Perhaps when you were young and single, you moved fairly frequently, searching for a better home, a new job, an educational opportunity, or just because you wanted a change. Before you made these moves, you may have asked your friends and family for advice, but you didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission.
But relocation, like so many aspects of life, becomes more complicated when you have children. And, if you are subject to a child custody order, you are not free to move with your child. You will almost certainly have to ask for the other parent’s consent to the move. If they object, you may have to go back to court.
Child custody orders
If you have sole custody of your child, you are most likely free to move wherever you want with your child. The issue we’re talking about in this post involves parents who are subject to a child custody order.
Typically, parents work out a child custody arrangement themselves and then send it for approval by the court. The court formalizes the arrangement in an order that makes the arrangement legally enforceable. Each parent has rights to visitation with their child, and if the other parent interferes with those rights — for instance, by refusing to let the other parent see their child — they can petition the court for enforcement.
Similarly, when one parent moves away with the child, this can interfere with the other parent’s visitation rights. For this reason, most custody orders contain a provision saying that a custodial parent who wishes to move with the child must give the other parent at least 30 days notice of their intentions. Virginia law does not specify how far away this move must be before notice is required, but if the move is far enough away that it will interfere with the other parent’s visitation rights, that parent can object to the move.
If this happens, the parent who seeks relocation must request a modification to the child custody agreement. In doing so, they must prove to the court that the move is in the child’s best interests.
