Your current orders may contain provisions that differ from the relocation statute. That order will need to be followed. The Arizona statute currently states 100 miles and is typically interpreted to mean the distance from the current location of where you have been living. If a parent has moved several times since the current order was entered, and each time that parent is moving further away, the Court will take that into consideration if the other parent objects to the children relocating or having to travel regularly for weekend and holiday parenting time.
Relocation cases are difficult when the parents do not agree. Many times, the objection to relocating the children is based on logistics of how much time children are spending traveling, and the ability of a parent to rearrange their schedule. If the move results in changes in school, medical provider, and so forth, the non moving parent may also disagree because they have no first hand knowledge of what the child is moving to. The Court may want to know that the moving parent has an established job and been at the new location for awhile before moving the child to live in primarily in the new location. The Court will also look at whether the moving parent can afford the consequences of a long distance parenting plan and exchanges. Often, the moving parent has to pay for these since they are the one that chose to move.
Even when parents do agree, a new order typically needs to be entered with the Court because the current parenting plan does not work when one parent moves a long distance away.
Answered on Jul 28th, 2015 at 11:18 AM