The rest of what we have written about Alabama. Every figure is quoted from Alabama’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Travel, custody and relocation in Alabama
The passport rules are federal and read the same everywhere. This page is the other layer — what Alabama law and Alabama’s own court forms say about taking your child on a trip, moving, and who holds the passport between journeys.
See a different stateAlabama
Getting a child’s passport, consent letters, the Hague Convention and what actually stops a departure are the same in all fifty states — they are on the main travel page. Start there, then come back here for the part that varies.
Which court decides — and why a trip does not change it
Alabama custody jurisdiction sits under Ala. Code ch. 30-3B (§ 30-3B-101 et seq.). The home-state definition is at Ala. Code § 30-3B-102(7). The practical point for travel is this: a child’s home state is where they lived for six consecutive months before a case started, and a temporary absence counts toward that period. A summer with grandparents in another state does not start a clock there, and it does not let the other parent file somewhere new.
Abduction-prevention powers
Alabama has enacted the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act at Ala. Code ch. 30-3C (§ 30-3C-1 et seq.), the “Alabama Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act”. On a petition, the court may order abduction prevention measures (§ 30-3C-9), including travel restrictions requiring a party traveling with the child outside a designated geographic area to provide the other party the child’s travel itinerary, a list of physical addresses and telephone numbers where the child can be reached, and copies of all travel documents; a requirement that a party register the order in another state before the child may travel there; and passport measures – placing the child’s name in the U.S. Department of State Children’s Passport Issuance Alert Program, requiring the respondent to surrender to the court or petitioner’s attorney any U.S. or foreign passport issued in the child’s name (including a passport issued in the name of both parent and child), and prohibiting the respondent from applying for a new or replacement passport or visa for the child. The court may also transmit an authenticated copy of the order detailing passport and travel restrictions to the U.S. Department of State Office of Children’s Issues and the relevant foreign consulate or embassy. Under § 30-3C-8 the court may enter ex parte emergency relief, including a warrant to take physical custody of the child and travel restrictions, on a finding of credible risk of imminent abduction.
Moving, and how much warning you owe
Ala. Code § 30-3-165(a): notice of a proposed change of principal residence of a child “must be given by certified mail to the last known address of the person or persons entitled to notification under this article not later than the 45th day before the date of the intended change of the principal residence of a child or the 10th day after the date such information … becomes known, if the person did not know and could not reasonably have known the information in sufficient time to comply with the 45-day notice.” Section 30-3-165(b) requires the notice to include the intended new street address, mailing address, telephone numbers, the child’s new school, the date of the intended change, the specific reasons for it, a proposed revised custody/visitation schedule, and “[a] warning to the non-relocating person that an objection to the relocation must be made within 30 days of receipt of the notice or the relocation will be permitted.” Section 30-3-161(11) defines “relocate” as “a change in the principal residence of a child for a period of 45 days or more,” excluding a temporary absence and an absence necessary to escape domestic violence. Section 30-3-169.4 creates a rebuttable presumption that a change of the child’s principal residence is not in the child’s best interest, with the initial burden on the relocating party (the presumption does not apply where the objecting party has been found to have committed domestic violence or child abuse). Section 30-3-166 requires every Alabama child custody determination entered after September 1, 2003 to recite this notice regime verbatim.
Relocation and vacation are different questions, and orders often treat them in the same paragraph. A trip is temporary; a move changes the child’s residence. Read your own order for which one your plan actually is before you assume the relocation rule does not apply.
What the standard order says about travel
Alabama has no single statewide parenting order. Travel terms come from your own order and from local court rules, which vary by county or district. Read your order rather than a template.
Alabama has no statewide standard possession order, model parenting plan, or statewide parenting-time guideline that sets default vacation, notice, itinerary, out-of-state or out-of-country travel or passport terms; visitation schedules are set by the individual circuit court, and many circuits use their own local standard visitation orders. The one thing Alabama law does force into every custody order statewide is the relocation-notice language of Ala. Code § 30-3-166, which is about a change of the child’s principal residence and about each party’s continuing duty to notify the other of any change of address or telephone number – not about vacation travel, itineraries or passports. No statewide vacation-travel, itinerary or passport default was located on an Alabama primary source.
Who holds the passport
Addressed by statute in the Alabama Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act, Ala. Code § 30-3C-9, but only as a remedy a court may order after a petition and a finding of abduction risk – not as a statewide default in ordinary custody orders. The court may direct the petitioner to place the child’s name in the U.S. Department of State’s Children’s Passport Issuance Alert Program, require the respondent to surrender to the court or the petitioner’s attorney any U.S. or foreign passport issued in the child’s name (including one issued in the name of both parent and child), and prohibit the respondent from applying on the child’s behalf for a new or replacement passport or visa. Alabama’s relocation statute and Alabama’s UCCJEA chapter say nothing about which parent holds the child’s passport in the ordinary case.
What catches people out in Alabama
Sources for this page
- Custody jurisdiction statute: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama
Sources we could not reach when this page was built, recorded so you know what is missing rather than assuming it was checked: alison.legislature.state.al.us serves the Code of Alabama only through a client-side application, so no stable per-section primary-source URL exists to cite; the chapter-level landing page is given instead.
Every fact above is taken from the source linked beside it. Where a figure could not be confirmed from an official source, this page says so rather than printing a plausible number. Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date.