James Kelly, Palatine and Arlington Heights divorce lawyer, discusses Moving A Minor Child Out Of State (Part I), after a divorce.
The purpose of this blog is to inform the reader as to the procedure and law about moving a minor child out of state after a divorce has been concluded. This is in accordance to section 750 ILCS 5/609.2.
In any dissolution of marriage proceeding in the State of Illinois, and when there are minor children whose custody is determined as part of the proceeding, the State of Illinois will retain jurisdiction over the minor children. Furthermore, the minor children are to remain in the State of Illinois until such time as the court grants one parent or the other permission to remove the minor children from the State of Illinois. Typically, however, it is the parent who has custody or residential custody or the majority of parental allocation responsibility that must seek permission of the Court to remove the children from the State of Illinois.
Thus section 705 ILCS 5/609.2 is the statutory section that provides the mechanics for the court procedure that must be followed when seeking to remove a minor child from the jurisdiction of Illinois. We shall now look at the statute itself and analyze this statute.
The first section of 750 ILCS 5/609.2(a) reads as follows, “A parent’s relocation constitutes a substantial change in circumstances for purposes of Section 610.5.”
Thus a relocation by itself constitutes a substantial change in circumstances. Thus, it is now presumed that a relocation itself satisfies the substantial change in circumstances requirement. Remember that anytime a party wishes to change custody or visitation or in this case the place where the minor child resides, the party seeking the change must show a substantial change in circumstance and the court would have to agree that the change was a substantial change in circumstance. Now it is presumed according to the statute.
Next we will look at when based on where the child is being moved to, this statute is triggered.
