In November of 2002, I found out I was pregnant with my son. At that time, I was living with my boyfriend of 3 years. I was shocked to find out that he got another women pregnant 5 months prior. So, we talked and I agreed to stay with him. Here it is 3 years later and nothing has changed. I recently overheard him tell his sister of plans to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, not including his son or me. So, because of this, I started making my own plans to move to Arizona. My concern is that he has always told me that I cannot take our son out of state and he has held me back from moving on with my life because of this. We are still living together but we're not married and as we all know, in the State of California, there is no such thing as "common-law marriages". So, if he decides to fight me on this, should I get full custody first or can I move on with my life and take my son with no worries? I do not plan to keep his son from him and am planning to agree to visitation during the Summer and Holidays, especially since he has family nearby, but can he legally stop me from moving to Arizona? :(

Wait, he plans on moving out of state, but expects you to remain where you are? If he does not move, then, yes the court can prevent you from moving. However, if he moves out of state, he will lose his reasonable grounds to present to the court as to why YOU should not be able to move. There is no court order at this time, correct? Find out for sure if he is moving first so you will know whether or not to address the move in the custody proceedings. Either way, if you two are going your seperate ways, (even if he just moves next door) you need to get a custody order and child support in place.

Umm....you have SOLE custody of your child in the eyes of the law. He has no rights to the child because you 2 are not married. Unwed fathers MUST go to court to establish paternity & until custody & visitation is established in a court of law....he has ZERO rights. You can do what ever you like. He will have to establish paternity which means ...Hiring an atty, possibly taking a DNA test, going to court exc....all of this will cost thousands of dollars...which discourages many men from even trying. It is probibally a controol thing with him. With out COURT ORDERED visitation/custody unwed fathers...even those who have signed a Birth/ Cert.....have no rights to visitation except at the whim of the mother.

Umm....you have SOLE custody of your child in the eyes of the law. He has no rights to the child because you 2 are not married. Unwed fathers MUST go to court to establish paternity & until custody & visitation is established in a court of law....he has ZERO rights. You can do what ever you like. He will have to establish paternity which means ...Hiring an atty, possibly taking a DNA test, going to court exc....all of this will cost thousands of dollars...which discourages many men from even trying. It is probibally a controol thing with him. With out COURT ORDERED visitation/custody unwed fathers...even those who have signed a Birth/ Cert.....have no rights to visitation except at the whim of the mother.
UMM, no, Megan...even when a parent has sole custody of the child, most, if not all, states have statutes concerning moving out of state with a child. There are procedures that a parent may have to go through. As she has been living with her son's father for 3 years, it is very easy to understand why a court would block her from removing the child from the state if the father protests the move. If the father, however, is moving out of state then he will have no chance to block the move. That is why I asked.

BTW, legal paternity can be established by signing an acknowledgement of paternity when the child is born (or at any time after the birth). A father does not necessarily have to go to court to establish paternity.