How to modify child custody and parenting time in Georgia

Sources last checked 4 November 2026. Information only, not legal advice. This page rests on the 2025 text of OCGA 19-9-3 as published by Justia (an unofficial copy) and on three court decisions, the newest from February 2024; read what we could not confirm below.

The short version

In Georgia you ask the court that entered your custody order to change it. What you must show depends on what you want changed. For visitation or parenting time, OCGA 19-9-3(b) allows review “without the necessity of any showing of a change” in material conditions, but not more than “once in each two-year period” after the judgment. To change custody itself you start a new proceeding and show “a change in any material conditions or circumstances of a party or the child”. If there has been such a change, the court then decides what is in the child’s best interest. For changing child support or alimony instead, see modifying child support and alimony in Georgia.

What must be shown

• Parenting time or visitation only. The statute says the part of a custody judgment about visitation or parenting time may be reviewed on a party’s motion or the judge’s own motion. The review cannot happen more often than once in each two-year period after the judgment was entered. The same subsection says this does not limit the judge’s power to rule on custody in a new proceeding based on a changed circumstance.
• Changing custody. A material change. In Viskup v. Viskup, 291 Ga. 103 (2012), the Supreme Court of Georgia said the change can help the child as well as harm the child, citing OCGA 19-9-3(b). In Davis v. Taylor, 370 Ga. App. 837 (2024), the Court of Appeals quoted the statute’s wording as “a change in any material conditions or circumstances of a party or the child”. A parent’s deployment absences cannot be the sole factor, though the court may consider the effect of a deployment.
• When the test does not apply. The 2024 court said that where there has been no previous adjudication of the custody issue, “the change in conditions analysis should not be used”. It added that it could not imagine a case where the legitimation of a child would not count as a change in material conditions.
• No head start for either parent. The statute says neither parent has a prima facie right to custody and there is no presumption in favor of any form of custody. Joint custody may be considered.

How the court decides: best interests

• If there has been a change, the court “should base its new custody decision on the best interest of the child”. The judge, not a jury, decides, with very broad discretion, and may consider any relevant factor.
• The statute lists 17 factors, (a)(3)(A) to (Q). They cover the bonds between each parent and the child, siblings, each parent’s capacity to meet the child’s needs, the home environment, continuity and stability, each parent’s health, involvement in school and activities, work schedules, each parent’s past parenting, willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, any evaluator’s or guardian ad litem’s recommendation, family violence, abuse or criminal history, and substance abuse. The 2024 court named the willingness factor, which it described as to “facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship”, and the guardian ad litem recommendation.
• Family violence. When the judge has found family violence, the statute says the safety and well-being of the child and the victim parent come first. A parent who leaves or relocates because of violence is not treated as abandoning the child, and the judge may not refuse evidence of violence just because there was no earlier finding. The judge may order supervised visitation.
• A child’s choice. A child aged 14 or older may choose the parent to live with. The choice is “presumptive” unless that parent is found not to be in the child’s best interests, may on its own count as a material change, and can be made only once in two years. For a child aged 11 to 13 the judge considers the child’s wishes and educational needs, but they are not controlling, and the choice alone is not a material change. The judge may order a trial period of up to six months.
• Evaluations. The judge may order a psychological custody evaluation of the family or an independent medical evaluation.

While your case is pending

• When someone files to change custody, the judge may change the terms temporarily until final judgment. The statute says such a temporary award is not a ruling on the parties’ rights.
• A parent who plans to change residence must, unless a court order says otherwise, notify the other parent at least 30 days beforehand, with the full new address. A custodial parent must also notify anyone else with visitation rights.

Where to file

• Before 1 July 2019, OCGA 19-9-23(a) said a complaint to change legal custody had to be brought as a separate action in the county where the child’s legal custodian lived. In Viskup v. Viskup (2012) the Supreme Court applied that rule: residence is measured on the day the petition is filed, if service follows within a reasonable time, and a later move does not change the proper county.
• The current subsection (a) says a complaint seeking a change of legal or physical custody “shall be initiated in compliance with” Article VI, Section II, Paragraph VI of the Georgia Constitution. The statute does not spell out a county. As quoted by Ballotpedia, a secondary source and not the official text, that paragraph says other civil cases “shall be tried in the county where the defendant resides”, and it has exceptions we did not read. In a custody modification the defendant is generally the other parent, so this may point to the other parent’s county. That is our inference, and we did not find a court decision applying it to custody changes since 2019. Ask the clerk of the superior court, or a lawyer, before you file.
• Subsection (b) says a custody-change complaint cannot be filed in response to a habeas corpus petition to enforce a custody order, or in response to any other action or motion to enforce one, including a motion for contempt. Subsection (c) bans using a complaint in the nature of habeas corpus to seek a change of custody.
• Subsection (d) says a party may bring a counterclaim for modification of legal or physical custody in response to a complaint under subsection (a). A 2019 amendment, effective 1 July 2019, rewrote this section, so court decisions from before 2019 apply the earlier wording.

