How to File for Parenting Time in Michigan: Forms, Costs, and Hearings

To file for parenting time in Michigan, you submit a written Motion Regarding Parenting Time (court form FOC 65) to the circuit court that handles your family case, pay the filing fee or request a waiver, mail a copy to the other parent, and then work through the county Friend of the Court before a referee or judge issues the order. Michigan law presumes a child benefits from a strong relationship with both parents, so a schedule is generally granted unless clear and convincing evidence shows contact would harm the child.¹

Forms and Information to Gather First

The primary form is the Motion Regarding Parenting Time, FOC 65. If you also want the court to decide custody, use the Motion Regarding Custody, FOC 87, instead.² You will also need form MC 416, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act Affidavit, which tells the court where your child has lived for the past five years. All of these are free on the Michigan Courts website or from your local Friend of the Court office.

Before you start filling anything out, pull together:

Full legal names, dates of birth, and current addresses for yourself, the other parent, and every child involved.
The case number from your existing divorce, paternity, or family support case. Your motion gets filed inside that case, not as a new one.
A clear statement of what you want: a first parenting time schedule, a change to the current one, or enforcement of an order the other parent is ignoring.

On the motion, be concrete about why your request serves the child. The judge measures your request against specific statutory best-interest factors, so a sentence like “the current schedule conflicts with the child’s school calendar and my revised work hours” carries more weight than general feelings. Factors the court weighs include the emotional bond between each parent and the child, each parent’s capacity to provide guidance and material care, the stability of each home, the child’s school and community ties, the child’s own preference if old enough, any history of domestic violence, and each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent.³ That last one matters more than people realize. A parent who badmouths the other, blocks phone calls, or manufactures scheduling conflicts hurts their own position on a factor the court is required to evaluate, and the Friend of the Court investigator is watching for it.

The court may also consider parenting-time-specific concerns like whether the child is a nursing infant, how much travel the schedule would require of the child, and the likelihood of abuse or neglect during visits.¹

Where to File, What It Costs, and How to Serve the Other Parent

File the completed motion with the circuit court clerk in the county where your original custody case was heard. Most Michigan courts accept electronic filing through the MiFILE system, or you can walk the papers into the clerk’s office. A filing fee is due at submission. Amounts vary by county; Kent County, for example, charges $80 for a post-judgment motion to modify custody or parenting time.⁴ If you cannot afford it, submit a fee waiver request at the same time; the court will review your finances and decide whether to waive the cost.

Once the motion is filed, you must notify the other parent. For post-judgment motions, service is done by first-class mail to the other parent’s last known address, and the court instructions direct you to handle this mailing yourself.² Mail the motion, the MC 416 affidavit, and the notice of hearing. If the other parent has an attorney, mail a copy to the attorney too. The documents must reach the other parent at least nine days before the hearing date.

After mailing, complete and sign the Certificate of Mailing at the bottom of the motion form, then file that certificate with the clerk.⁵ That certificate is your proof the other parent was notified. Without it, the court may refuse to proceed.

What Happens After You File

Once your motion is on file and served, the case moves to the Friend of the Court, the division of the circuit court that handles custody, parenting time, and support matters. The FOC does most of the work between your filing and the judge’s final decision.

Mediation

Many judges require parents to try mediation before a contested hearing.⁶ A neutral FOC staff member works with both parents to negotiate a schedule. The process is confidential, and nothing said in mediation can be used against you later if talks break down. If you reach an agreement, the mediator drafts a proposed order for the judge to sign. This is usually the fastest route, and parents who build their own schedule tend to follow it more reliably than one imposed on them.

Investigation and Referee Hearing

If mediation fails or the court skips it, the FOC investigates. An investigator interviews both parents, sometimes the children, and may contact teachers, therapists, or others who know the child’s daily life. The office then issues a written recommendation to the judge, with copies to both parents.

A referee, who functions like a judge for FOC matters, holds a hearing on the motion. Both parents can present testimony and evidence. The referee issues a recommended order based on the investigation, the hearing, and the best-interest factors. The judge gives this recommendation substantial weight.

