Washington Relocation
Sixty days to say it. Thirty days to answer it. A presumption in between.
Washington sequenced relocation so nobody learns about a move from a moving truck: notice sixty days out, objection within thirty of receipt, and a rebuttable presumption that the relocation will be PERMITTED — rebutted only by showing detriment outweighing benefit on eleven statutory factors. Miss the objection window and the move commonly proceeds.
RCW 26.09.430
A person with whom the child resides a majority of the time must give NOTICE of an intended relocation (RCW 26.09.430) — relocation is a noticed process, not a fait accompli.
RCW 26.09.440
Notice runs SIXTY DAYS before the intended relocation — or, when the person did not and could not reasonably have known in time, no more than five days after learning the information (RCW 26.09.440). The official pattern forms carry the required contents.
RCW 26.09.480
An objection is due within THIRTY DAYS of receiving the notice — by a petition for modification of the parenting plan pursuant to relocation, or another adequate proceeding (RCW 26.09.480). Silence commonly lets the relocation proceed.
RCW 26.09.520
The intended relocation carries a REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION that it will be permitted — rebutted only by showing the detriment to the child and relocating person outweighs the benefit, weighed on the statute's eleven factors (RCW 26.09.520).
Sequence your posture
Which side of the notice are you on?
The act's answer
Pick your posture and sequence it — the flags carry the statute's own timeline and burdens.
Authority locked — retrieved from the hash-pinned corpus
School-district-internal moves and temporary orders carry their own rules within the act — and the eleven-factor weighing is judgment, not arithmetic. This organizer sequences the act; counsel argues it. Legal information, not legal advice.