Attorney fees

Subsection (g) of OCGA 19-9-3 lets the judge order reasonable attorney fees and the costs of a custody action, including experts and the child’s guardian ad litem, in proportions and at times the judge decides, and fees may be awarded at both the temporary and final hearing. Two Georgia decisions say OCGA 19-9-3(g) authorizes a trial court to order the parties to pay reasonable attorney fees and other costs of the custody action, in proportions and at times the judge decides, and that this applies to a modification action. The 2024 court added that fees in a child support case can be awarded under OCGA 19-6-15(k)(5) “as the interests of justice may require”, that the trial court has wide discretion, and that there must be sufficient proof of the actual costs and their reasonableness. It also said a judge awarding fees under either statute does not have to split the award between them. In 2012 the Supreme Court said subsection (g) does not require the judge to consider the parties’ financial circumstances.

If you were never married to the other parent

The 2024 court noted that until a child born outside of marriage is legitimated, the mother is entitled to sole custody under OCGA 19-7-25. A legitimation petition may also include claims for visitation, parenting time or custody under OCGA 19-7-22(g), and the court decides those claims on the child’s best interests.

Grandparent visitation and handing decisions to an expert

• Grandparent visitation. In Pate v. Sadlock, 345 Ga. App. 591 (2018), the Court of Appeals explained OCGA 19-7-3. A grandparent can ask for visitation by filing an original action, only once in any two-year period and not in a year when another custody action has been filed about the child, or by intervening in an existing qualifying case. The court may grant visitation only if it finds, by “clear and convincing evidence”, that the child’s health or welfare would be harmed without it and that visitation serves the child’s best interests, and it must make “specific written findings of fact”. The court said the same standard applies when a grandparent asks to change existing visitation.
• The judge decides, not an expert. The court repeated the Supreme Court’s rule that deciding whether to modify or suspend custody or visitation cannot be delegated to another person, however expert. An expert’s opinion can be evidence. In that case, an order for supervised reunification therapy was upheld because the judge kept control and set a follow-up hearing.

Before you file

• Court staff cannot give legal advice. See legal aid in Georgia for free or low-cost help.
• Georgia has more than one court that handles these cases, and forms and local rules vary by county. Ask the clerk of the superior court in your county what to file and what it costs. This page does not state a fee.

What we could not confirm

• The statute text. We read OCGA 19-9-3 as published by Justia in its 2025 edition, which is not the official Georgia source, and the code’s own history lists no amendment after 2022. We did not compare it with the official code. We read OCGA 19-9-23 in the same 2025 edition. We saw the constitutional paragraph it points to only as quoted by Ballotpedia, not from the official text, and we did not read 19-7-3, 19-7-22, 19-7-25 or 19-6-15; for those we rely on the three decisions below.
• Other cases. We read three cases, Viskup (2012), Pate v. Sadlock (2018) and Davis v. Taylor (2024), and only the parts of earlier cases they quote. We did not read any decision after February 2024, or court rules or local practice. We do not describe how courts treat the factors in practice beyond what these three say.
• Forms, service and timing. We did not find a statewide custody modification form, a filing fee, a service rule or a hearing timeline. See the Fulton County form we describe on our Georgia support page as an example only.
• Parenting plans and relocation. We did not read the rules on parenting plans (19-9-1) or on moving away with a child.

Spot something out of date? See our corrections or email hello@thecusp.app.

Sources

• OCGA 19-9-3, 2025 edition, as published by Justia (unofficial copy), read 4 November 2026
• OCGA 19-9-23, 2025 edition, as published by Justia (unofficial copy), read 4 November 2026
• Ballotpedia, Article VI of the Georgia Constitution, Section 2, Paragraph VI (secondary source), read 4 November 2026
• Supreme Court of Georgia, Viskup v. Viskup, 291 Ga. 103, 727 S.E.2d 97 (decided 24 April 2012), read 4 November 2026
• Court of Appeals of Georgia, Pate v. Sadlock, 345 Ga. App. 591, 814 S.E.2d 760 (decided 3 May 2018), read 4 November 2026
• Court of Appeals of Georgia, Davis v. Taylor, 370 Ga. App. 837, 898 S.E.2d 574 (decided 13 February 2024), read 4 November 2026