If You Disagree With the Recommendation

You have 21 days after the referee’s recommendation is made available to you to file a written objection and request a de novo hearing before the judge.⁷ De novo means the judge reviews the matter fresh rather than rubber-stamping the referee’s work. You can re-present the evidence that went before the referee and add new evidence that was not available earlier.

The form is the Objection to Referee’s Recommended Order, FOC 68, on the Michigan Courts website.⁸ Miss the 21-day deadline and the referee’s recommendation becomes the court’s order. There is no good remedy once the deadline passes.

While your de novo hearing is pending, the referee’s recommendation can be entered as an interim order, meaning it takes effect immediately. Both parents must follow the interim order until the judge issues a final decision.

Changing an Order That Already Exists

If you already have a parenting time order and want to change it, the filing mechanics are the same: FOC 65, file with the clerk, serve the other parent. The legal standard is higher. You must show either “proper cause” or a “change of circumstances” that justifies revisiting the current arrangement.⁹ This keeps parents from filing new motions over minor grievances every few months.

A change of circumstances means something significant has shifted since the last order, such as a relocation, the child starting school, or a dramatic change in work schedule. Proper cause is narrower and can apply even without changed facts, such as discovering the other parent has been leaving the child unsupervised during visits.

If the change you want would alter the child’s established custodial environment, the bar rises again: you must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the modification is in the child’s best interests.⁹ A custodial environment is considered established when the child has looked to a parent in that setting for guidance, comfort, and daily needs over an appreciable period.

If the Other Parent Is Ignoring an Existing Order

If what you actually need is enforcement rather than a new schedule, the first step is a written complaint to the Friend of the Court. The FOC is required by law to enforce court-ordered parenting time when it receives a valid complaint.⁶ The office may contact the other parent, attempt to mediate, or recommend court action.

If informal enforcement does not work, you can file a motion asking the court to hold the other parent in contempt. Penalties can include fines, community service, or jail time for severe or repeated violations. The court can also order makeup parenting time, require the violating parent to pay your attorney fees and costs, add compliance conditions such as a bond, or require exchanges at a designated location.¹ Document every denial with dates, text messages, and any witnesses. That record is what separates a credible enforcement motion from a he-said, she-said the court cannot act on.

If One Parent Lives Out of State

Jurisdiction decides which state’s courts can act. Michigan follows the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, under which the child’s “home state,” meaning the state where the child has lived for at least six consecutive months before the case is filed, has authority.¹⁰ If Michigan issued the original custody order, Michigan generally keeps jurisdiction to modify it as long as one parent or the child continues to live here. A parent who moved to Ohio cannot file to change parenting time in an Ohio court if the other parent still lives in Michigan and the Michigan court has not relinquished jurisdiction.

The federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act requires every state to honor custody orders issued by another state with proper jurisdiction.¹¹ To enforce a Michigan order in another state, the UCCJEA provides a registration and enforcement procedure in that state’s courts.

If You Are on Active Military Duty

Active-duty military parents have specific federal protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If you receive notice of a parenting time proceeding while on active duty, you can request a stay of at least 90 days by providing a letter explaining how your duties prevent you from appearing and a letter from your commanding officer confirming leave is not authorized.¹²

Deployment alone cannot be the basis for permanently changing a custody or parenting time arrangement. If the other parent files to modify your parenting time while you are deployed, the court cannot treat your absence as the only factor in deciding what serves the child’s best interests, and any temporary order issued because of your deployment must expire when the deployment ends.¹³ Michigan law mirrors this, prohibiting courts from considering a parent’s absence due to active duty in best-interest determinations.⁹

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 722.27a – Parenting Time
2
Michigan Courts. Instructions for Motion Regarding Parenting Time
3
Child Welfare Information Gateway. Determining the Best Interests of the Child – Michigan
4
Kent County. Filing Fees
5
Saginaw County Friend of the Court. Instructions for Filing Motion Regarding Parenting Time
6
Michigan Courts. Michigan Parenting Time Guideline
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 552.507
8
Michigan Courts. Objection to Referee’s Recommended Order – FOC 68
9
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 722.27
10
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 722.1201 – Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
11
Legal Information Institute. Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA)
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 50 Section 3932 – Stay of Proceedings When Servicemember Has Notice
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 50 Section 3938 – Child Custody Protection