An international volleyball transfer for a US youth player took us 11 days, from first email to the last parent signature. It looked intimidating from the outside. Once I understood who owns each step, it was mostly a matter of sending the right email to the right person and watching an inbox.
Our family lives in the Lisbon area on a US Mission to NATO assignment. My daughter plays competitive indoor and beach volleyball, and to join a club registered with the Federação Portuguesa de Voleibol (FPV), she needed an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) out of USA Volleyball. This is the process exactly as it happened for us, written for other military and expat families who are about to do the same thing.
Who does what
Four parties touch the transfer: you (the parent and player), USA Volleyball as the federation your child is leaving, the receiving club with its national federation (the FPV in our case), and the FIVB, which approves it.
The one thing I wish I had known on day one: after USAV issues the FIVB ID, nothing happens until the club and its federation start the ITC.
The process, step by step
Find the receiving club first. Nothing moves until a club in the new country agrees to take your player and has a contact person who will deal with their federation. Ask that person to be copied on everything.
Ask USA Volleyball to register your player in the FIVB system. Email [email protected] and copy your club contact. Include:
Full legal name exactly as it appears on the passport
Date and place of birth
Nationality
An email address for the player's FIVB account (use one your child actually checks, or one you can access)
Attachments: a recent photo (JPEG), the passport photo page, and the current USAV region player card
Get the FIVB ID. USAV creates the player's profile in the FIVB VIS platform and replies with an FIVB ID. Ours came back 19 minutes after I hit send. Save that number, you will use it again.
Hand off to the club side. This is the step that surprised me. USAV does not start the transfer. The receiving club, working with its national federation, initiates the ITC in FIVB VIS. If the club needs help, they go to their own federation, not to USAV. Tell your club contact clearly that the ball is in their court.
Watch the player's inbox and sign. Once the club initiates, an automatic email from "FIVB VIS" goes to the player's email address with login details. The username is either that email address or a player handle built from the FIVB ID, and the forgot password option works if the credentials are lost. Log in through the transfer link and sign electronically.
Complete the complimentary USAV membership. After the player signs, USAV asks for a USA Volleyball membership for the current season under an international transfer option. It costs nothing. The FIVB requires every US athlete to register or renew with USAV when a transfer starts. It takes effect immediately but does not allow play in USAV regional or championship events. Send a copy of the membership card to your USAV contact, because they cannot sign the transfer until they have it.
Wait for the remaining signatures. USAV signs, then the receiving federation, then the FIVB gives final approval. The FIVB may then email the player an M1 PDF packet to complete. Keep checking the player's email all week.
Our timeline
Date (2026) | What happened |
|---|---|
Oct 19 | Player signed; USAV signed and requested the complimentary membership card |
Oct 19 | Club and FPV initiated the ITC; FIVB VIS email and transfer link arrived |
Oct 15 | I followed up; USAV confirmed the club side had to start the ITC |
Oct 8 | Sent the registration request to USAV; FIVB ID came back the same day |
The week of waiting between Oct 8 and Oct 19 was entirely on the club and federation side. Federation and FIVB signatures were still pending at the time of writing.
What I would tell another parent
Copy the club contact from the very first email. It meant USAV already knew who to talk to on the Portuguese side, and nobody had to forward anything.
Know whose move it is. Most of my anxiety came from assuming USAV was holding things up. They weren't. If the ITC is not showing in FIVB VIS, ask the receiving club, not your home federation.
Pick the FIVB email address carefully. Every login, signature request, and form goes there. If it is your teenager's inbox, ask them to check it daily and to look in spam for anything from "FIVB VIS".
Keep one email thread. Replying in the same thread kept the full history in front of everyone and made each answer faster.
Expect a quirk or two in the forms. The USAV membership registration kept looping me back to the same profile questions after I answered them. I sent my contact a screenshot rather than fighting it. If you hit the same loop, a different browser, a desktop instead of a phone, or a quick email with a screenshot is worth trying.
Save every document in one folder. Passport page, photo, player card, FIVB ID, membership card. You will be asked for at least one of them again.
The bottom line
An international youth transfer is a relay, not a single application. Your job is to start it with a complete request to USA Volleyball, connect the club to its federation, and then sign and send whatever lands in the player's inbox. I braced for weeks of silence and instead got answers within the hour from USAV. If you are moving overseas with a volleyball player, start the FIVB registration as soon as you have a club lined up.