Moving Out of State With a Child in Minnesota: Three Ways § 518.175, Subd. 3 Does Not Apply

Minnesota’s parental relocation statute is one subdivision long. Minn. Stat. § 518.175, subd. 3 lays out a best-interests standard, eight factors, and a burden of proof that flips on a finding of domestic abuse. It reads like the answer to every move-away question.

It isn’t, and the reason is in the first sentence:

The parent with whom the child resides shall not move the residence of the child to another state except upon order of the court or with the consent of the other parent, if the other parent has been given parenting time by the decree.

Three limits are built into that sentence and the case law around it. Subdivision 3 governs (1) a move to another state, (2) by the parent with whom the child resides, (3) where the decree doesn’t itself restrict where that parent may live. Miss any one of the three and the motion isn’t a subdivision 3 motion. It’s a custody modification under Minn. Stat. § 518.18(d), where the gateway is endangerment and an evidentiary hearing isn’t automatic.

I care more about that routing question than the factor list. A parent who files the right motion under the wrong statute hasn’t made a procedural slip. That parent has signed up for a completely different and much heavier burden.

What does subdivision 3 actually require?

Two rules, then eight factors, then the burden.

Rule one — you need permission. No order, no consent, no move. And “consent” means something only where “the other parent has been given parenting time by the decree.” A decree that gave the other parent no parenting time at all doesn’t create a consent requirement under this sentence.

Rule two — an absolute bar, not a factor. The second sentence of subdivision 3(a):

If the purpose of the move is to interfere with parenting time given to the other parent by the decree, the court shall not permit the child’s residence to be moved to another state.

That’s a mandatory prohibition sitting outside the best-interests weighing. If the court finds an interference purpose, it’s over. That finding doesn’t get balanced against the child’s educational opportunities or the relocating parent’s job offer. I think it’s the single most valuable finding an opposing parent can get, and it’s why relocation cases so often turn into a paper record of the mover’s past conduct around parenting time.

Then the standard. Subdivision 3(b): “The court shall apply a best interests standard when considering the request of the parent with whom the child resides to move the child’s residence to another state.” The eight factors “include, but are not limited to” — the list is a floor, not a ceiling:

1. the nature, quality, extent of involvement, and duration of the child’s relationship with the person proposing to relocate and with the nonrelocating person, siblings, and other significant persons in the child’s life;
2. the age, developmental stage, needs of the child, and the likely impact the relocation will have on the child’s physical, educational, and emotional development, taking into consideration special needs of the child;
3. the feasibility of preserving the relationship between the nonrelocating person and the child through suitable parenting time arrangements, considering the logistics and financial circumstances of the parties;
4. the child’s preference, taking into consideration the age and maturity of the child;
5. whether there is an established pattern of conduct of the person seeking the relocation either to promote or thwart the relationship of the child and the nonrelocating person;
6. whether the relocation of the child will enhance the general quality of the life for both the custodial parent seeking the relocation and the child including, but not limited to, financial or emotional benefit or educational opportunity;
7. the reasons of each person for seeking or opposing the relocation; and
8. the effect on the safety and welfare of the child, or of the parent requesting to move the child’s residence, of domestic abuse, as defined in section 518B.01.

And subdivision 3(c) closes with a mandate: “The court must consider all of the factors in this subdivision in determining the best interests of the child.”

Look at what factor 6 does that the rest of the list doesn’t. Every other factor is framed around the child. Factor 6 asks whether the move “will enhance the general quality of the life for both the custodial parent seeking the relocation and the child.” The relocating parent’s own circumstances count — but only through the door factor 6 opens, and only as a joint inquiry. An affidavit that describes a better job, a new spouse, and family support without tying any of it to the child is arguing factor 6 halfway.

Factor 3 is the one I watch decide otherwise close cases, and it’s the one a movant can actually build. “The feasibility of preserving the relationship … through suitable parenting time arrangements, considering the logistics and financial circumstances of the parties” is an open invitation to file a concrete proposed schedule with airfares, school calendars, and a split of travel costs. A relocation motion that asks for permission without proposing the replacement parenting-time schedule has left its strongest factor blank.

Who bears the burden — and when does it flip?

Subdivision 3(c), first sentence:

The burden of proof is upon the parent requesting to move the residence of the child to another state, except that if the court finds that the person requesting permission to move has been a victim of domestic abuse by the other parent, the burden of proof is upon the parent opposing the move.

This provision decides more of these cases than anything else in the section, so here’s exactly what it does.

It’s a complete reversal, not a presumption or a thumb on the scale. On a finding that the mover has been a victim of domestic abuse by the other parent, the party opposing the move carries the burden on the child’s best interests.

