The purpose of this blog is to inform the reader as to the procedure and law that dictates when moving a minor child out of Illinois after a divorce has been concluded. This affects Arlington Heights divorce, Palatine divorce, Rolling Meadows divorce, and all other areas of Illinois.

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 for moving a minor child out of Illinois.

In the last blog we began the discussion of what type of move constitutes a “relocation” within the meaning of the amended statutes section 750 ILCS 5/600(g). The Third subsection of Section 600(g) states, “A change of residence from the child’s current primary residence outside the borders of this State that is more than 25 miles from the current primary residence to a residence outside the borders of this State that is more than 25 miles from the current primary residence.”

This subsection finally deals with the removal of a minor child to another state. Under the previous draft of the removal legislation, any move outside of the State of Illinois would require a Petition to Remove the Child from the Jurisdiction of Illinois. In most moves outside of the State of Illinois a Petition to Remove would be required. Clearly that is still the case here. For example a move to Montana would clearly require the following of the Statute and the necessary filings would be required. However, that may not be the case for example if one lives in Illinois but close to the border of Wisconsin and they want to move lets say to Kenosha, Wisconsin. If that move is under 25 miles then no court approval may be necessary. That is so despite the fact that the parent and child now reside in a different state. This is radically different from the removal statute that was previously enacted.

Next we will look at what notice is required to remove the child from a jurisdiction.