North Carolina

Folk Art Center, Blue Ridge Parkway near Ashville

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

N.C. Gen. Stat. 2019 Art. 27A, §§14-208.5 through 14-208.45

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

3 business days for initial reg. and updates.  §§14-207, 14-208.9. New residents: w/in 3 business days of establishing residence, or whenever present in the state for 15 days, whichever comes first (“residence” not defined). §14-208.7.  “Employed” means more than 14 days or more than 30 days in a calendar year.  §14-208.6

Per Rolfe Survey, visiting registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

Residence restriction: 1,000 ft. of school or child care center, with exceptions.  §14-208.16.  NC law includes a very expansive definition of “child care” that includes e.g. Boys & Girls Clubs. §110-86. However, “school” does not include “institutions of higher education” or “home schools” as defined in §115C-563.

Presence restrictions:  For offenses involving a victim under 16 and other offenses, may not be present on “place intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors,” or w/in 300 ft. of such a place if it is located on another property such as a mall. Also may not be present “where minors gather regularly for scheduled educational, recreational, or social programs.”  Various exceptions for parents on school business, or in need of medical care. §14-208.18.  

Duration & updates:

30 years to life. Petition to remove – 10 years. Tier III updates every 90 days; all others every six months. §§14-208.7A, 14-209A

North Carolina Arboretum, Ashville

Most recent visit: March 2024

North North Carolina has a lot of onerous residence and presence restrictions which you should be concerned about.  However, according to state law (§14-208.16) these restrictions apply to “an offender who is required to register,” and therefore apparently not to a visitor who is not required to register because you’re in the state for less than 15 days.

Just to be safe, however, I would certainly suggest staying away from schools, child care centers and “places where minors gather regularly.”  You can, however, attend your college reunion because “institutions of higher education” are excluded by definition from the term “school.”

On a previous trip through North Carolina I traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is administered by the National Parks Service which makes it a park.  That was no problem in North Carolina because they have no law against registered people visiting parks, whether local, state or national parks.  You can also visit Smokey Mountains National Park, national forests or any state park in North Carolina without fear.  You can also visit historic sites, museums and monuments of which the state has many.

In March 2024 I joined my family for their Spring Break vacation in the mountains of North Carolina.  They came from Florida.  I came from Iowa, but afterwards traveled with my family to Florida, all of which I properly reported at my local Iowa sheriff’s department as a 6 1/2 week trip with multiple destinations in multiple states.  I even told them that in the middle of this trip I’d be inserting another trip with my ex from Florida to New Jersey and back before returning to Iowa. 

The view from Chimney Rock State Park, NC

Iowa had no problem entering this level of travel complexity into my registry sheet – which just goes to show that you shouldn’t worry about complex travel plans.  I like to think that having my sheet with the answers to any suspicious police officer’s questions sitting right in my glove compartment protects me during my travels.

During my NC family vacation we visited the usual attractions – museums, quaint small towns, Chimney Rock State Park, drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped at the Folk Art Center, etc.  We arrived on Monday and left on Friday, so even including partial days that makes five days, well within the 14 days allowed by North Carolina without triggering an obligation to register.

In June 2022 on my way to the NARSOL National Conference in Raleigh I entered North Carolina from Virginia on I-77, stopping at the Welcome Station to pick up a few brochures.  This was pretty close to Mt. Airy which is very touristy and bills itself as the home of TV’s Mayberry RFD.  I skipped that in favor of the authentic historic town of Bethania, just outside Winston-Salem.  It’s the real thing, folks.  After grabbing some lunch and moving on to Raleigh I visited the NC Museum of Natural Sciences which was having a special exhibition called “Life Before Dinosaurs: The Permian Monsters.”  I’m such a sucker for that kind of stuff!

But then it was time to head for the conference hotel and settle in for the NARSOL conference which was great and informative! Three days later I was on my way to a Pisgah National Forest campground near the entrance to Great Smokey Mtns. National Park, which I decided to report on in a separate blog post because more than half of it is in Tennessee.