The rest of what we have written about North Carolina. Every figure is quoted from North Carolina’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Travel, custody and relocation in North Carolina
The passport rules are federal and read the same everywhere. This page is the other layer — what North Carolina law and North Carolina’s own court forms say about taking your child on a trip, moving, and who holds the passport between journeys.
See a different stateNorth Carolina
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
North Carolina custody jurisdiction sits under N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 50A, art. 2 (Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act), §§ 50A-101 et seq. As of 2025 the chapter is retitled ‘Uniform Acts on Children’ and holds four articles: art. 1 (the old Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act), art. 2 (UCCJEA), art. 3 (Uniform Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act) and art. 4 (UCAPA).. The home-state definition is at N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50A-102(7): “‘Home state’ means the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child-custody proceeding. In the case of a child less than six months of age, the term means the state in which the child lived from birth with any of the persons mentioned. A period of temporary absence of any of the mentioned persons is part of the period.”. 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
North Carolina has enacted the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act at N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 50A, art. 4, §§ 50A-411 to 50A-422 (Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act), enacted by S.L. 2025-25 (H.B. 40), s. 45(b). ‘SECTION 45.(d) This section becomes effective October 1, 2025, and applies to petitions filed or motions made on or after that date.’. This is NEW LAW — North Carolina was a non-UCAPA state until October 1, 2025, and much published material still says so. The article runs: § 50A-411 Short title; § 50A-412 Definitions; § 50A-413 Cooperation and communication among courts; § 50A-414 Actions for abduction prevention measures; § 50A-415 Jurisdiction; § 50A-416 Contents of petition; § 50A-417 Factors to determine risk of abduction; § 50A-418 Provisions and measures to prevent abduction; § 50A-419 Warrant to take physical custody of child; § 50A-420 Duration of abduction prevention order; § 50A-421 Uniformity; § 50A-422 Relation to E-SIGN. § 50A-418(b): ‘If, at a hearing on a petition under this Article or on the court’s own motion, the court after reviewing the evidence finds a credible risk of abduction of the child, the court must enter an abduction prevention order.’ The order must state the jurisdictional basis, how notice was given, ‘A detailed description of each party’s custody and visitation rights and residential arrangements for the child,’ a civil-and-criminal-penalties warning, and ‘Identification of the child’s country of habitual residence at the time of the issuance of the order’ (§ 50A-418(a)). The § 50A-418(c) menu includes: ‘(1) An imposition of travel restrictions that require that a party traveling with the child outside a designated geographical area provide the other party with all of the following: a. The travel itinerary of the child. b. A list of physical addresses and telephone numbers at which the child can be reached at specified times. c. Copies of all travel documents. (2) A prohibition of the respondent directly or indirectly doing any of the following: a. Removing the child from this State, the United States, or another geographic area without permission of the court or the petitioner’s written consent. b. Removing or retaining the child in violation of a child-custody determination. c. Removing the child from school or a child-care or similar facility. d. Approaching the child at any location other than a site designated for supervised visitation. (3) A requirement that a party register the order in another state as a prerequisite to allowing the child to travel to that state.’ § 50A-418(d) permits supervised visitation at the respondent’s cost, a bond ‘in an amount sufficient to serve as a financial deterrent to abduction, the proceeds of which may be used to pay for the reasonable expenses of recovery of the child, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs if there is an abduction,’ and required education ‘on the potentially harmful effects to the child from abduction.’ § 50A-418(e) allows an imminent-abduction warrant under § 50A-419, authorization for law enforcement ‘to take any action reasonably necessary to locate the child or obtain return of the child,’ and ‘any other relief allowed under other State law.’ § 50A-418(f): ‘The remedies provided in this Article are cumulative and do not affect the availability of other remedies to prevent abduction.’ S.L. 2025-25, s. 45(c) directs the Revisor of Statutes to print the Official Comments to UCAPA as annotations, so the uniform comments are part of the published North Carolina materials.
