Moving out of state can become difficult after a divorce. After all, maybe you and your co-parent have a child together. You got divorced and you divided custody. Perhaps your child lives with you for one week and then lives with your ex for the next week.
But if you want to move, it would disrupt the child custody schedule to the point that it would potentially be impossible. The arrangement would have to be completely changed for your ex to still have contact with the child, and they may not be happy about this.
Why are you trying to move?
What you need to do is to go to court and get a modification of the child custody arrangement. You don’t just want to move on your own and deny your ex their custody time. This would be illegal and they could actually take action to seek sole custody of the child as a result. You definitely don’t want to do this yourself and you only want to move after you’ve taken the legal steps to get the modification.
When asking for that modification, you may be required to provide reasons to move. The court doesn’t want you to move just so that your ex doesn’t get to see the child. They want to see that there would be a positive benefit and that it would be a net gain for the child’s quality of life. Examples of potential reasons to move include things like being closer to extended family members, finding an area with a better standard of living, going to school to further your education or taking a job that you’ve been offered.
But, once again, the key here is to make sure that you go through the proper legal channels before you move. Make sure you know exactly what steps to take.
