An Expedited Children’s Passport Can Save The Day
Friday, March 5th, 2010 | Travel and Leisure
Traveling internationally can be a great experience for a child, but many parents forget that when children travel, they are going to need a passport. Unfortunately, this realization will often come when it is late in the day and an expedited passport for kids is the only way to make the trip happen. It is always best to know all the passport laws to make sure there are no issues when planning a trip abroad with a child.
Just because they are a child, does not mean that there are not travel laws that pertain to them. Any family that is getting ready to travel aboard would do well to get on the Internet and do some research on passport rules and regulations. For the record, anyone traveling abroad needs to have a passport.
However, there are some amendments to the law that have been added specific to children. The most important of these is that any child that is not at least sixteen years old will have to have written consent from both parents before a passport can be obtained. This law is in place to prevent a parent from unknowingly leaving the country without the second parent’s permission.
This law adds an extra step in the passport application process for a child, which in turn adds an extra step in obtaining an expedited child passport. Most child passports are new passport applications, and new applications are inherently more time consuming than renewal applications.
The child must have his or her photo taken prior to applying in person at an application center. One-hour photo stores in pharmacies or supermarkets are often then best and least expensive places to obtain passport photos. When pressed for time, these one-hour photo stores are by far the best place to get express passport photos because they can crop the photos to the requisite specifications immediately on site.
Before actually heading to the local passport center, make sure the consent form is filled out properly and that both parents have signed it. If not, the application will be refused and it is back to square one. Believe it or not, this is the reason that many parents end up having to get an expedited passport for their child. By the time they get everything together, the trip is right around the corner.
A normal passport will take about 6-8 weeks to get back. If the time frame that is left in inside of that window, the parents are going to get stuck paying a fee of $60 to have the passport back within three weeks. There are other services that can be provided at a higher cost if that time frame is still not quick enough.
Most people have a fairly large warning of when they are going to be traveling internationally. It is always recommended that passport acquisition get started the moment that plans are even being made. Otherwise, the fees of getting an expedited kids passport are surely in your future. If it is an an emergency, there are express American passport services available to help.
No comments yet.