Moving, and how much warning you owe
NORTH CAROLINA HAS no RELOCATION STATUTE. Chapter 50 contains no relocation section — a scan of the General Assembly’s own section list for Chapter 50 turns up no ‘relocation’ or ‘removal of child’ provision — and there is no relocation notice period, mileage trigger, relocation petition, or relocation factor list anywhere in the General Statutes. A parent’s move is litigated as an ordinary custody matter: initial custody is decided under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.2(a), which awards custody ‘to such person, agency, organization or institution as will best promote the interest and welfare of the child,’ requires ‘written findings of fact that reflect the consideration of’ domestic violence, the child’s safety and each party’s safety, and provides that ‘Between the parents, whether natural or adoptive, no presumption shall apply as to who will better promote the interest and welfare of the child.’ An existing order is modified under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.7(a): ‘Subject to G.S. 50A-201, 50A-202, and 50A-204, an order of a court of this State for custody of a minor child may be modified or vacated at any time, upon motion in the cause and a showing of changed circumstances by either party or anyone interested.’ Two statutory provisions do speak directly to moving, and both are easy to overlook. § 50-13.2(c): ‘An order for custody of a minor child may provide for such child to be taken outside of the State, but if the order contemplates the return of the child to this State, the judge may require the person, agency, organization or institution having custody out of this State to give bond or other security conditioned upon the return of the child to this State in accordance with the order of the court.’ And § 50-13.2(b): ‘If a party is absent or relocates with or without the children because of an act of domestic violence, the absence or relocation shall not be a factor that weighs against the party in determining custody or visitation.’ A third, in § 50-13.2(e), forecloses an argument: the amount of electronic communication (video calls and the like) ‘shall not be a factor in calculating child support or be used to justify or support relocation by the custodial parent out of the immediate area or the State.’
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
North Carolina 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.
North Carolina publishes no statewide parenting plan form, no model parenting order, and no standard visitation schedule. The Judicial Branch’s own child custody help page describes custody as produced by mediation or by a judge after trial, not by filling in a statewide template, and points users to general forms and to local resources. The custody documents that circulate — initial custody/visitation filing packets, motions to modify custody, pro se custody packets — are published under ‘local rules and forms’ for particular counties and judicial districts, and each judicial district runs its own custody mediation program under a local-rules addendum. As a result there is no statewide default about vacation blocks, advance notice before travel, itineraries, out-of-state or out-of-country travel, or passports: whatever a North Carolina order says on those subjects comes from the parties’ agreement, the individual district judge, or that district’s local rules. The only statewide statutory term touching travel is § 50-13.2(c), which lets an order permit the child to be taken outside the State and lets the judge require a bond or other security conditioned on the child’s return.
Who holds the passport
As of October 1, 2025, yes — through UCAPA. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50A-418(c)(4) lets an abduction prevention order include, ‘With regard to the child’s passport, one or more of the following: a. A direction that the petitioner place the child’s name in the United States Department of State’s Child Passport Issuance Alert Program. b. A requirement that the respondent surrender to the court or the petitioner’s attorney any United States or foreign passport issued in the child’s name, including a passport issued in the name of both the parent and the child. c. A prohibition upon the respondent from applying on behalf of the child for a new or replacement passport or visa.’ § 50A-418(c)(5) can make it a prerequisite to exercising custody or visitation that the respondent provide the U.S. State Department Office of Children’s Issues and the relevant foreign consulate or embassy ‘an authenticated copy of the order detailing passport and travel restrictions for the child’; give the court proof of that plus ‘An acknowledgment in a record from the relevant foreign consulate or embassy that no passport application has been made, or passport issued, on behalf of the child’; give the petitioner ‘proof of registration of the order with the United States Embassy or other United States diplomatic presence in the destination country and with the Central Authority for the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, if that Convention is in effect between the United States and the destination country, unless one of the parties objects’; and sign a Privacy Act waiver. § 50A-418(c)(6) allows a requirement, on the petitioner’s request, that the respondent ‘obtain an order from the relevant foreign country containing terms identical to the child-custody determination issued in the United States.’ Outside a UCAPA proceeding, North Carolina statute is silent on children’s passports, and there is no statewide form addressing who holds one.
What catches people out in North Carolina
Sources for this page
- Custody jurisdiction statute: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_50A/GS_50A-102.html
- Abduction Prevention Act: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_50A/GS_50A-418.html
- Relocation rule: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_50/GS_50-13.2.html
- Statewide parenting form: https://www.nccourts.gov/help-topics/family-and-children/child-custody
Sources we could not reach when this page was built, recorded so you know what is missing rather than assuming it was checked: North Carolina Judicial Branch opinion pages (nccourts.gov/documents/appellate-court-opinions/…) returned case metadata rather than opinion text to this check, and an nccourts.gov PDF on modification of custody returned no machine-readable text. This is why no North Carolina relocation case is named in this file.
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.