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How to Modify Child Custody in Illinois

Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Illinois · Last updated October 7, 2026

Illinois does not have one rule for changing custody, it has two, and which one you are under decides whether you can file this week or must wait two years. Modifying child custody here means asking the circuit court that entered your existing order to change it because something significant has shifted since then. Illinois abolished the words custody and visitation on 1 January 2016. The statute now splits the subject into allocation of parental responsibilities, meaning the decision-making authority over school, health care, religion and activities, and parenting time, meaning the schedule. That split drives everything. Under 750 ILCS 5/610.5(a) no motion to modify an order allocating parental decision-making responsibilities, in the statute's own words not including parenting time, may be made earlier than 2 years after its date. The escapes are a stipulation of the parties, a Section 603.10 restriction case, or the court's permission granted on affidavits that the child's present environment may endanger seriously the child's mental, moral or physical health or significantly impair emotional development. The very next sentence says parenting time may be modified at any time, without a showing of serious endangerment, on a showing of changed circumstances. So a schedule request has no waiting period at all. Past two years, 610.5(c) asks for a substantial change since the existing order, proved by a preponderance of the evidence, plus the child's best interests. Illinois approves no statewide form for this, so the vehicle is your circuit's local petition or a drafted one. Attorney review of your filing is available through DocDraft.

Find out where you stand in Illinois

What is prompting the change to your custody order?

DocDraft provides document preparation, not legal advice.

Is there a waiting period to modify child custody in Illinois?

It depends which half you are changing. 750 ILCS 5/610.5(a) bars a motion to modify an order allocating parental decision-making responsibilities earlier than 2 years after its date. The same sentence excludes parenting time, which may be modified at any time without a showing of serious endangerment.

How much notice must an Illinois parent give before relocating with a child?

750 ILCS 5/609.2(d) requires at least 60 days' written notice before the relocation, unless such notice is impracticable, in which case it is due at the earliest practicable date. The notice goes to the other parent and a copy is filed with the clerk of the circuit court.

Which moves trigger the Illinois relocation notice rule?

750 ILCS 5/600(g) tiers the trigger by county. From Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will, a move of more than 25 miles inside Illinois. From any other Illinois county, more than 50 miles. Any move outside Illinois of more than 25 miles counts.

How do I file to change a parenting time order in Illinois?

File a petition to modify in the circuit court that entered the order, under the same case number. Illinois approves no statewide parental responsibilities modification form, so ask your circuit clerk which local form they use. Clerk fees are fixed by 705 ILCS 105/27.1b.

Illinois parenting order modification at a glance

Changing child custody in Illinois means asking the circuit court that entered your existing order to change it because something significant has shifted since then. Illinois is unusual because it retired the vocabulary. Since 1 January 2016 the statute recognises allocation of parental responsibilities, which is decision-making authority, and parenting time, which is the schedule. Those two halves carry different rules, and this is the single most expensive thing to get wrong here. A decision-making change is locked for 2 years after the order under 750 ILCS 5/610.5(a), openable only by stipulation, by a Section 603.10 restriction case, or on affidavits of serious endangerment. Parenting time carries no clock whatsoever. Relocation is tiered by county rather than by one statewide mileage figure.

A Will County parent fourteen months after the allocation judgment

Picture an allocation judgment entered fourteen months ago in Will County. You have the majority of parenting time, you have been offered a job 28 miles away in Grundy County, and you also want sole authority over your daughter's medical decisions because the other parent will not return the pediatrician's calls. Illinois gives you three different answers. The move is a relocation, because Will is a 25 mile county under 600(g)(1) and 28 road miles clears it, so you owe 60 days' written notice with a copy to the circuit clerk. The schedule can be revised now, since parenting time has no waiting period. The medical decision-making change is locked until month twenty-four unless affidavits persuade the judge of serious endangerment.

Relevant Laws

750 ILCS 5/610.5 (modification, and the 2 year lock)

Provides that no motion to modify an order allocating parental decision-making responsibilities, not including parenting time, may be made earlier than 2 years after its date absent stipulation, a Section 603.10 case, or affidavits of serious endangerment, and that parenting time may be modified at any time on changed circumstances.

750 ILCS 5/609.2 (parent's relocation)

Sets the 60 day written notice requirement with its impracticability escape, directs that a copy be filed with the clerk of the circuit court, allows the move without further court action if the other parent signs, requires a petition for permission if that parent does not, and lists eleven relocation factors.

750 ILCS 5/600 (the tiered definition of relocation)

Subsection (g) defines relocation as a move of more than 25 miles within Illinois from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will county, more than 50 miles within Illinois from any other county, or more than 25 miles to a residence outside Illinois, measured by road on the shortest route.

750 ILCS 5/603.10 (restriction of parental responsibilities)

The separate safety track, excepted from both the 2 year lock and the substantial change test. On a preponderance finding that a parent engaged in conduct that seriously endangered the child, the court enters protective orders, including reduced parenting time, supervision, intermediary exchanges or a bond.

Illinois Courts: Approved Statewide Standardized Forms

The Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice catalog, which all Illinois courts must accept. It contains no parenting time, allocation, relocation or post-judgment modification category, which is why the petition comes from your circuit. It does publish the statewide Fee Waiver for Civil Cases form.

Regional Variances

Illinois modification levers at a glance

Waiting period before you may file

Split. 750 ILCS 5/610.5(a) bars a motion to modify an order allocating parental decision-making responsibilities earlier than 2 years after its date, and the clock runs from the order's date. The same sentence carries parenting time out of the bar entirely, so a schedule motion has no waiting period.

