People move out of Illinois every day for better job opportunities. If they’re no longer with their child’s other parent, those job opportunities must be weighed against preparing a whole new parenting schedule if the move occurs. If you attempt to move and take the child with you, you’ll face a series of legal hurdles if the other parent invokes their rights. Relocating With A Child When There Is No Court-Ordered Custody If there is no court-ordered custody, you can move out of Illinois with the child and enroll the child in a new school without asking the other parent. If the other parent doesn’t file anything in an Illinois court, you can object to any Illinois filings as being in the wrong jurisdiction. The appropriate state in which to file any motion regarding custody is the “home state”. “(1) this State is the home state of the child on the date of the commencement of the proceeding, or was the home state of the child within six months before the commencement of the proceeding and the child is absent from this State but a parent or person acting as a parent continues to live in this State” 750 ILCS 36/201(a) “’Home state’ means the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child-custody proceeding. In the case of a child less than six months of age, the term means the state in which the child lived from birth with any of the persons mentioned. A period of temporary absence of any of the mentioned persons is part of the period.” 750 ILCS 36/102(7) If a parent isn’t willing to file something within 6 months of their child’s absence, you probably won’t have any issues with the child being allowed to permanently move to your new state for any reason. Moving with a child and waiting six months to establish residency in a new state is an extraordinarily risky strategy because at any time if a parent does file a motion to demand the child return, that motion will probably be granted barring some massive issue. “A court may order a temporary allocation of parental responsibilities in the child’s best interests before the entry of a final allocation judgment. Any temporary allocation shall be made in accordance with the standards […]
