h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My grandaughter is going with her family to Disneyland in the US in August.

Her current Passport will expire before the mandatory 6 months required by the U S , so a new one has to be obtained, at a cost of £25 and will only be valid for 5 years,- not unreasonable since a 10 year one would take her to a teenager, and she will look considerably different.

So what is my point?

She is a 4 year old, little girl, with blond hair and big blue eyes - yet she has her own passport! Surely with the recent tragic case in Portugal in mind, a child of her age should at least have to have her mother or fathers photographs as well, to ensure that any adult taking the child abroad is legitimately doing so.

It should not be beyond the wit of man to devise a scheme to allow other relatives to me similarly include on a document authorisin them , if necessary.

Novo

"Her current Passport will expire"

"a new one [...] will only be valid for 5 years"

"She is a 4 year old"

Did she get her current one before she was born?

Hmm. If she had a passport soon after birth & in August she will be less than 6 months off being 5, that would figure - just!
Still, how you could identify a 4 year old from a baby photo beats me. At 17 my son was barely recognisable from his 14 year old self.

I can see the logic in children having their own passport. There have been problems with a child only being on one parent's passport if needing to travel with the other parent. Also problems with custody battles & one parent being able to whisk a child away.

The difficulty with needing parental ID too is if the child is travelling with another relative or friend, or is on a school trip.

Anyway, I suspect it would be easy enough to create a forged document with the abducting adult shown as 'parent'. Easy enough too to smuggle a small child across a border in some places.

Hi SoRB,

Teasswill is obviously better at maths than you. Remember , she is 4 until she is 5.

Novo

I'm aware of that. I'm just surprised at how soon she must have had one after birth to have it within six months of running out already.

SoRB

Is there no category in her passport that states her parents names? I know there was in mine.

Hi Teasswill

I take your points, especialy regarding school trips.

I am aware that I am perhaps overeacting a bit, but it just seems daft to me with a child of this age to having her own travel documents.

Novo

Unusual I know SoRB, but she went to Spain as a baby......doesn't remember it of course.

Novo

The Gruesomes have their own passports but if our photos had to be in them too, how would they go anywhere with their grandparents? My parents don't live in the same country as we do and the Gruesomes visit in the summer. Depending on timetables, cost and availability, either I collect them, or they fly over here with their grandma.

It would cause us problems if we always had to accompany them.
(luckily for us when they were born they didn't have to have their own, and they were on 's passport but not mine (we couldn't afford it) then his ran out and they had to get their own because the rules had changed. They have had them 3 years and are now nearly-9 and 10. They look nothing like their photos.

However... last time my mum took them from Germany to England the Policeman at the boarding gate called me back from about to leave the car park, to verify that she was allowed to take them. Irritating but reassuring at the same time.

I´ve known kids who have been placed on a train and driven across the country to be picked up by granparents at the other end. But the idea of sending them out of the country unaccompanied doesn´t sound very good or safe to me.

Sometimes there is no alternative. My kids had their own passports from 6 and 2 reapectively and travelled unaccompanied from 8, being collected the other end. I vividly remember a passport officer creasing with laughter at the 13 year old thug who looked nothing like the six year old angel

in an ideal world kids would always travel accompanied - in the real world it's not often always possible.

I'm now investigating the possibility that the Gruesome Twosome can be put on a plane at Manchester by their grandma and picked up in Germany by me. The airlines vary in their service, but as far as I know the children have a dedicated flight attendant.

This plane trip, btw, is probably shorter than the two bus rides, in winter darkness, that many kids do...

Or should our kids not have the benefit of visiting their families because it's out of our budget for me to fly over to collect them?

Morning all,

interesting replies to my first, ( perhaps ill concieved ) post.

The subject seems to divide into

1 Comparison of photo to the child a few years older

2 The necessity for children to travel unaccompanied

3 The age of the child at the time of travel.

I would accept that perhaps at 10 to 12 for example, travelling on their own passport is fine. I would also accept that an 'arranged' flight, with dedicated staff responsible for the transit and delivery to 'Grandma' at the destination is OK too.

As for the photos, well I have a full beard and moustache in mine, whereas I am now clean shaven and even more bald! Doesn't seem to cause a second look in Paassport Control , in or out, and that is my concern in th ecase of small children.

Novo

>>and that is my concern in th ecase of small children.<<

what, that they might have shaved their beards off?

Good one Sho,



Novo

we aim to please

For what it's worth, here's what Passport Canada says Canadians must have when travelling abroad with children:

# Birth certificates showing the names of both parents.
# Any legal documents pertaining to custody.
# A parental consent letter:

1. If the child is travelling with one parent, the consent letter authorizing travel must be signed and dated by the other parent.
2. If the child is travelling alone or without either parent, the consent letter authorizing travel must be signed and dated by both parents.

# A death certificate, if one of the parents is deceased.
# Status Document from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

doesn't the UK have similar requirements?

I have no idea... and no idea where to check

maybe I could phone the consulate

When my family was constantly flying overseas (I was issued a passport at birth ), it was advised that each passport folder thingie have a notarized document saying that one parent was allowed to carry the child out of the country (US).

When I flew with my grandmother, my parents had something saying that she was allowed to tote me about.

The time that I flew under 18, I carried a similar document saying that I had parental permission to fly alone. That one did come in handy, when I was questioned whether I was a runaway or not.