.
Spousal support is treated differently.
The Family Court retains continuing, exclusive jurisdiction over its spousal support order throughout the entire existence of the support obligation. This is a departure from the USDL, which treated spousal and child support orders identically. A party seeking to modify a child support order issued in another state must first register that order in New York and may file a petition for modification at the same time, specifying the grounds for modification. Once registered, the order may be modified only if the requirements of FCA 580-611 have been met. 26 FCA 580-613 provides that if all of the parties who are individuals reside in New York and the child does not reside in the issuing state, the Family Court has jurisdiction to modify the issuing state's child support order in a proceeding to register that order.