How to Fill Out and File a Missouri Motion to Prevent Relocation

A Missouri motion to prevent relocation is the court filing you use to stop your co-parent from moving your child’s residence for 90 days or more. You have 30 days from the date you receive the relocation notice to file it, along with a sworn affidavit, in the same circuit court that issued your custody order. Miss that window and the move can go forward without a hearing.¹

The 30-Day Clock Is the Whole Ballgame

A parent planning to relocate must send you written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 60 days before the move. That notice has to include the new address (or at least the city, if the exact address is not yet known), the move date, the reasons, a proposed revised custody or visitation schedule, and a statement telling you that you have 30 days to object.¹

Your 30 days start on the day you receive the notice, not the day it was mailed. There is no extension and no grace period. If you do not file within the window, the child’s residence can be relocated 60 days after the notice was provided, and you will not get a hearing on your objection.¹

Treat the deadline as the first and only thing that matters while you are preparing your paperwork.

What to Gather Before You Fill Anything Out

Pull a few things together first, because they feed every field on the form:

Your existing case number and the party names exactly as they appear on your custody decree. A wrong case number or a misspelled name can delay filing.
The relocation notice itself, including the proposed new address, the move date, and the reasons given.
Proof of when you received the notice. Keep the certified mail receipt or the signed return card. This is what documents the opening of your 30-day window.
The specific facts behind your objection. The affidavit requires a “specific good-faith factual basis,” not general unhappiness. Think concretely: current school enrollment, established medical providers, extended family nearby, extracurricular commitments, how the current visitation schedule actually works, and any evidence that the move is designed to interfere with your relationship with the child rather than serve a legitimate purpose.

Filling Out the Motion and the Affidavit

The motion and its accompanying affidavit are available on the Missouri Courts website at courts.mo.gov or at the circuit clerk’s office in the county that issued your custody order. The forms are designed to be usable without an attorney.

The Motion

Fill in the caption at the top: the county of the circuit court, petitioner and respondent names matching your original order, and the case number. In the body, identify the child, reference the existing custody order, and state that you object to the proposed relocation. The motion itself is short. The affidavit does the real work.

The Affidavit

This is where you lay out your factual case. Missouri law requires the affidavit to set forth your “specific good-faith factual basis” for opposing the move.¹ Courts regularly see affidavits that amount to “I don’t want them to move,” and those are easy to dismiss. Write about what the current arrangement actually looks like, what the child stands to lose, and why the move does not serve the child’s welfare. If you believe the move is motivated by a desire to limit your time with the child rather than a legitimate reason like a job or family support, say so and explain the facts behind that conclusion.

Sign the affidavit under oath in the physical presence of a notary public. The notary confirms your identity and applies a seal. Everything in the affidavit is subject to perjury penalties, so accuracy matters. Exaggeration can backfire at the hearing.

Filing the Motion

File the notarized motion and affidavit with the circuit court that issued the original custody order. Missouri allows electronic filing, which many self-represented litigants can access by registering through the system. If e-filing is not an option for you, submit paper copies at the circuit clerk’s office window.

Filing fees vary by county. As a reference point, Clay County charges $197.50 for a motion to modify a dissolution with children, which includes a library fee.² Call your circuit clerk or check the court’s website for the current amount in your county. If you cannot afford the fee, ask the court to waive it by filing a motion to proceed as a poor person under Missouri Revised Statutes § 514.040. The court has discretion to waive all or part of the costs after reviewing your inability to pay.³

Serving the Other Parent

Once you file, the other parent has to be formally notified. In most cases, service happens by personal delivery through a sheriff’s deputy, a private process server, or another person authorized by Missouri law. Service can also be accomplished by first-class mail with a notice and acknowledgment form that the recipient signs and returns.⁴ If the relocating parent already has an attorney of record in your case, check your local court rules; some circuits allow service on the attorney by mail or through the electronic filing system for motions within an existing case.

Keep whatever proof of service you receive, whether that is the sheriff’s return, the signed acknowledgment, or an electronic filing receipt. The court needs confirmation of service before scheduling a hearing.

