Pennsylvania Relocation Statute: Notice, Objections, and Factors

Pennsylvania’s relocation statute, 23 Pa.C.S. § 5337, controls any move with a child that would significantly disrupt the other parent’s custody time. Before you go, you have to send written notice to every other person with custodial rights and give them a chance to object. If they do object, a judge decides whether the move serves the child’s best interests under ten specific factors, and the burden of proving that sits on you.

What Counts as a Relocation

The statute defines relocation as a change in the child’s residence that significantly impairs the other custodial party’s ability to exercise their rights. There is no bright-line mileage. A move from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh clearly qualifies. A shorter move across a state line can also qualify if it makes midweek overnights or the existing schedule impractical. A move across town to a different school district may not trigger the statute at all if the other parent can still exercise custody on the same schedule.

The question is the real-world effect on the other parent’s time with the child, not the distance on a map.

Who Has to Follow the Statute

Section 5337 applies to any party with custodial rights: parents with primary physical custody, parents sharing custody equally, grandparents with court-ordered custodial rights, and legal guardians. Having primary custody does not give you a unilateral right to move. The rules also apply when there is no formal custody order yet, as long as both parents have established custodial rights through their actual arrangement.

The 60-Day Notice

You have to send written notice to every other person with custodial rights at least 60 days before the planned move. The notice must go by certified mail, restricted delivery (addressee only), return receipt requested.¹

If you could not have reasonably known about the need to relocate in time to give 60 days’ notice, and delaying the move is not reasonably possible, you must send notice within 10 days of learning about the relocation.²

The notice itself has to contain specific information:

The proposed new address and phone number
The names and ages of everyone who will live at the new address
The intended date of the move
The reasons for the relocation
A proposed revised custody schedule that preserves the other parent’s time

You also have to include a blank counter-affidavit form so the non-relocating party can object.¹ Sending notice without the counter-affidavit is a procedural error that can undercut your case.

How the Other Parent Objects

Anyone who receives the relocation notice has 30 days to file the counter-affidavit objecting to the move. It has to be returned to the relocating party by certified mail, restricted delivery, return receipt requested.²

If no objection is filed within 30 days, the relocating parent may move with the child, and the move is not treated as a contested relocation. The relocating parent can then petition the court to confirm the relocation and update the existing custody order.¹

The 30-day deadline is hard. Missing it can effectively waive the right to contest the move.

The Hearing

When someone files a timely objection, the relocating parent has to petition the family court that issued the original custody order for a relocation hearing. The non-relocating party can ask for a temporary order preventing the move while the hearing is pending.³ If the court finds exigent circumstances, it may approve the relocation on a temporary basis pending the full hearing.

At the hearing, the relocating parent typically presents job documentation, housing information, evidence of schools or family support at the destination, and a detailed proposed custody schedule. The objecting parent argues that the move damages the child’s relationship with them, disrupts stability, or is driven by bad motives. Judges may hear from custody evaluators, guardians ad litem, and, depending on age and maturity, the child.

The relocating parent carries the burden of proving that the move serves the child’s best interests. That burden applies whether you hold primary custody or share custody equally. There is no lighter standard for the parent with more time.⁴ Both sides also bear the burden of showing their motives are genuine. A move designed mainly to cut the other parent out, or an objection filed mainly to control the other parent, will weigh against whoever is doing it.

The Ten Factors the Judge Weighs

Section 5337(h) lists ten factors the court must evaluate, with extra weight given to any factor affecting the child’s safety:⁴

The nature, quality, and extent of the child’s involvement with both parents, siblings, and other significant people in the child’s life
The child’s age, developmental stage, and the likely impact of the move on physical, educational, and emotional development
Whether a revised custody arrangement can realistically maintain meaningful contact between the child and the non-relocating parent
The child’s preference, weighted by age and maturity
Whether either parent has a history of encouraging or obstructing the child’s relationship with the other parent
Whether either parent has been convicted of or arrested for certain offenses, including offenses involving the child
Whether the relocation will enhance the child’s general quality of life, including financial, emotional, or educational benefits
The motives of each party in seeking or opposing the move
Past or present abuse by a party or anyone in that party’s household, and whether there is a continued risk of harm
Any other factor bearing on the child’s best interest

Two of these tend to drive outcomes in practice. A relocating parent who proposes a workable revised schedule, and who has a record of supporting the child’s relationship with the other parent, walks into the hearing in a much stronger position than one who has historically limited the other parent’s involvement. Judges notice patterns.

What Happens If You Skip the Process

Moving without following the notice and hearing requirements can backfire. The court may treat a failure to give reasonable notice as:

A factor weighing against you in any future custody determination
Grounds for ordering the child returned to the original residence
Sufficient cause to make you pay the other parent’s legal fees and expenses
A basis for civil contempt and court-imposed sanctions

Civil contempt is meant to compel compliance. A judge can order you to return the child and keep the contempt order in place until you do. Criminal contempt is punitive and can carry a fixed jail sentence or fine for defying the court, whether or not you eventually comply.

In the most serious cases, a parent who takes a child out of the jurisdiction without permission can face criminal charges for interference with custody under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2904. That offense is graded as a felony of the third degree, with a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison.⁵ A parent can raise a defense that the action was necessary to protect the child from danger, but that defense is narrow and hard to establish after the fact.

If You Are Leaving an Abusive Situation

The statute recognizes that victims of domestic violence sometimes cannot safely give 60 days’ notice. Under subsection (k), if the court determines that a parent’s failure to provide the required notice was caused in whole or in part by abuse, that failure can be mitigated rather than held against the relocating parent.⁴ Present and past abuse by a party or a member of that party’s household is also one of the ten factors, and the court gives it weighted consideration because it directly affects the child’s safety.

If You Are on Active Duty

Active-duty service members have additional protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If a custody modification or relocation hearing is filed while the service member is deployed, the SCRA allows them to request an automatic 90-day stay of the proceedings. Any extension beyond 90 days is at the judge’s discretion. The protection applies to active-duty members of all branches, National Guard members serving under federal orders, reservists called to active duty, and their dependents.⁶

1
Erie County Courts. Requirements Regarding Relocation (Change of Child’s Residence)
2
Dauphin County. Requirements Regarding Relocation of Residence
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Chapter 53 – Section 5337
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 – Section 5337
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 2904
6
Military OneSource. Child Custody Considerations for Military Families