Georgia
From the 50 State Visitor Guide :
2019 O.C.G.A. §§42-1-12 through 42-1-19
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 140-2-18.
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
Registration required within 72 hours of establishing a residence or entering the state. §42-1-12(f). Visitors: registration required if in the state for 14 consecutive days, or for more than 30 days in calendar year. §42-1-12(e)(7).
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
All persons required to register may not reside, loiter, or be employed within 1,000 ft. of child care facility, church, school, or “area where minors congregate” defined to “include all public & private parks & recreation facilities, playgrounds, skating rinks, neighborhood centers, gymnasiums, school bus stops, public libraries, & public & community swimming pools” §42-1-12(3). Certain employment restrictions apply. §§42-1-15 through 42-1-17. It is a misdemeanor to intentionally photograph a minor in Georgia without parental consent. §42-1-18. Persons deemed to be a “sexually dangerous predator”
(level 3) are required to wear (and pay for) a GPS monitor
for lifetime. Added Aug. 2024 However, visitors are not “required to
register.” Updated Aug. 2024.
Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED. (per Rolfe Survey and confirmed by state registry office).
Duration & updates:
Life. Sexually Dangerous Predator updates every 6 months. All others update annually within 72 hours of birthday.
Most recent visit: April 2024
Georgia’s SOR statute states that registrants may not reside, loiter, or be employed within 1,000 ft. of a child care facility, church, school, or “area where minors congregate.” The term “area where minors congregate” is defined to include “all public & private parks and recreation facilities, playgrounds, skating rinks, neighborhood centers, gymnasiums, school bus stops, public libraries, & public & community swimming pools” §42-1-12(3). That’s a pretty tough set of rules.
Downtown Savannah
Furthermore, according to the person I spoke to at the Georgia SOR Office in 2020, these rules apply to visiting registrants even during the 14 consecutive days or 30 aggregate days per year before you have to register in that state. According to that set of rules, you can go to any of the state’s tens of thousands of churches – even historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – to pray during your visit to Georgia, but you can’t “loiter” within 1000 feet of one! Suppose you check into a hotel for the night in Georgia, only to discover that it’s within 1000 feet of a child care facility, church, school, or “area where minors congregate?” Suppose the hotel has a game room? What then?
The good news is you would also be prohibited from visiting Stone Mountain State Park, Georgia’s now-infamous monument to the Confederacy.
However! When I called back to update my state-by-state research in August 2022 I got a completely different story. This time the nice lady at the Georgia SOR office said residency & presence restrictions applying to visitors are those applying to you in your state of registry. By that rule, in my situation I would follow the rules for either Iowa or Florida, depending on which state I had reported my travel from.
Also, according to the state SOR office, national parks and forests are “out of our jurisdiction,” and there are quite a few of those, especially in northern and central Georgia. Since most of my cross-country travel plans involve camping overnight at national park or national forest campgrounds, that’s good news for me.
NOTE: Georgia is one of about 15 states where there is no procedure for removal from the registry upon returning to your home state. So be extra careful.
In April 2024 my ex-wife but still Best Friend Forever and I were traveling on our way back to Florida from attending a wedding in New Jersey when we decided to stop overnight and spend a little time in Savannah. We entered Georgia from South Carolina on I-95 and checked into a hotel near Savannah Airport. Given its location in a primarily airport-industrial area I didn’t worry about either Georgia’s residency or presence rules, or Florida’s. We just checked in and got some sleep that night.
The next morning I continued to not worry about Georgia’s presence or loitering rules. Instead my BFF and I toured downtown Savannah, checked out the waterfront and tourist commercial district, had lunch at a local restaurant and were on our way, arriving home in Florida in time to have dinner with family.
That’s two partial days in Georgia, far fewer than the 14 consecutive days the state allows. That’s also a nice morning touring Savannah with my best friend without being excessively paranoid about state rules.
Previous visits: April & Nov. 2022
In November 2022 I visited the North Georgia mountains together with family, coming from Florida. I did none of the driving on this trip. Instead I was a passenger with my ex-wife while my daughter and grandchildren rode in a separate car. We stayed for five days at a timeshare. It was very nice.
Following the guidance of the Georgia SOR office, I was governed on this trip by the rules that apply to me in Florida. That meant I was able to take my ex to Amicalola State Park and show her Amicalola Falls, which she really liked. She wanted to take the family to supposedly historic Helen which in my opinion is completely ruined by tourism, so I went along with it and pretended I really liked it. I will say we had lunch at a pretty good German restaurant. The next day we went to Dahlonega, which I like a lot better.
On a previous visit in April 2022 I entered Georgia from Tennessee in the morning, enjoying a beautiful mountain drive through Chattahoochee National Forest. I stopped to see De Soto Falls – very nice. Then I continued to Historic Dahlonega, which at that time I hadn’t been to for long time.
After a nice lunch in Dahlonega I continued on to Atlanta, where I visited the World of Coca Cola. That was a mistake. I was expecting an interesting factory tour like one finds at Pabst in Milwaukee, Jim Beam in Tennessee or Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, but no such luck. The World of Coca Cola sucks. It’s all advertising and no education. And it’s right next door to the Georgia Aquarium which I’m sure would’ve been a better bet. Oh well.
Afterward I had an early supper at the Varsity, Atlanta’s culinary must stop. Then it was southeast bound to the Lake Sinclair, the southernmost campground in Oconee National Forest, the southernmost national forest in Georgia. Very nice, secluded and has hot showers. The next morning I made my way southward toward Macon, I-75 and back to Florida.
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