How to File a Complaint for Child Custody/Visitation in NC

To file for child custody in NC, you file a Complaint for Custody/Visitation along with a sworn affidavit about the child’s residency and a civil summons at the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the child lives, pay a $150 filing fee, arrange for the other parent to be formally served, and then attend court-ordered mediation before any contested hearing. North Carolina General Statute 50-13.1 gives any parent, relative, or other person with a legitimate interest in the child the right to bring the case.¹ Each step has its own rules, and skipping one can send you back to the start.

Make Sure North Carolina Can Hear the Case

Jurisdiction comes first. Under the Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, codified in North Carolina as Chapter 50A, the child generally must have lived in the state with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before filing.² For a child younger than six months, the state where the child has lived since birth counts. Short absences during that period still count toward the six months.

If the child only recently moved to North Carolina, or if a court in another state already entered a custody order, jurisdiction gets complicated. Filing in the wrong state wastes the fee and the months of waiting, because the case will be dismissed and you will start over in the correct court.

Fill Out the Right Forms

North Carolina uses standardized forms from the Administrative Office of the Courts. The clerk will not accept an incomplete filing, so getting these right the first time matters.

Three documents form the core of a custody filing:

The Complaint for Custody/Visitation (AOC-CV-600) is the main pleading. It identifies the parties, describes the child, states the custody or visitation arrangement you are asking for, and explains why the court should grant it.
The Affidavit as to Status of Minor Child (AOC-CV-609) is required by General Statute 50A-209 and must accompany every custody complaint. You list every address where the child has lived during the past five years, the adults who lived with the child during each period, and any other court cases involving the child’s custody. The affidavit must be notarized.³⁴
The Civil Summons (AOC-CV-100) formally notifies the other parent that a lawsuit has been filed and states the deadline to respond. The clerk issues it when you file the complaint.⁵

All forms can be downloaded from NCcourts.gov or picked up at the courthouse.

Information to Gather Before You Start

Before you sit down with the forms, collect the full legal names and current addresses of both parents and anyone else involved. You will also need the child’s full name, date of birth, and current address. For the five-year residency affidavit, reconstruct the child’s living history as accurately as you can: dates, addresses, and every adult in the household during each period. The statute asks for what is “reasonably ascertainable,” but gaps invite jurisdictional challenges from the other side.

Decide before filing whether you are asking for legal custody, physical custody, or both. Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about education, health care, and religious upbringing. Physical custody governs where the child lives and how time is divided. You can request sole or joint arrangements for either, and the complaint should say exactly what you want.

File With the Clerk of Court

Take the completed, notarized documents to the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the child lives. The civil filing fee is $150.⁶ Filing emergency motions at the same time may add fees.

If you cannot afford the fee, ask the court to waive it by filing a Petition to Proceed as an Indigent (AOC-G-106).⁷ The court reviews your income and financial situation before deciding. Filing the petition at the same time as the complaint saves a second trip.

Bring at least two extra copies of everything. The clerk file-stamps the originals and your copies, keeps one as the permanent case file, and returns the rest for serving the other parent and your own records. The date stamped on your documents is the official start of the case and triggers every deadline that follows.

Serve the Other Parent

North Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure 4 requires that the other parent receive formal notice of the lawsuit before the court can act.⁸ You cannot hand the papers over yourself. Three methods are standard.

The most straightforward is personal service by the sheriff. The county sheriff delivers the papers to the other parent at home or work and files a return of service with the court. The statutory fee is $30 for each item of civil process served.⁹

You can also serve the complaint by certified mail with return receipt requested. The green card, signed by the defendant or someone authorized to receive their mail, proves delivery. File the signed card with the court along with an affidavit confirming service.

When the other parent cannot be located despite reasonable efforts, Rule 4(j1) allows service by publication. A notice runs once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper qualified for legal advertising in the area where the other parent is believed to be. If you know or can reasonably find a mailing address, you must also mail a copy at or before the first publication. The court will want to see what steps you took to find the other parent before approving this method. A defendant served by publication has 40 days to respond instead of the standard 30.

