DO I need the father's permission to travel to CA from NY?

Nope. You don’t need permission. It is up to you if you want to let him know. As a suggestion, you can let him know so his expectations are not tied to that 3 week thing you have going. This may help to head anything off and not ruin the time with your family.

It doesn’t sound like there is anything legally binding you to communicate this.

He does have a right to fight for custody. But it doesn’t seem like he want’s it since he only shows up every few weeks.

Take your kid where ever the hell you want. If he wants to do anything about it he is going to have to lawyer up, and even if he does he will more than likely just lose custody all together.

TL;DR: it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. All else fails, hit the gym and lawyer up.

If the baby was born out of wedlock and he never fought for custody then he most likely has zero custody rights legally, so no problem, you don’t need anything frm him. Unless Califronia works differently than most states.

Out of the country yes, but out of the state, no, unless it is specified differently in your child support order assuming you have one.

I mean NY. I had it backwards, laws in NY.

No, you do not need his permission, but it would be common courtesy (and avoid problems) to tell him when you will be out of town.

As other said only to travel out of the country not from state to state. If you were going out of the country the father would need to sign off for the child to get a passport if he is listed on the birth certificate. If you think there is a chance he may disappear someday I would suggest getting your child a passport while they are young while he is in the picture because my sister was unable to take her children anywhere out of the country even though their father disappeared out of their lives when they were only 2 and 4 and when they got older there were places that she was forced to not take them since she was unable to get a passport for them.

You would need permission of him or the court if he has court ordered visitation and you plan to move permanently. It would probably be better if you let him know you were going and make it easy to rearrange his visitation schedule if your trip coincides with when he would normally see the child.

It sounds like he is at least nominally involved in the child’s life, and you should not jeopordize that relationship if he is not an unfit father.

@Judi has it right—from a travel/TSA/airline perspective they will not expect to see a birth certificate or identification for your infant (nor will you need the father’s permission) to travel out-of-state…but you would need to have his notarized signature & assistance if you were getting a passport or traveling out-of-country.

You need to be sure to get a court order that spells out the rights and privileges of the father and the mother. If you haven’t been to court for a legal custody hearing, do it immediately. The father has the right to go to court and take the child any time he wants, unless you have a legal custody judgement from the court.