Stateful roaming techniques are provided for use in a wireless network. In one embodiment, a method is provided that includes: obtaining flow information descriptive of one or more traffic flows associated with a wireless client device that is associated to a current access point in a wireless network; storing state data representing the flow information for flows associated with the wireless client device together with a traffic descriptor for each flow; determining that the wireless client device is seeking to roam from the current access point to a new access point; and sending the state data for the wireless client device to the new access point to enable the new access point to apply a policy based on the state data before the wireless client device completes its roam to the new access point.