What Happens After Service

Once properly served, the other parent has 30 days to file a written answer with the Clerk of Superior Court (40 days if served by publication).⁵ The answer can deny your allegations, raise counterclaims, or request a different arrangement. If the other parent misses the deadline, you can ask for a default judgment, but judges are cautious about entering default custody orders. The court will still want some evidence that your proposed arrangement serves the child’s best interest even when the other parent never appears.

Mandatory Custody Mediation

Before any contested custody case reaches trial, the court sends it to the state-sponsored Custody and Visitation Mediation Program.¹⁰ General Statute 50-13.1 requires this in every county with an established program, which at this point is nearly all of them.¹

The process usually starts with an orientation session on how parental conflict affects children. Both parents then meet with a neutral mediator to work through schedules, holidays, and decision-making responsibilities. The mediator cannot impose a result. Sessions are confidential, and nothing said in mediation can be used at trial if the process fails. If the parents reach agreement, the mediator drafts a Parenting Agreement, and once both parents and a judge sign it, the agreement becomes a court order with the same force as a judgment entered after trial.

Mediation can be waived for good cause, including allegations of domestic violence between the parents, allegations of child abuse or neglect, allegations of alcohol or drug abuse, serious psychological or psychiatric problems, either parent living more than 50 miles from the court, a private mediation agreement subject to court approval, or undue hardship. Either parent can file a motion for a waiver, or the judge can waive it on their own.¹ If safety is a concern, raise it early rather than waiting for mediation to be scheduled.

When mediation does not produce an agreement, the mediator notifies the court that the case can be set for trial.¹¹ A contested custody hearing will not be scheduled until the file shows mediation was attempted and failed, or a waiver is in place.

When the Child Is in Immediate Danger

If you cannot wait months for a hearing, General Statute 50-13.5 allows a judge to enter an emergency temporary custody order without first notifying the other parent, but only in narrow circumstances. The court must find that the child faces a substantial risk of bodily injury or sexual abuse, or a substantial risk of being removed from North Carolina to evade the court’s jurisdiction.¹²

These orders are temporary by design. Once entered, the order must be served on the other parent, and the court must hold a hearing within 10 to 15 days to decide whether to continue, modify, or dissolve it. If the situation does not meet the emergency threshold, the court can still enter a temporary custody order once it has jurisdiction and the other parent has notice and a chance to be heard. Temporary orders stay in place until a final custody determination at trial or a mediated agreement replaces them.

If You Are Not a Parent

The statute covers more than parents. Any relative or other person claiming the right to custody of a minor child can file, and so can certain agencies.¹ A person whose conduct led to a conviction for certain sex offenses and the conception of the child, however, cannot claim custody of that child.

Non-parents face a higher bar than parents. The North Carolina Supreme Court held in Petersen v. Rogers that a parent’s constitutional right to custody prevails unless the parent is found unfit or has neglected the child’s welfare.¹³ A grandparent, stepparent, or other relative who wants full custody over a parent’s objection has to clear that threshold; showing that the child might be “better off” with the third party is not enough.

Grandparents seeking visitation have a narrower path. Under General Statute 50-13.2(b1), a custody order can include visitation rights for a grandparent when the court considers it appropriate, but grandparents do not have a freestanding right to file a visitation case at any time.¹⁴ The term includes biological grandparents of a child adopted by a stepparent or relative when a real relationship exists. If both biological parents’ rights have been terminated and neither adoptive parent is related to the child, a biological grandparent has no visitation claim.

1
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 50-13.1 – Action or Proceeding for Custody of Minor Child
2
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code Chapter 50A – Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
3
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Affidavit As To Status Of Minor Child
4
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 50A-209 – Information to Be Submitted to Court
5
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Civil Summons – AOC-CV-100
6
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Complaint for Custody and/or Visitation Instructions
7
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Petition To Proceed As An Indigent
8
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 1A-1 Rule 4 – Process
9
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 7A-311 – Uniform Civil Process Fees
10
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Child Custody and Visitation Mediation Program
11
North Carolina Judicial Branch. Rules for the Custody and Visitation Mediation Program
12
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 50-13.5 – Procedure in Actions for Custody or Support of Minor Children
13
Justia Law. Petersen v Rogers – North Carolina Supreme Court 1994
14
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 50-13.2 – Custody and Visitation Determination