“Domestic abuse” is a defined term. Factor 8 and the burden flip both point to Minn. Stat. § 518B.01. Under § 518B.01, subd. 2(a), “domestic abuse” means, if committed against a family or household member by a family or household member: physical harm, bodily injury, or assault; the infliction of fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, or assault; or terroristic threats under § 609.713, subd. 1, criminal sexual conduct under §§ 609.342 to 609.3451, sexual extortion under § 609.3458, or interference with an emergency call under § 609.78, subd. 2. It’s a specific list. Conduct that’s controlling, demeaning, or financially coercive but doesn’t fall within it doesn’t trigger the definition.

The statute requires a finding, not an order for protection. The text is “if the court finds that the person requesting permission to move has been a victim of domestic abuse by the other parent.” An existing OFP is powerful evidence and may be preclusive on the underlying facts, but the subdivision doesn’t condition the flip on one. Flip it around: the lack of an OFP isn’t an answer either. Many victims never asked for one. Where the abuse is ongoing, the protective track and the relocation track run on separate statutes with separate standards; see Minnesota harassment restraining orders.

Abuse comes into the case twice. Once as factor 8 — “the effect on the safety and welfare of the child, or of the parent requesting to move the child’s residence, of domestic abuse” — and once as the burden allocation. Factor 8 is unusual because it expressly makes the parent’s safety a best-interests consideration. That’s the legislature acknowledging that a child’s welfare can’t be separated from the safety of the household the child lives in.

The three ways subdivision 3 does not apply

1. The move is within Minnesota

Subdivision 3 says “to another state.” Twice. A parent moving from Minneapolis to Moorhead — 250 miles, a different school district, a midweek parenting-time schedule blown to pieces — isn’t making a subdivision 3 motion, because nothing in subdivision 3 addresses an in-state move.

That doesn’t make the move unreviewable. If the existing order restricts residence, the move violates the order. If it changes the child’s primary residence, § 518.18(d) governs. And if the practical effect is to make the existing schedule impossible, the other parent’s remedy is a motion to modify parenting time under § 518.175, subd. 5(b) — which the court may grant “[i]f modification would serve the best interests of the child … if the modification would not change the child’s primary residence.”

So a long in-state move goes to a different provision with a different framework, and neither the eight factors nor the domestic-abuse burden flip comes along with it.

2. The decree contains a locale restriction

This is the trap the supreme court laid out in Goldman v. Greenwood, 748 N.W.2d 279 (Minn. 2008) (No. A06-1110). The mother had sole physical custody on the condition that she stay in Minnesota. She moved to eliminate the restriction and relocate to New York.

The court held that § 518.18(d) — the custody modification statute — governed her motion, not § 518.175, subd. 3, because the locale restriction was part of the custody order: it “is included in the custody order and thus cannot be eliminated unless a party meets the section 518.18(d) standard for custody order modification.” 748 N.W.2d at 285. Reading it the other way, the court said, “would gut locale restrictions of much of their effect.”

The consequence is harsh. Under § 518.18(d), the mother had to make a prima facie showing on four elements — changed circumstances, necessity to the child’s best interests, present endangerment, and that the benefits of the change outweighed the detriments — before she was entitled to an evidentiary hearing at all. She submitted fifteen affidavits and didn’t get one. The court also rejected the argument that a future geographic separation from the custodial parent is endangerment in itself: the endangerment element “is concerned with whether ‘the child’s present environment endangers the child’s physical or emotional health or impairs the child’s emotional development,’ … not whether the child may be endangered by future events.” Id.

Subdivision 3 hasn’t been amended since 2006, so the text Goldman construed is the text in force today.

What I take from Goldman is about drafting, not litigating. A locale restriction agreed to at the decree stage — often a concession that felt small at the time — decides which statute will govern a move-away motion years later, and it swaps a best-interests hearing for an endangerment gateway. Anyone negotiating a custody provision is negotiating a future standard of review. I cover how the modification statute works in modifying custody in Minnesota under § 518.18.

The flip side is genuinely useful. Minn. Stat. § 518.1705, subd. 7 lets parents fix the standard by agreement in a parenting plan:

Parents may agree upon the legal standard that will govern a decision concerning removal of a child’s residence from this state, provided that: (1) both parents were represented by counsel when the parenting plan was approved; or (2) the court found the parents were fully informed, the agreement was voluntary, and the parents were aware of its implications.

Those are the same two conditions § 518.18(d)(i) attaches to an agreement to apply the best-interests standard to future custody modifications. Both are drafting opportunities, and both are easy to miss. On the general limits of what a family-law settlement can and can’t fix by agreement, see what you cannot agree to in a Minnesota settlement.