What the Court Weighs

The burden of proof is on the parent who wants to move, not on you. The relocating parent has to prove two things: that the proposed move is made in good faith, and that it serves the child’s best interest.¹ Your job is to give the court facts that undercut either prong.

Good Faith

A move for a genuine job, educational opportunity, or family support generally reads as good faith. A move that looks calculated to frustrate your relationship with the child does not. Courts also look at whether the relocating parent is willing to support the long-distance relationship: offering liberal visitation, sharing transportation costs, proposing extended summer stays. A bare-minimum proposed schedule or vague reasons invite skepticism.

Best Interest of the Child

Missouri’s statute does not list specific relocation factors. The court applies the same broad best-interest standard used in custody cases: the child’s relationship with each parent, stability in school and community, each parent’s willingness to support the other’s relationship with the child, and how well the child is adjusted to their current home and school. Your affidavit should speak to as many of these as honestly apply.

One protection worth knowing: if you oppose the relocation in good faith, the court cannot order you to pay the relocating parent’s attorney’s fees or costs.¹ Filing carries no financial penalty for a genuine objection.

What Happens After You File

The court will schedule a hearing once your motion is filed and the other parent is served. The statute does not set a rigid timeline, but because the child cannot be relocated while the motion is pending, these cases usually move along.

At the hearing, the relocating parent presents evidence first because they carry the burden. You present your affidavit along with any additional testimony, witnesses, or documents. Courts sometimes hear from teachers, therapists, or others who know the child’s day-to-day life.

If the court denies the relocation, the child stays and the current custody arrangement continues. If the court permits the move, the judge must order a revised visitation schedule that preserves frequent and meaningful contact with you, specify how transportation costs will be split, and adjust child support to account for those costs.¹ A permitted relocation still comes with conditions designed to protect your relationship with the child.

If the Other Parent Already Moved Without Notice

A parent who relocates without following the notice and objection process faces serious consequences. Failure to provide proper notice is a factor the court weighs in favor of modifying custody, a basis for ordering the child returned to the original residence, and sufficient cause to make the relocating parent pay your reasonable expenses and attorney’s fees.¹

Any violation of the relocation statute or a court order under it also qualifies as a “change of circumstance” under Missouri § 452.410, which opens the door to a full custody modification. The court can hold the relocating parent in contempt as well.¹ If you discover a move after the fact, you have strong grounds to seek the child’s return and a custody change.

Situations That Change the Picture

Address Confidentiality

If the relocating parent participates in Missouri’s address confidentiality program under § 589.663, typically available to domestic violence survivors, they are not required to disclose the specific new address in the notice. The court may require it to be submitted under seal for the judge’s review only. The court balances safety concerns against your right to object.¹

Military Parents

If either parent is an active-duty servicemember, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act applies. A deployed parent who cannot appear can request a stay of the proceedings. A temporary custody order based solely on deployment must have an expiration date tied to the deployment length, and a court cannot treat military absence as the sole factor in evaluating the child’s best interest.⁵ Missouri law may provide additional protections above the federal floor, in which case the court applies the higher state standard.

Interstate Moves

When the proposed move crosses state lines, jurisdiction gets more complicated. Under federal law, the state where the child has lived for at least six consecutive months immediately before the proceedings is the child’s “home state,” and courts in other states are generally prohibited from modifying that state’s custody determinations.⁶ For your purposes, that means the Missouri court keeps authority over your custody arrangement as long as Missouri remains the child’s home state. Filing your motion promptly helps preserve that jurisdiction, because once the child has lived in a new state for six months, the picture can shift.

1
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 452.377 – Relocation of Child by Parent for More Than Ninety Days
2
7th Judicial Circuit Court, Clay County, Missouri. Filing Deposits and Other Fees
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 514.040 – Poor Persons Permitted to Sue Without Paying Costs
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 506.150 – Summons and Petition, How Served
5
Creech Air Force Base. Child Custody Protections Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1738A – Full Faith and Credit Given to Child Custody Determinations