Emancipation in Virginia

Hey I'm 16 and currently living in Virginia. My parents are living in South Carolina and I'm staying with a friend of mine. I'm no longer in school because my parents took me out when they moved. I want to get emancipated. I have a job and have had the same job since i turned 16 years old. I already support myself and i pay rent where i live. How should i go about emancipation, and do you think it will be granted to me because i read somewhere that if your willingly living outside of your parents house then you can easily be emancipated.

Virginia's emancipation law provides:

Quote:

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Quoting Virginia Code § 16.1-331. Petition for emancipation.

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Any minor who has reached his sixteenth birthday and is residing in this Commonwealth, or any parent or guardian of such minor, may petition the juvenile and domestic relations district court for the county or city in which either the minor or his parents or guardian resides for a determination that the minor named in the petition be emancipated. The petition shall contain, in addition to the information required by § 16.1-262, the gender of the minor and, if the petitioner is not the minor, the name of the petitioner and the relationship of the petitioner to the minor.

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It is generally true that if you are already living in an independent household, you are more likely to prevail in an emancipation action.

Ok I have a question, I have a friend who is 16, she no longer wants to live with her mother for many reasons. There is alot of mental abuse going on, yet she does not want to go in to a fauster home. She wants to move back to missouri. ( in which she is still a resident) so how does she go about becoming emancipated in the smallest frame of time. She has a job waiting for her and is still enrolled in a missouri school. She has a place to live. So what dose she do?

If she lives in Virginia, she can petition for emancipation as described above.

Once started, how long does this process take? And if it takes a while, is there any kind of emergency petition to get it done quickly?

Thanks for the info.

Emily