3. The mover is not the parent the child resides with

Subdivision 3 restrains “[t]he parent with whom the child resides.” A parent who doesn’t have the child’s residence and takes a job in another state isn’t asking permission under subdivision 3 — that parent can move. What that parent can’t do is take the child, and a motion to change the child’s primary residence so the child can come along is a § 518.18(d) custody modification, subject to the retention rule and the five exceptions.

And under § 518.18(e), a joint custodian’s request to move the child’s residence to another state is carved out of the paragraph (d) standard and sent to subdivision 3 — one of only two exceptions in that paragraph. So the custody label the decree used changes the governing statute.

What happens if a parent moves without permission?

Four separate consequences, on four separate statutes, and they stack.

A custody modification exception with no endangerment requirement. Minn. Stat. § 518.18(d)(v) allows modification where “the court has denied a request of the primary custodial parent to move the residence of the child to another state, and the primary custodial parent has relocated to another state despite the court’s order.” Clause (v) sits in the same list as endangerment and integration, and it requires neither. The denial plus the defiance is the whole showing. It came in with the same 2006 act that wrote the eight factors and the burden allocation into § 518.175, subd. 3. The legislature built the standard and the penalty for ignoring it in one package.

Felony exposure. Minn. Stat. § 609.26, subd. 1, makes it chargeable as a felony to, among other things, conceal a minor child from a parent “where the action manifests an intent substantially to deprive that parent of parental rights,” or to take, obtain, retain, or fail to return a minor child “in violation of a court order, where the action manifests an intent substantially to deprive that parent of rights to parenting time or custody.” Subdivision 2 supplies affirmative defenses, including a reasonable belief that the action was necessary to protect the child from physical or sexual assault or substantial emotional harm, or to protect the person taking the action from physical or sexual assault.

The parenting-time remedies. Minn. Stat. § 518.175, subd. 6 is a graduated enforcement scheme. Where a party “has repeatedly and intentionally denied or interfered with court-ordered parenting time,” subdivision 6(e) requires the court — on top of awarding compensatory parenting time — to order reimbursement of costs and reasonable attorney fees where the offending party has the means to pay. The court may also impose “a sanction of up to $500 against the party who denied or interfered with parenting time,” may “modify legal and physical custody of the child by awarding custody of the child to the party whose parenting time was denied or interfered with, in accordance with the procedures under section 518.18,” or may award any other remedy in the children’s best interests.

Compensatory parenting time under subdivision 6(d) comes with three specifications: it must be “at least of the same type and duration as the deprived parenting time” (and may exceed it or differ in type at the court’s discretion), it must be “taken within one year after the deprived parenting time,” and it must be “at a time acceptable to the parent deprived of parenting time.”

Subdivision 6(f) ratchets up on a second offense: where the court makes a repeated-and-intentional finding after a previous such finding, it “shall provide one or more of the remedies available in paragraph (e), clauses (1) and (2)” — the monetary sanction or the custody transfer. Not may. Shall.

Subdivision 6(g) is the safety valve: if the court makes written findings that the denial or interference “was necessary to protect a child’s physical or emotional health,” paragraphs (d) through (f) don’t apply. Written findings. Not testimony, not an argument.

And subdivision 6(i): “Proof of an unwarranted denial of or interference with duly established parenting time may constitute contempt of court and may be sufficient cause for reversal of custody.”

Jurisdiction doesn’t travel with the child. Under Minn. Stat. § 518D.202(a), a Minnesota court that made a custody determination keeps exclusive, continuing jurisdiction until a court determines either that the child, the child’s parents, and any person acting as a parent lack a significant connection with Minnesota and substantial evidence is no longer available here, or that none of them presently reside here. Moving a child doesn’t, by itself, move the case.

A cite in the mandatory notice was wrong, and the 2026 legislature fixed it

Every parenting time order must include the notice in § 518.175, subd. 6(k) — subdivision 6(j) says so: “All parenting time orders must include notice of the provisions of this subdivision.”

Clause (2) of that notice reads, in the 2025 edition of the statute: “Deprivation of parental rights is a FELONY crime pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 609.375.”

Section 609.375 is nonsupport of a spouse or child. Under § 609.375, subd. 1 it’s a misdemeanor; under subdivision 2 it’s a gross misdemeanor in specified circumstances. It isn’t a felony, and it has nothing to do with deprivation of parental rights.

Laws 2026, ch. 88 (S.F. No. 4244) — a technical corrections act described in its title as “correcting erroneous, obsolete, and omitted text and references” — struck “609.375” from that clause and inserted “609.26,” which is the actual deprivation statute. That’s the entire substance of article 1, section 212 of the act. Nothing else in subdivision 6 changed.

