I'm not entirely sure, but this is the behaviour of JSF not Seam. I would ask on the JSF RI forum and post a trackback here. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4100283#4100283 Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&p=4100283