More on West Virginia

The rest of what we have written about West Virginia. Every figure is quoted from West Virginia’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.

Travel, custody and relocation in West Virginia

The passport rules are federal and read the same everywhere. This page is the other layer — what West Virginia law and West Virginia’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 jurisdictionW. Va. Code ch. 48, art. 20 (§§ 48-20-101 et… 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 W. Va. Code § 48-9-403 (“Relocation of a parent”), as amended by 2021 Reg. Sess., Enrolled C.S. for H.B. 2363
Triggered bynone no mileage threshold and no in-state/out-of-state line. § 48-9-403(a) makes a parent’s relocation a substantial change in circumstances “when it impairs either parent’s ability to exercise responsibilities that the parent has been exercising, or when it impairs the schedule of custodial allocation that has been ordered by the court.”

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

West Virginia custody jurisdiction sits under W. Va. Code ch. 48, art. 20 (§§ 48-20-101 et seq.), “Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act” (enacted 2001). The home-state definition is at W. Va. Code § 48-20-102(g) – “‘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.” Note § 48-20-102(f): “Reference to a court of West Virginia means the family court.”. 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

West Virginia has not enacted the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act. West Virginia has not enacted the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act. It does not appear among the 21 enacting jurisdictions in the Uniform Law Commission’s own enactment data, and there is no UCAPA article in W. Va. Code ch. 48. A UCAPA bill, S.B. 2 (Oliverio), was referred to Senate Health and Human Resources in the 2026 session per the ULC’s “Legislative Report by Act 08.29.2026” but had not passed as of August 30, 2026. Until it does, West Virginia has no statutory abduction-prevention order with itinerary, travel-document or passport-surrender provisions.

Moving, and how much warning you owe

West Virginia does not use a notice-and-object model at all – the relocating parent must AFFIRMATIVELY PETITION. § 48-9-403(b): “A parent who has responsibility under a parenting plan who changes, or intends to change, residences must file a verified petition with the court for modification of the parenting plan, and cause a copy of the same to be served upon the other parent and upon all other persons who, pursuant to the court’s order in effect at the time of the petition, have been allocated custodial time with the child. The petition shall be filed at least 90 days prior to any relocation, and the summons must be served at least 60 days in advance of any relocation, unless the relocating parent establishes that it was impracticable under the circumstances to provide such notice 90 days in advance.” The verified petition must state “(1) The proposed relocation date; (2) The address of the intended new residence; (3) The specific reasons for the proposed relocation; (4) A proposal for how custodial responsibility shall be modified, in light of the intended move; and (5) A request for a hearing.” Non-compliance “may be a factor in the determination of whether the relocation is in good faith,” “may also be a basis for reallocation of the primary residence and custodial responsibility,” and can support an award of expenses and attorney’s fees. § 48-9-403(c): “A hearing on the petition shall be held by the court at least 30 days in advance of the proposed date of relocation,” with expedited relief available and written findings required if the hearing is later than that. § 48-9-403(d)(1) places the burden squarely on the mover: “the relocating parent has the burden of proving that: (A) The reasons for the proposed relocation are legitimate and made in good faith; (B) that allowing relocation of the relocating parent with the child is in the best interests of the child as defined in §48-9-102 of this code; and (C) that there is no reasonable alternative, other than the proposed relocation, available to the relocating parent that would be in the child’s best interests and less disruptive to the child.” § 48-9-403(d)(2) enumerates legitimate purposes (to be close to immediate family, substantial health reasons, protecting the safety of the child or a household member from significant risk of harm, a significant employment or educational opportunity, or to join a spouse or a significant other cohabiting for at least a year who is established or pursuing such an opportunity elsewhere). § 48-9-403(d)(3): “A move with a legitimate purpose is unreasonable unless the relocating parent proves that the purpose is not substantially achievable without moving, and that moving to a location that is substantially less disruptive of the other parent’s relationship to the child is not feasible.” § 48-9-403(e) allows entry of an agreed modified parenting plan without a contested hearing if it is in the child’s best interests. § 48-9-403(f): “Except in extraordinary circumstance articulated in the court’s order, a relocation may not be considered until an initial permanent parenting plan is established.”

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

West Virginia publishes a statewide parenting form or guideline — SCA-FC-121, “Parenting Plan” (rev. 05/2014; approved by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals 06/17/2014), with instructions SCA-FC-120 and worksheet SCA-FC-128. This is a statewide Supreme Court of Appeals form that becomes the order when the family court adopts it; there is no default possession schedule that applies without one. The statutory content requirements for a permanent parenting plan are at W. Va. Code § 48-9-205.. 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.

Vacation planning is addressed, briefly, with a one-month lead time. Under the heading “SUMMER AND OTHER VACATION TIMES”: “This plan proposes that in addition to the residential and holiday scheduling listed above, the parents will vary these schedules to divide school/work vacations as described in this section. The parents will work together to make arrangements for specific dates and times for vacation no later than one month in advance of the time requested for vacation. The child(ren) shall spend (how many?) ___ vacation [ ] days / [ ] weeks with Petitioner and (how many?) ___ vacation [ ] days / [ ] weeks with Respondent.” On travel, the form’s only provision is about who pays: “Special Travel – The arrangements for, and the cost of special or unusual travel will be the responsibility of: [ ] Petitioner [ ] Respondent. (Examples: trips by airplane, bus, or train to visit a distant parent, or travel by these methods for school trips.)” The form contains no itinerary requirement, no out-of-state or out-of-country travel clause, no relocation-notice paragraph (the words “relocation,” “move” and “moving” do not appear in it at all), and the word “passport” appears NOWHERE in it.

Who holds the passport

Nothing in West Virginia’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 West Virginia

West Virginia is not a notice state. § 48-9-403(b) requires the relocating parent to FILE A VERIFIED PETITION to modify the parenting plan – giving the other parent notice, however polite, is not compliance.
Three separate deadlines, all easy to blow: petition filed at least 90 days before the move, summons served at least 60 days before the move, and hearing held at least 30 days before the proposed relocation date (§ 48-9-403(b)-(c)).
The burden is on the mover and it is a three-part burden, including the unusual third element in § 48-9-403(d)(1)(C) – that “there is no reasonable alternative, other than the proposed relocation, available to the relocating parent that would be in the child’s best interests and less disruptive to the child.”
Even a legitimate purpose is not enough by itself: under § 48-9-403(d)(3) “[a] move with a legitimate purpose is unreasonable unless the relocating parent proves that the purpose is not substantially achievable without moving, and that moving to a location that is substantially less disruptive of the other parent’s relationship to the child is not feasible.”
There is no mileage trigger and no out-of-state trigger. The test in § 48-9-403(a) is functional impairment of a parent’s exercised responsibilities or of the ordered custodial schedule, so an in-state move can require the full petition.
§ 48-9-403(f) blocks the whole procedure before there is an initial permanent parenting plan, “[e]xcept in extraordinary circumstance articulated in the court’s order.”
The section was rewritten in 2021 (Enrolled C.S. for H.B. 2363); anything describing West Virginia relocation as a simple 60-day notice rule is describing the pre-2021 law.
West Virginia has not enacted UCAPA (a bill, S.B. 2, was pending in 2026 but had not passed), so none of the itinerary / travel-document / passport-surrender remedies are available by statute.
The statewide Parenting Plan form is from 2014 and says nothing about relocation, passports, itineraries or international travel; its only travel provision allocates the COST of “special or unusual travel.” The one usable default it does supply is that vacation dates must be arranged “no later than one month in advance.”

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.