The rest of what we have written about Indiana. Every figure is quoted from Indiana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Travel, custody and relocation in Indiana
The passport rules are federal and read the same everywhere. This page is the other layer — what Indiana law and Indiana’s own court forms say about taking your child on a trip, moving, and who holds the passport between journeys.
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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
Indiana custody jurisdiction sits under its own statute. 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
Indiana has not enacted the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act. A judge here still has general power to impose travel conditions, but there is no dedicated statutory menu of abduction-prevention measures to point to. If risk is a live issue, the federal route on the main travel page — a valid, enforceable order prohibiting removal, routed to CBP — matters more here, not less.
Moving, and how much warning you owe
As described by the Indiana Supreme Court’s Parenting Time Guidelines: ‘Indiana law (Ind. Code § 31-17-2.2) requires all individuals who have (or who are seeking) child custody or parenting time, and who intend to relocate their residence to provide notice to an individual who has (or is seeking) child custody, parenting time or grandparent visitation. The notice must be made by registered or certified mail not later than 30 days before the individual intends to move. … The notice must also be filed with the Court. The notice is required for all proposed moves by custodial and noncustodial parents in all cases when the proposed move involves a change of the primary residence for a period of at least sixty (60) days. The notice is not required to be filed with the court if a person’s relocation will reduce the distance between the relocating and non-relocating person’s home or will not result in an increase of more than 20 miles between the relocating and non-relocating parents’ homes and allow the child to remain enrolled in the child’s current school.’ The Guidelines themselves separately provide: ‘When either parent or other person who has custody or parenting time considers a change of residence, a 30 day advance notice of the intent to move must be provided to the other parent or person.’
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
Indiana publishes a statewide parenting form or guideline — Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines (adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court, effective March 31, 2001; updated effective January 1, 2022), published in the Indiana Rules of Court. That matters, because its default wording is what lands in a lot of orders unchanged, and it is where your travel terms probably came from.
Travel/itinerary: Section I(A)(6) ‘Emergency Notification’ — ‘For emergency notification purposes, whenever a child travels out of the area with either parent, one of the following shall be provided to the other parent: An itinerary of travel dates, destinations, and places where the child or the traveling parent can be reached, or the name and telephone number of an available third person who knows where the child or parent may be located.’ Vacation/summer: Section II(D)(3) — for a child 5 and older the noncustodial parent gets one-half of the summer vacation, ‘may be either consecutive or split into two (2) segments,’ and ‘shall give notice to the custodial parent of the selection by April 1 of each year. If such notice is not given, the custodial parent shall make the selection and notify the other parent. All notices shall be given in writing and verbally. A timely selection may not be rejected by the other parent.’ For a child 3 through 4, up to four non-consecutive weeks with ‘at least sixty (60) days advance notice of the use of a particular week.’ Section III (Parenting Time When Distance is a Major Factor) uses the same April 1 selection notice. Relocation: Section I(E)(4) requires 30 days’ advance notice of an intended change of residence. Out-of-country travel and passports: not addressed anywhere in the Guidelines.
Who holds the passport
Nothing in Indiana’s statutes or standard forms addresses who holds the child’s passport. That is not a gap you have to live with — it is a clause you can ask for, and the federal rules above are the reason to.
What catches people out in Indiana
Sources for this page
- Relocation rule: https://rules.incourts.gov/pdf/PDF%20-%20Parenting/parenting.pdf
- Statewide parenting form: https://rules.incourts.gov/Content/parenting/default.htm
Sources we could not reach when this page was built, recorded so you know what is missing rather than assuming it was checked: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/31 — returns only a JavaScript application shell (HTTP 200, ~691 bytes) for every path; no statute text served to non-browser clients; https://api.iga.in.gov/2025/code/title/31 — HTTP 403, ‘x-api-key not found’; https://www.in.gov/courts/ and https://public.courts.in.gov/ — JavaScript-rendered; no statute or opinion text retrievable
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.