Legal Question in Family Law in California

You can leave the state with the child at any time BEFORE you file a petition for divorce or separation. Once you file you are under an automatic restraining order against taking the child out of state without court permission, and the same order would apply to him once he is served with the petition and summons. However, if you move before filing, you would still be subject to the father's right to request a court order that the child be returned to California. He would have six months in which to do that, and it would pretty much be automatically granted, and could (depending on all the details and circumstances) result in him receiving temporary custody if you have fully relocated out of state. If you disobeyed that order, or take the child out of state without court permission after filing for divorce or separation, that would be when you could be charged with parental kidnapping.