Standard to change the order

After the 2 years, 610.5(c) requires a substantial change in the circumstances of the child or of either parent, on facts arising since the existing order or not anticipated in it, proved by a preponderance of the evidence, plus necessity to serve the child's best interests. 610.5(d) honours a parental agreement.

Modification with no changed circumstances

750 ILCS 5/610.5(e) gives four alternative grounds needing no changed circumstances at all, provided the change is in the child's best interests: the actual care arrangement in place without objection for 6 months, a minor modification, correcting an agreed plan the court would not have approved, or party agreement.

Relocation notice

At least 60 days' written notice before the relocation under 750 ILCS 5/609.2(d), unless such notice is impracticable, when it is due at the earliest practicable date, or unless the court orders otherwise. The notice names the intended date, the new address if known, and the duration if not permanent.

Relocation distance trigger

Tiered by county, not one figure. 750 ILCS 5/600(g): more than 25 miles in-state from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will; more than 50 miles in-state from every other county; more than 25 miles for any move outside Illinois. Measured by Internet mapping on surface roads, shortest route.

Relocation mechanism

Sign or petition. Under 609.2(e) the move proceeds without further court action only if the non-relocating parent signs the notice and it is filed. Under 609.2(f) an objection, a refusal to sign, or no agreement on the revised plan all force the relocating parent to petition for permission.

Court

The circuit court that entered your order, filed under the same case number. Illinois calls the circuit court its court of original jurisdiction and runs 25 judicial circuits, seven of them single county circuits (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, St. Clair and Will). Local practice varies by circuit.

Forms

None statewide. The Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice form catalog has no allocation, parenting time, relocation or modification category, and no relocation notice form. The generic Motions and Notice set is not a parenting modification form. Ask your circuit clerk. Fee Waiver for Civil Cases is statewide.

Filing fee

TODO(source). Illinois fixes circuit clerk fees by statute in 705 ILCS 105/27.1b, overriding local fee setting, and tiers them at a county population of 3,000,000. The subsection on petitions to modify a final judgment sets ceilings rather than prices and is amended repeatedly. Confirm the current amount with your circuit clerk.

Procedural screen

Affidavits, and only on one route. The 610.5(a) affidavit showing is what unlocks a decision-making motion inside the 2 years; a parenting time motion, a post-2 year substantial change motion and an (e) motion carry no affidavit requirement. 610.5(f) adds a back-end filing bar for repeated frivolous motions.

Child's wishes

No statutory age. Illinois uses a maturity test in all three places: 602.5(c)(1) for decision-making, 602.7(b)(2) for parenting time and 609.2(g)(8) for relocation each weigh the child's wishes taking into account the child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and independent preferences.

Suggested Compliance Checklist

Split your request into decision-making and parenting time

Before you draft anything days after starting

Go through your allocation judgment line by line and mark which paragraphs allocate decision-making authority and which set the schedule. The 750 ILCS 5/610.5(a) 2 year lock reaches only the first group. Mislabelling your request is the most common way an Illinois motion stalls.

Date the allocation order and count the two years

Before you file days after starting

Find the entry date on the order allocating decision-making responsibilities and count 2 years forward, because that is where the 610.5(a) clock starts. If you are still inside it, identify which opening you are using: stipulation, a Section 603.10 case, or endangerment affidavits.

Measure the move against the county tier

Before you commit to a new address days after starting

Run the distance on an Internet mapping service using surface roads and take the shortest route, as 750 ILCS 5/600(g) directs. Compare it against 25 miles if the child lives in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will, 50 miles elsewhere in Illinois, or 25 miles out of state.

Draft the 60 day relocation notice

At least 60 days before the move days after starting

Write the notice required by 750 ILCS 5/609.2(d) with the intended relocation date, the address of the intended new residence if known, and how long the relocation will last if it is not indefinite or permanent. Ask the other parent to sign it. Attorney review is available through DocDraft.

Draft the petition to modify, or the petition for permission

Once you know which route applies days after starting

Plead the facts arising since the existing order, or not anticipated in it, that make up your substantial change under 610.5(c), or plead the 610.5(e) ground you rely on. If the other parent will not sign the relocation notice, draft the 609.2(f) petition seeking permission to relocate instead.

File a copy of the relocation notice with the circuit clerk

When you serve the notice days after starting

750 ILCS 5/609.2(c) requires a copy of the notice to be filed with the clerk of the circuit court, which is a separate step from giving it to the other parent. Where there is a history of domestic violence, ask the court to waive or seal the required details.

File in the circuit court that entered the order

Promptly, since circuits set their own hearing calendars days after starting

File under the existing case number in the same circuit court, using that circuit's local form, since Illinois approves no statewide modification form. Confirm the current clerk fee, which 705 ILCS 105/27.1b fixes by statute, and file the statewide Fee Waiver for Civil Cases if you need it.

Keep complying with the existing order until it is replaced

Until the judge signs the new order days after starting

Serving a relocation notice does not suspend anything, and neither does filing. Moving early or withholding the child is an enforcement matter, and 609.2(d) lets the court read a notice failure as evidence against your good faith and as grounds to award the other parent fees and costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Illinois guides

Adverse Possession in Illinois: Which of the Clocks Is Yours, Twenty Years or Seven

Asset Protection Planning in Illinois (2026)

Dealing With Debt Collectors in Illinois (2026)

Expunging a Criminal Record in Illinois (2026)

Filing a Workplace Harassment Complaint in Illinois

Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Illinois (2026)

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