Chapter 88 has no effective-date section, so Minn. Stat. § 645.02 supplies one: an act “takes effect on August 1 next following its final enactment, unless a different date is specified in the act.” The correction took effect August 1, 2026. Order templates and notice blocks carrying the old cross-reference should be updated, and if you’re reading the Revisor’s on-screen text of subdivision 6, know that the displayed 2025 edition still shows the superseded reference.

How I run a relocation case

• Route the motion before you draft it. Out of state, by the residential parent, no locale restriction — that’s subdivision 3. Anything else is probably § 518.18(d).
• Read the decree for a locale restriction first. Under Goldman, it turns a best-interests relocation motion into an endangerment custody-modification motion with a prima facie screening gate.
• Plead the interference bar separately. Subdivision 3(a)’s second sentence is mandatory and sits outside the factor weighing. For an opposing parent it’s the most valuable finding available; for a moving parent it’s the one allegation balancing can’t answer.
• File the proposed schedule. Factor 3 asks about feasibility of preserving the relationship “considering the logistics and financial circumstances of the parties.” I answer it with a calendar and a cost split, not a promise.
• Tie the move to the child under factor 6. It’s the only factor that puts the relocating parent’s quality of life in issue, and it does that jointly with the child’s.
• Plead the burden flip explicitly if it applies. Subdivision 3(c) reverses the burden on a finding of domestic abuse by the other parent, using the § 518B.01 definition. It requires a finding, not an order for protection.
• Never move first. My advice on this one never changes. Clause (d)(v) of § 518.18 makes a post-denial relocation a standalone exception to the custody retention rule, § 609.26 makes some versions of it a felony, and § 518.175, subd. 6 supplies fees, a monetary sanction, and custody transfer. Meanwhile § 518D.202 keeps the case in Minnesota.
• Fix your parenting time order templates. The § 518.175, subd. 6(k)(2) notice now cites Minn. Stat. § 609.26, not § 609.375, effective August 1, 2026.
• Think about fixing the standard at the parenting-plan stage. Section 518.1705, subd. 7 lets parents agree on the legal standard governing removal, subject to the counsel-or-findings condition. So does § 518.18(d)(i) for custody generally.

Where these cases are actually won

Every published discussion of Minnesota relocation law leads with the eight factors, and the eight factors are almost never where I see these cases won.

They’re won earlier, on two questions that get answered before anybody weighs a factor. The first is which statute governs, and that’s usually decided by language in a decree written years before anyone was thinking about a move. The second is who carries the burden, and that’s decided by whether the court makes a domestic-abuse finding — a finding that turns on a defined statutory list, not on how bad the marriage was.

Once both are settled, the case is largely settled. A residential parent with the burden, arguing best interests, with a concrete parenting-time proposal and no history of interference, is in a strong position. The same parent facing a locale restriction is arguing endangerment on affidavits and may never see a hearing.

So the useful work in a relocation case happens at the two ends: drafting the original decree, and pleading the motion. The middle — the factors — is the part everyone reads and the part that decides the least. That’s why I spend my hours at the ends.

Madgett Law, LLC handles Minnesota parental relocation matters, including motions for permission to move a child’s residence to another state under Minn. Stat. § 518.175, subd. 3, opposition to relocation including motions to establish an interference purpose under subdivision 3(a), the domestic-abuse burden allocation under subdivision 3(c), enforcement and custody-reversal remedies under subdivision 6, and custody modification under § 518.18 where a locale restriction or an unauthorized move puts the case under that statute instead. I also review proposed decrees and parenting plans for the locale and standard-selection provisions that decide what law will govern a move years later. Send us a message or call 612-470-6529.

