§ 19-11-101.Definitions

This is the dictionary for Georgia’s Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. Its 29 definitions shape how every other section in Article 3 works, so a reader trying to understand an interstate support case often has to come back here.

Several definitions reach further than a reader might expect. A “child” is anyone, over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed support by a parent or who benefits from a support order directed to the parent; a “child support order” includes an order for a child who has reached the age of majority under the issuing state’s or country’s law. A “support order” covers orders for a child, a spouse or a former spouse — temporary or final — providing for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support, or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support, and may include costs, fees, interest, income withholding and reasonable attorney’s fees. “State” includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, U.S. territories and insular possessions, and an Indian nation or tribe.

“Home state” is the state or foreign country where the child lived with a parent or a person acting as parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the support petition was filed; for a child less than six months old, it is where the child has lived since birth with any of them. Temporary absences count toward the period. A “foreign country” must authorize the issuance of support orders and must qualify in one of four ways: the United States has declared it a foreign reciprocating country; it has a reciprocal arrangement with Georgia under § 19-11-127; it has substantially similar laws or procedures; or the Hague convention of November 23, 2007, is in force between it and the United States.

The definitions also sort out the roles. The “obligee” is the individual owed support, a government that holds assigned support rights or has its own claim based on financial assistance it provided in place of child support, someone seeking a parentage judgment for his or her child, or a creditor in a convention proceeding under Part 7. The “obligor” is the individual — or a decedent’s estate — who owes or is alleged to owe support, is alleged but not adjudicated to be a parent, is liable under a support order, or is a debtor in a Part 7 proceeding. The “issuing” tribunal or state made the order; the “initiating” tribunal is where a petition starts for forwarding elsewhere; the “responding” state is where a petition is filed or forwarded for filing; the “registering” tribunal is where an order is registered. A “tribunal” is any court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to set, enforce or modify support or determine parentage. The section was last amended in 2024.