VSC
Vegas Support Center
Clark County, Nevada
Holiday season

Grandparent visitation in Nevada: when a parent won't let you see the grandkids

In plain words: Nevada lets grandparents, great-grandparents, the child's brothers and sisters, and some people the child lived with ask a district court for a reasonable right to visit, but only in certain family situations, and only after a parent has denied or unreasonably limited visits. The court starts by presuming visits against a parent's wishes are not in the child's best interest, and you must prove otherwise by clear and convincing evidence (NRS 125C.050).

Can you ask the court?

Grandparents and siblings can ask if a parent
  • Has died
  • Is divorced or separated from the parent with custody
  • Never married the other parent but lived with them, and has died or separated from them
  • Gave up parental rights, or had them terminated (NRS 125C.050(1))
Someone the child lived with
  • A person, related or not, the child lived with and has a meaningful relationship with
  • Can ask after they stop living with the child (NRS 125C.050(2), (8))
First, visits must be blocked
  • A parent must have denied visits or unreasonably restricted them (NRS 125C.050(3))
  • Keep the texts, emails and dates of every refused visit
What "separated" means
  • Living apart for 30 days or more with no plan to get back together
  • For an unmarried couple: no plan to move back in or marry (NRS 125C.050(10))

What the judge weighs (NRS 125C.050(6))

Your bond with the child
  • Love, affection and emotional ties
  • Your past relationship, including whether the child lived with you and was part of holidays and family gatherings with you
  • The child's own preference, if old enough to say
You as a caregiver
  • Being a role model and giving guidance
  • Providing food, clothes and health care during visits
  • Your moral fitness and your mental and physical health
  • Financial support you've given the child
Working with the parents
  • Whether you'll support the child's relationship with the parents and other relatives
  • The child's medical and other health needs as affected by visits
  • Anything else specific to why visits are needed against a parent's wishes

Steps

1. Try once more, in writing. Ask for a specific holiday visit, a date and a time. A calm written request, and the answer, become your proof that visits were denied or restricted.
2. Gather proof of your relationship. Photos from past holidays and birthdays, cards, school pickups, times the child stayed with you, money you gave for the child's needs.
3. File in the right court. The petition goes to the district court in the county where the child lives (NRS 125C.050(1)). Visits can also be set in a divorce decree or a separate maintenance order (NRS 125C.050(8)). How filing works without a lawyer: court without a lawyer.
The child is in foster care or parental rights are ending

If a parent's rights are given up or terminated and the child goes to a public or licensed private agency, grandparents, great-grandparents and the child's siblings must file their petition before the date the parental rights end. In that case the court decides on the lesser standard, a preponderance of the evidence (NRS 125C.050(7)).

You already have visitation, and a parent's rights are terminated

If the court terminates the rights of a parent who is divorced or separated, visitation granted under this law ends too, unless the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that your visits are in the child's best interests (NRS 125C.050(9)).

Parents fighting over the holiday schedule

That's a custody order question, not grandparent visitation: see holiday custody schedules and divorce. If you're raising the child yourself, see guardianship.

Help

Free and low-cost
A child is in danger

Read 2026-11-05 from Nevada Revised Statutes on this house's law shelf: NRS 125C.050 (chapter 125C, Rev. 9/9/2026).