Can You Move Children Out-of-State?
If you are raising children with another parent who does not live in your household with you, life can be complicated. Depending upon your custody agreement and how parenting time and responsibility are shared, you may need to make decisions jointly with someone you don’t live with and may not get along very well with. This can make it complicated for you to do things like move to a new area to explore career or personal opportunities.
If you want to relocate with your children and the child’s other parent isn’t coming with you, you need to determine if you have the legal authority to move children out-of-state. An Irvine child custody lawyer at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can evaluate your circumstances to help you to determine if making a move will be permitted.
If there is the potential the court could allow you to move your children, our experienced attorneys will provide assertive, knowledgeable legal representation to help you make the best arguments in support of your right to relocate your kids. Call as soon as possible to get help so we can provide you with assistance and advice.
Can You Move Children Out-of-State?
Your ability to move children out-of-state is going to depend upon the other parent of the children, as well as any custody agreements you may already have in place.
- If there is no custody agreement and the other parent hasn’t petitioned for custody, you likely can move your children.
- If there is no custody agreement and the other parent is petitioning for custody or asserting parental rights, you are likely not going to be able to move until your custody case is resolved and a parenting agreement or custody agreement is in place. Whether you can move will depend upon the terms of the custody order created.
- If there is a custody agreement in place giving you sole physical and legal custody, you likely can move your children. If the other parent has limited or supervised visitation, you may need to go to court to get permission to move and to change the visitations schedule.
- If there is a custody agreement in place and the other parent agrees to allow you to modify the agreement and move, you can petition the court together for modification. You can move your children according to the new terms of your parenting plan or custody order.
- If there is a custody agreement in place providing shared custody and the other parent does not agree to a move, you will have to convince the court to allow you to move over the other parent’s objections before you can move children out-of-state.
If you want to convince the court to allow you to take your children out of state, you need to prove to the court it is in the best interests of the child to relocate. You can highlight things like economic opportunity or more connections to extended family to try to convince the court that relocation is best for your children.
Brown & Charbonneau, LLP will help you try to argue that you should be allowed to move children out-of-state so you can relocate with the children you love. Contact our Irvine child custody lawyers today to learn more.