Question #17: I am the sole custodial parent of one child, age 11 and have resided in the same small apartment in NYC since before I was married. The non-custodial parent has been permitted only supervised visits for the past 8 years. In addition of having no parental role in our child’s life, the non-custodial parent missed over 400 visits ( recently not having any contact with our child for two years straight), although resumed 1x weekly-90 minute supervised visits for the past four months. I was laid off a year and 1/2 ago, along with my new wife (lost her job five months ago) and have not found enough work in the metropolitan area to support our meager lifestyle here, despite collecting unemployment which will run out this coming fall. My job search expanded out of state in North Carolina, where I have some family, which has resulted in several legitimate opportunites for work in my field. Of course, I believe relocating to this area would be beneficial to our child with the obvious availability of less expensive housing (versus our apartment dwelling), schooling (after school activities currently not available in the city) to name a few. With the lack of relationship with the non-custodial parent, I am interested to know if the court would consider permitting this move so that I may begin to interview for these offers before losing my unemployment benefits? In addition, the non-custodial parent owes over $80K in child support and child care which has been a significant financial burden to my household. Sincerely, NY parent