Travel, custody and relocation in Maryland

The passport rules are federal and read the same everywhere. This page is the other layer — what Maryland law and Maryland’s own court forms say about taking your child on a trip, moving, and who holds the passport between journeys.

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Read this alongside the federal rules

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.

Custody jurisdictionMd. Code Ann., Fam. Law tit. 9.5, §§ 9.5-101… Which state’s court may decide custody — and why a holiday elsewhere does not move it.
Abduction Prevention ActNoThe court still has its own powers; it just has no uniform-act toolkit to draw on.
Relocation notice90 days Md. Code Ann., Fam. Law § 9-106
Triggered byNone. The notice covers an intent to relocate the… None. The notice covers an intent to relocate the permanent residence of the party or the child ‘either within or outside the State’. no mileage threshold.

Which court decides — and why a trip does not change it

Maryland custody jurisdiction sits under Md. Code Ann., Fam. Law tit. 9.5, §§ 9.5-101 to 9.5-318 (Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act). The home-state definition is at Md. Code Ann., Fam. Law § 9.5-101 (definitions; ‘home state’ = the state in which the child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least 6 consecutive months, including any temporary absence, immediately before commencement). 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

Maryland 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

‘(a)(1) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, in any custody or visitation proceeding the court MAY include as a condition of a custody or visitation order a requirement that either party provide advance written notice of at least 90 days to the court, the other party, or both, of the intent to relocate the permanent residence of the party or the child either within or outside the State. … (3) If the court orders that notice be given to the other party, a mailing of the notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the other party shall be deemed sufficient. (4)(i) If either party files a petition regarding a proposed relocation within 20 days of the written notice … the court shall set a hearing on the petition on an expedited basis. (ii) If either party files a petition regarding a proposed relocation that would significantly interfere with the other parent’s ability to maintain the predetermined parenting time schedule, the court shall set a hearing on the petition on an expedited basis. (b) On a showing that notice would expose the child or either party to abuse as defined in § 4-501 of this article or for any other good cause the court shall waive the notice required by this section. (c) If either party is required to relocate in less than the 90-day period … the court may consider as a defense … that (1) relocation was necessary due to financial or other extenuating circumstances; and (2) the required notice was given within a reasonable time after learning of the necessity to relocate. (d) The court may consider any violation of the notice requirement as a factor in determining the merits of any subsequent proceeding involving custody or visitation.’

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

Maryland publishes a statewide parenting form or guideline — Maryland Parenting Plan Tool, form CC-DR-109 (Md. Rule 9-204.1), and the Joint Statement of the Parties Concerning Decision-Making Authority and Parenting Time, form CC-DR-110 (Md. Rule 9-204.2). 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.

CC-DR-109 has an express ‘Out-of-state travel’ section with two check-box options and blank day-fields the parties fill in: (1) ‘Each of us may travel within the United States with the child(ren) during our parenting time/vacation. The party traveling with the child(ren) will give the other party/parties at least ___ days’ written notice before traveling out-of-state unless there is an emergency, and will include an itinerary, with locations and telephone numbers where the child(ren) and that party can be reached.’ (2) ‘Each of us may travel out of the country with the child(ren) during our parenting time/vacation. The party traveling with the child(ren) will give the other party/parties at least ___ days’ written notice before traveling out of the country and will include an itinerary, with locations and telephone numbers where the child(ren) and that party can be reached. We agree to provide documentation necessary for the other party/parties to take the child(ren) out of the country.’ The form separately covers summer breaks, holidays, transportation and exchanges, and communication, and it flags ‘Relocation’ as a type of filing on its cover page. It does not mention passports by name — the out-of-country clause speaks of ‘documentation necessary’.

Who holds the passport

Nothing in Maryland’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 Maryland

Maryland’s 90-day relocation notice is DISCRETIONARY, not automatic. Fam. Law § 9-106(a)(1) says the court ‘may include as a condition’ of the order — so if the order is silent, there is no 90-day duty. Sources that describe Maryland as a flat ’90 days’ notice’ state are overstating it.
The 90 days pairs with a 20-day objection window: a party who wants to contest has 20 days from the written notice to file a petition and get an expedited hearing.
Maryland’s notice runs to moves ‘within or outside the State’ — an in-county move is covered if the order imposes the condition. There is no mileage trigger.
The Parenting Plan Tool leaves the travel-notice period BLANK for the parties to fill in. There is no statewide default number of days for out-of-state or out-of-country travel notice — only a statewide template for the clause.
The out-of-country clause commits parties to provide ‘documentation necessary’ but assigns no passport custodian. Who physically holds the child’s passport is not addressed anywhere in Maryland’s statewide materials.

Sources for this page

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.

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Sources last checked30 August 2026
Page published30 August 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.