Legal Question in Family Law in California

That depends on whether you have a divorce proceeding on file or not. If not, she can do whatever she wants, subject to you asking a court to undo it. If she refuses to return, she has done nothing illegal. Since the children's habitual place of residence for the last six months minimum, has been California, however, and since she too has resided in California, if she refuses to return California will still have jurisdiction over the children and the divorce, and can order the children returned to California. Of course you would then have to get a California court request to the NY courts for enforcement and then file that in the NY courts and get an order enforcing the "sister state" order. All of that would be pretty automatic, just a matter of going through the hassle and paying for it. So if you're not sure what she'll do, you can wait and see and then file if she actually refuses to bring them home. If you are sure of what she is going to do, however, you are better off getting a divorce on file and served right away. That will put in place an automatic restraining order against leaving the state with the children, and violation of that would be a very serious offense.