Sources: Minn. Stat. § 518.175 (2025), “Parenting Time” — Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Currency: this section carries a pending 2026 amendment notice. The Revisor’s banner states that “518.175 subd. 6 has been amended by Chapter 88, Article 1, Section 212,” and the session law is at https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2026/0/88/laws.1.212.0. Its entire substance is the replacement of the cross-reference “609.375” with “609.26” in the mandatory notice at subd. 6(k)(2); no other language in subdivision 6 was struck or added. Laws 2026, ch. 88 is S.F. No. 4244, “An act relating to legislative enactments; making miscellaneous technical corrections to laws and statutes; correcting erroneous, obsolete, and omitted text and references; removing redundant, conflicting, and superseded provisions” (title quoted verbatim). The chapter contains no effective-date section; Minn. Stat. § 645.02, first paragraph, first sentence, quoted verbatim in this article, therefore supplies August 1, 2026. Subdivision 3 is not affected by any 2026 amendment; per the Revisor’s Recent History panel for § 518.175, subd. 3 was last amended in 2006 (2006 c 280 s 1, as printed in the panel; the amending section in the chapter text is section 13). Provisions of § 518.175 relied on: subd. 3(a), first sentence (permission or consent required for a move to another state, quoted verbatim) and second sentence (the mandatory bar where the purpose of the move is to interfere with parenting time, quoted verbatim); subd. 3(b) (best-interests standard and the eight factors, reproduced verbatim as an enumerated list, including the “include, but are not limited to” preface); subd. 3(c) (burden of proof on the moving parent, the domestic-abuse reversal, and the requirement that the court consider all of the factors — quoted verbatim); subd. 5(b) (modification of parenting time where it “would not change the child’s primary residence,” quoted verbatim); subd. 6(d)(1)–(3) (the three specifications for compensatory parenting time, quoted verbatim); subd. 6(e) (mandatory reimbursement and attorney fees on a repeated-and-intentional finding subject to ability to pay, and the three discretionary remedies including the “sanction of up to $500” and custody transfer “in accordance with the procedures under section 518.18”); subd. 6(f) (mandatory remedy on a second repeated-and-intentional finding); subd. 6(g) (the written-findings exception where denial was necessary to protect a child’s physical or emotional health); subd. 6(i) (unwarranted denial “may constitute contempt of court and may be sufficient cause for reversal of custody,” quoted verbatim); subd. 6(j) (“All parenting time orders must include notice of the provisions of this subdivision.”, quoted verbatim); and subd. 6(k)(2) (the notice clause containing the superseded § 609.375 cross-reference, quoted verbatim from the 2025 edition and identified as superseded). Laws 2006, ch. 280 (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2006/0/280/) — section 13 (adding paragraphs (b) and (c) to § 518.175, subd. 3 — the eight factors and the burden allocation are marked entirely as new text) and section 14 (amending § 518.18, including the addition of clause (d)(v), marked as new text). The chapter contains four effective-date provisions, none of which attaches to sections 13 or 14; § 645.02 therefore supplies August 1, 2006. Minn. Stat. § 518.18(d)(v) and (e) (2025) (the relocation-defiance exception to the custody retention rule, quoted verbatim; and the joint-custody carve-out routing an out-of-state move request to a different standard). Minn. Stat. § 518.1705, subd. 7 (2025) — the entire subdivision block-quoted verbatim (parents may agree on the legal standard governing removal, subject to the counsel-or-findings condition). Minn. Stat. § 518B.01, subd. 2(a) (2025) (definition of “domestic abuse” — the three clauses and their enumerated cross-references). Currency note: § 518B.01 carries a pending 2026 amendment notice, but the affected subdivisions are 4, 6 and 14; subdivision 2 is not among them. Minn. Stat. § 609.26, subd. 1(1) and (3) and subd. 2 (2025) (felony deprivation of custodial or parental rights, and the affirmative defenses); not amended in the 2026 Regular Session. Minn. Stat. § 609.375, subds. 1 and 2 (2025) (nonsupport of spouse or child — a misdemeanor, and a gross misdemeanor in specified circumstances; relied on to establish that the pre-2026 cross-reference in § 518.175, subd. 6(k)(2) pointed at a non-felony, unrelated offense). Minn. Stat. § 518D.202(a) (2025) (exclusive, continuing jurisdiction under the UCCJEA); not amended in the 2026 Regular Session. Minn. Stat. § 645.02 (2025), first paragraph, first sentence, quoted verbatim. Case law: Goldman v. Greenwood, 748 N.W.2d 279, 285 (Minn. 2008) (No. A06-1110, decided Mar. 27, 2008), Caselaw Access Project static archive, https://static.case.law/nw2d/748/cases/0279-01.json and https://static.case.law/nw2d/748/html/0279-01.html — relied on for the holding that § 518.18(d) rather than § 518.175, subd. 3 governs a motion to eliminate a locale restriction contained in a custody order (“is included in the custody order and thus cannot be eliminated unless a party meets the section 518.18(d) standard for custody order modification,” quoted verbatim), the “would gut locale restrictions of much of their effect” observation, the holding that the endangerment element concerns the present environment and “not whether the child may be endangered by future events” (quoted verbatim), the four prima facie elements required for an evidentiary hearing, and the record fact that the mother submitted fifteen affidavits and was denied a hearing. This article is general legal information about Minnesota law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Whether a parent may relocate with a child, which statute governs a particular motion, and who bears the burden depend on that case’s facts and on the terms of the existing order. No outcome is promised or implied.