Can you relocate with your children? Maybe.
In Arizona, there are some restrictions on relocating with your children if both parents are entitled to joint legal decision making or parenting time, and both parents reside in Arizona. Arizona Revised Statute 25-408 sets forth the particulars:
A. If by written agreement or court order both parents are entitled to joint legal decision-making or parenting time and both parents reside in the state, at least forty-five days’ advance written notice shall be provided to the other parent before a parent may do either of the following:
1. Relocate the child outside the state.
2. Relocate the child more than one hundred miles within the state.
B. The notice required by this section shall be made by certified mail, return receipt requested, or pursuant to the Arizona rules of family law procedure. The court shall sanction a parent who, without good cause, does not comply with the notification requirements of this subsection. The court may impose a sanction that will affect legal decision-making or parenting time only in accordance with the child’s best interests.
C. Within thirty days after notice is made the nonmoving parent may petition the court to prevent relocation of the child. After expiration of this time any petition or other application to prevent relocation of the child may be granted only on a showing of good cause. This subsection does not prohibit a parent who is seeking to relocate the child from petitioning the court for a hearing, on notice to the other parent, to determine the appropriateness of a relocation that may adversely affect the other parent’s legal decision-making or parenting time rights.
Arizona statutes set forth a procedure you must follow if you want to relocate with your children
When can you relocate without providing notice?
- If you and the other parent live in separate states, you do not need to provide notice to the other parent prior to relocating.
- If you want to relocate less than 100 miles and you want to stay in Arizona, you do not need to provide notice the other parent prior to relocating.
- If you have sole legal decision making and the other parent has zero parenting time, you do not need to provide notice to the other parent prior to relocating.
- A.R.S. 25-408(D) also provides that you do not need to provide notice if “provision for relocation of a child has been made by a court order or a written agreement of the parties that is dated within one year of the proposed relocation of the child.
Otherwise, you are required to provide at least 45 days notice to the other parent prior to relocating.