Relocation

[mark49]

Here is the situation.  Let me first start by stating that I reside on Guam, USA.  I have a 10 year old daughter and I have been separated from her mother for more than 7 years now.  We have joint legal custody of our daughter but she has primary legal custody.  I have been paying child support and my daughter comes over every weekend.  For the past ten years of my daughter's life she has spent 99% of the time with my immediate family (my mother to be specific).  Her mother would leave our daughter with my mom whenever she had something to do, i.e. work, trip etc.  She now decides she wants to relocate to San Francisco because she has been offered a job.  She is willing to have my daughter visit me during summers and Christmas vacations.  That means I will no longer be able to have weekends with her and therefore will have very little influence as her father.  I see no benefit for having my daughter relocate with her mother, along with losing the family network, which has been with her since birth.  We have tried mediation but she insists on taking my little girl with her.  It looks like we are going to have to make the courts decide on what's best for our daughter.  Do I have any chance to have my daughter stay here with me?  She claims that her attorney is confident she will have no problem taking our daughter no matter what I say.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.      

[janM]

Go to the Articles section on this site. There are excellent articles on move-aways and how to try to prevent them.

[Sherry1]

relocation is very difficult and most judges won't allow them.  I hope your ex has a lot of money because moveaway battles are expensive.  My friend married a guy in the military and he was transferred to Florida, she tried to get a moveaway, which she was finally blocked from doing.  She could move but she would have to leave her 3 year old son.  The defeated moveaway cost her $25K between lawyers and  specialists, etc.

[CustodyIQ]

With all due respect to the poster, she seems to be basing her entire opinion on one situation.

In move-away situations, it is most common that the prevailing party will be the parent who has had the majority of custodial time with the child prior to the move.

If a custodial parent wishes to move, in most cases, the court will presume that the children should remain with that parent.  It is not "extremely difficult", and it happens frequently.

While "best interest" is the foundation of custody rulings, it stands to reason that if a court previously found it was in the "best interest" of the children to spend most of their time in the physical care of one parent, the court will again make that same decision with a move-away.

It would be up to the other parent to convince a court WHY it's in the best interest for the child not to move.

To the original poster... given the brief facts you outlined, wherein the mother has not been the primary caretaker of this child, and wherein the child has extensive familial bonds in your location, plus all the kid's friends and classmates already established in your location... I think the odds are that a competent attorney would convince a court that it's in the best interest of this child not to leave.

If the mother WAS the primary caretaker, you'd have a different scenario.  But given that you and your own mother have largely raised the child (per your post), this move-away process will probably be worrisome and annoying to you, but you should be fine.