Moving Away With Your Child in BC: The 60-Day Notice and Relocation Rules

After separation, a new job, a new partner or family support elsewhere can make a move look like the obvious next step. If your child's parenting arrangements are set out in a written agreement or court order, though, BC law treats a move that would significantly affect the child's relationships as a relocation, with its own notice rules and its own court test.

This guide is for parents planning a move and for parents who have just received notice of one. It covers what counts as a relocation, what the notice must say, the 30-day window to object, how a judge decides, and how the rules differ for married parents with Divorce Act orders.

What counts as a relocation

Under section 65 of BC's Family Law Act (FLA), a relocation is a change in where a child or a guardian lives that can reasonably be expected to have a significant impact on the child's relationship with another guardian or someone else with a significant role in the child's life. The Act sets no distance: a move across town that leaves the schedule and the school intact may not qualify, while a move to another city, province or country often will.

The relocation rules apply only when a written agreement or court order about parenting arrangements or contact already covers the child. Without one, a dispute about the move is dealt with in an application about parenting arrangements, where section 46 directs the court to weigh the child's best interests and the reasons for the move. Check your existing agreement or order as well, since any limits on moving it contains will count. Our guide to guardianship, parenting time and decision-making explains the terms.

The 60-day notice: who gets it and what it must say

A guardian who plans to relocate, with or without the child, must give at least 60 days' written notice to every other guardian and to anyone who has contact with the child under an agreement or order (FLA s 66). The notice must state the date of the relocation and the name of the proposed location.

That is the minimum. A useful notice also proposes how the child's time with the other guardian will work after the move, such as travel, longer holiday blocks and video calls, because a judge will later ask whether you proposed reasonable and workable arrangements. Keep a copy and proof of when it was received: the objection period runs from receipt.

Only a court can excuse you from giving notice, in whole or in part, where notice would create a risk of family violence or where there is no ongoing relationship between the child and the person entitled to notice. That application can be made without telling the other party. After notice is given, everyone involved must make every effort to cooperate (s 67), and many moves are settled by agreement, sometimes with help from mediation or a Family Justice Centre.

Received a notice? The 30-day window

If you are a guardian and you oppose the move, act quickly. Under section 68, the relocation may go ahead on or after the date in the notice unless another guardian files an application for an order prohibiting it within 30 days after receiving the notice. In Provincial Court, that is Form 16, Application for Order Prohibiting the Relocation of a Child, with the existing agreement or order and the notice attached. If your case is already in BC Supreme Court, get advice on the procedure there straight away.

A person with contact only, such as a grandparent under a contact order, receives notice but cannot apply to stop the move. They can apply to adjust contact so the relationship continues.

How a judge decides

Under section 69, the court can permit or prohibit the relocation. Along with the usual best interests factors in section 37, the judge considers whether the move is made in good faith, looking at:

• the reasons for the move;
• whether it is likely to improve the general quality of life of the child and the relocating guardian;
• whether notice was given under section 66; and
• any restrictions on relocation in an existing agreement or order.

Who has to prove what depends on the parenting schedule:

• Parenting time not substantially equal. The relocating guardian must show that the move is in good faith and that they have proposed reasonable and workable arrangements to preserve the child's relationships. If they do, the move is considered to be in the child's best interests unless another guardian satisfies the court otherwise.
• Substantially equal parenting time. The relocating guardian must show good faith and workable arrangements, and also that the move is in the child's best interests.

So the schedule the family actually follows matters, not just the wording of the order; our article on whether 50/50 parenting is the default in BC explains how BC approaches equal time. The court must not consider whether the relocating guardian would still move if the child could not go. If it permits the move, section 70 lets it adjust parenting arrangements while preserving the original ones to a reasonable extent.

Married parents with Divorce Act orders

If your parenting order was made under the federal Divorce Act, its own rules apply. A person with parenting time or decision-making responsibility must give notice at least 60 days before the expected move on the federal Notice of Relocation form, including the new address and a proposal for parenting time, decision-making responsibility or contact after the move. The other parent has 30 days after receiving it to object, on the federal Objection to Relocation form or by applying to court. Without an objection or an order prohibiting the move, it can proceed on the date in the notice.

The burden also differs. Where the parents substantially follow an arrangement giving substantially equal time, the parent who wants to move must prove the move is in the child's best interests; where the child spends the vast majority of time with that parent, the other parent must prove it is not; otherwise the burden is shared. The Divorce Act also requires written notice of any change of residence, even one that is not a relocation.

Moving without notice, or moving abroad

Skipping the notice does not avoid the issue. Whether notice was given is a factor in the good-faith assessment under the FLA, and compliance with the notice rules is a relocation factor under the Divorce Act. If a move stops the other parent from using their parenting time, the FLA's enforcement tools may also apply; see when a parent withholds parenting time.

Moves outside Canada raise further issues. The Hague Convention on international child abduction has the force of law in BC (FLA s 80) and aims at the prompt return of children wrongfully removed or retained. When a court permits a relocation, section 70 lets it require security to back up the new arrangements; outside the relocation process, section 64 allows orders such as handing over passports where someone proposes to take a child out of BC and is unlikely to bring them back. And only a guardian has the parental responsibility to decide where a child lives (ss 40 and 41), so a relative or new partner who is not a guardian cannot move a child on their own.

Planning a move with your child, or facing one? Get advice before the 30 days run

Our family lawyers can review your agreement or order, prepare a relocation notice with a workable parenting proposal, respond to a notice you have received, and bring or answer an application within the deadline.

Call 604-259-2844 or send us a message to arrange a consultation at our Vancouver office.