Cook County divorce lawyer James Kelly discusses Illinois law regarding moving a minor child out of state. This applies to all divorce cases in Illinois including Palatine, Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows and all other cities in Illinois.

The purpose of this blog is to inform the reader as to the procedure and law that dictates when when a minor child can be moved out of state after a divorce has been concluded. 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(b) reads as follows,
“A Parent who has been allocated a majority of the parenting time or either parent who has been allocated equal parenting time may seek to relocate with a child.”

Under the old laws the parent who had custody of the minor child was allowed to ask the court for leave to remove the minor child from the jurisdiction of Illinois. The parent who had visitation did not have the required standing to ask the court to remove the child.

The new relocation statute ultimately says the same thing but in a different way. The new relocation statute allows the parent with the majority of the parenting time to remove the minor child. The parent with the majority of the parenting time is in essence the parent who has custody of the child. The new relocation statute also allows either parent who has equal time with the minor child can seek to remove the child from the state of Illinois. Thus, even though a parent has equal time with a child, his or her parenting time can be effected by the removal of the child by the other parent.

Next we will look at what notice is required to remove the child from the State of Illinois.