The relocation and removal of children has become an issue more and more frequently seen by courts because of the increasing mobility in American life.

In relocation and removal of a child, courts in general balance the custodial parent’s constitutional right to travel against the state’s primary physical custody than when that custody is shared or joint (and often been more likely to approve the moves of the former than the latter).

That said, courts permit the custodial parent to remove a child, based on the idea that what is good for the parent is also good for the child, (sometimes called the "real advantage" theory).

In general, courts permit the best interest of the child.

For the sake of the children, many couples attempt to live in proximity to one another at the onset of their divorce; so the issue of relocation typically comes up after the parents have been divorced for some time. Very often the impetus for the move is a career change or the fresh start of a new marriage.

If possible, lawyers advise the custodial parent who plans to relocate to discuss these plans with his or her lawyer at the time of the divorce. On veteran matrimonial lawyer advises that this applies to moves of 100 miles or more within the state or moves out of state.

Courts do not have a fixed definition of long distance. Relocation of 100 or fewer miles generally may not be an undue visitation are now taken into consideration and may become the responsibility of the custodial parent.

Beyond 100 miles, the very quality of the relationship between a child and his or her noncustodial parent will be markedly different because the exercise of custodial parent cannot reasonably exercise them without a heroic effort.

The long-distance relocation of a minor child can work to the disadvantage of a children by custodial mothers has helped fuel what is known as the "father’s rights" movement.

Different states apply different standards to relocations. In general, in custody cases involving shared or alternating physical custody permission to relocate is more difficult to obtain.

In this and so many other areas of family and divorce, the relocation of a child evokes in a judge the agonies of King Solomon, and if at all possible, it is best for the parents, not the court, to work out child custody. Unless there is a compelling reason otherwise, it is in the best children to have both parents in their lives.

See also Father’s Rights.