Traveling with a child with a different surname

My Daughter and her Daughter will be traveling with us on the Escape this weekend 25th of November. They do not have the same surname. Will we need something from the girls Father giving his permission to travel, and if so, what should it say.

Thanks in advance.

I don't know about the US, but in Canada, one parent traveling abroad with their child, irrespective of whether it is the mother or father or whether last names match or not, require a consent letter from the other parent who is not traveling. This is a measure to prevent child abduction during custody battles etc. We always get ours notarized to have all bases covered. It should state the name of the parent and child traveling and give permission to travel to (list the destination) and the dates of travel.

My Daughter and her Daughter will be traveling with us on the Escape this weekend 25th of November. They do not have the same surname. Will we need something from the girls Father giving his permission to travel, and if so, what should it say.

 

Thanks in advance.

NCL has very specific guidlines for this sort of thing. I would NOT ask here. I would call NCL and ask. You would not want to get to the pier and be denied boarding, would you?

Also, read here: https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/cruise-travel-documents#collapse5 toward the bottom of the page.

My daughter has a different last name then us. Each time we cruise I get a permission letter from her father. We have never been asked for it but I feel better having it since they can ask you for it. They have a template you can use. I also bring my marriage license which states my old name (matches hers).

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Customs and Border Patrol recommends you have a notarized letter.

My sister and I travel with the grandkids (3 kids, 3 different last names) and we always bring certified copies of their birth certificates, plus a letter from their parents authorizing us to travel with them, and for 2 of the kids who are sisters but have different last names and thus have separate authorizations from the different fathers we also bring a copy of the marriage certificate from the "current" parents. We've never had any issues. My only words of advice is to bring the birth certificates with you when you disembark anywhere! We didn't bring them with us while in Bermuda and we got held up and questioned like crazy and told next time be sure to have the original birth certificates with us at ALL TIMES.

My Daughter and her Daughter will be traveling with us on the Escape this weekend 25th of November. They do not have the same surname. Will we need something from the girls Father giving his permission to travel, and if so, what should it say.

 

Thanks in advance.

Definitely call NCL and find out their exact requirements for a minor traveling with a parent that has a different name!

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My Daughter and her Daughter will be traveling with us on the Escape this weekend 25th of November. They do not have the same surname. Will we need something from the girls Father giving his permission to travel, and if so, what should it say.

 

Thanks in advance.

Even if the surnames were the same your daughter would need something from the father of her child giving permission for the child to travel without him. In this age of custody battles and non-custodial parents taking children, permission is always needed. NCL has a form if child is traveling with no legal guardian but I would recommend having the Father sign it even the child is traveling with her mother.

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/ParentGuardianForm_01302012b.pdf

I have had security / customs stop me and ask to see documentation of my permission to travel with the child... so not just a good idea "in theory"... we've actually had to use it.

I just traveled the Dawn to Bermuda in September with my 4 year old who has a different last name than myself. Her father also came, so maybe that helped... but we only got held up once. I should note that we did not have passports, we used our BC's for this last minute cruise.

I was told when we were coming back onto the ship from a day shopping that I would have needed further proof of our relationship IF her dad was not with us. I assume that meant a letter from him or something, I didn't ask as we were always together.

I would definitely get a notarized letter as you never know!

I am travelling alone on carnival vista in January and taking my 6 year old grandson. We are Canadians and on the CRA website there is an interactive consent letter to fill in with all the information required signed by both parents and witnessed. Not necessary to have notarized.

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I have taken my girls who have a different last name than me several times no issues, no letter needed from their father- all on NCL -

I travel frequently w my son with different last names. We always travel on our passports. He is 12. We just recently returned from 10 days in Italy and France and 7 days on the Epic in the Med. We did not have any issues this trip. In all our trips, and there have been many, we were asked only once at US border on a return trip from Spain. And I told them the truth which is I have absolutely no idea where my son's father is and I have not seen or heard from him in 12 years. A letter from the parent is useless, it does not prove parental rights and can easily be written falsely. In addition to our passports I showed a copy of my son's birth certificate and that was it. We were cleared right through. I do not see how a letter would have made any difference. I think having the passport was the key. In order to obtain a minor's passport you need both parents to sign or if that is not possible, which was the case for us, I had to complete additional paperwork and affadavits at that time establishing parental rights, etc.

Happy travels.

I travel frequently w my son with different last names. We always travel on our passports. He is 12. We just recently returned from 10 days in Italy and France and 7 days on the Epic in the Med. We did not have any issues this trip. In all our trips, and there have been many, we were asked only once at US border on a return trip from Spain. And I told them the truth which is I have absolutely no idea where my son's father is and I have not seen or heard from him in 12 years. A letter from the parent is useless, it does not prove parental rights and can easily be written falsely. In addition to our passports I showed a copy of my son's birth certificate and that was it. We were cleared right through. I do not see how a letter would have made any difference. I think having the passport was the key. In order to obtain a minor's passport you need both parents to sign or if that is not possible, which was the case for us, I had to complete additional paperwork and affadavits at that time establishing parental rights, etc.

Happy travels.

That is the purpose of having the letter notarized... it cannot be falsified as it is signed and witnessed in presence of a lawyer...

That is the purpose of having the letter notarized... it cannot be falsified as it is signed and witnessed in presence of a lawyer...

I understand your point but, actually, as a notary, I can tell you it is not executed in the presence of a lawyer. Also a notary only validates the name and person to the signature. There is no due diligence to actually verify that the person who is writing and signing the letter is the actual father of the child. A notary does not confirm or validate the content of the letter. My point being a notarized letter does not validate parental rights only that the person signing consents to the child traveling.

In my case, and in the case of others, there is no second parent. A letter would never be an option.

And as it turns out my son's biological father has an extremely common name almost as common as John Smith. Technically I could get a notarized letter from any John Smith providing consent.

My son and I will continue to travel. Perhaps if our scenario were different maybe I would travel with a letter. I can certainly appreciate thinking "better safe than sorry" if that were an option.

Happy cruising.

That is the purpose of having the letter notarized... it cannot be falsified as it is signed and witnessed in presence of a lawyer...

 

I understand your point but, actually, as a notary, I can tell you it is not executed in the presence of a lawyer. Also a notary only validates the name and person to the signature. There is no due diligence to actually verify that the person who is writing and signing the letter is the actual father of the child. A notary does not confirm or validate the content of the letter. My point being a notarized letter does not validate parental rights only that the person signing consents to the child traveling.

 

In my case, and in the case of others, there is no second parent. A letter would never be an option.

 

And as it turns out my son's biological father has an extremely common name almost as common as John Smith. Technically I could get a notarized letter from any John Smith providing consent. My point being the letter still does not serve as parental right.

 

My son and I will continue to travel. Perhaps if our scenario were different maybe I would travel with a letter. I can certainly appreciate thinking "better safe than sorry" if that were an option.

 

Happy cruising.

Sorry, you may be right in some cases, but our lawyer actually did require not only our passports but the child’s passports as well to verify identity before notarizing our letter, so some do do their due diligence.

Also, while in your case the father may not be in the picture, the advice wasn’t intended for you, but rather for the the original poster, who asked if they needed a letter from the father, alluding that they are in the picture. It goes without saying that if the second parent is absebtee, then a letter is obviously not possible, and you’d have to explain the situation to the authorities if questioned. I’m just reporting my personal experience that border patrol required BOTH a letter AND passports and we would have been detained for further questioning had I not been pro-active in securing these before the trip. If security doesn’t ask for them, awesome! I’d just rather not take that risk, personally, if it’s an option to get one. Obviously if there is no second parent, this doesn’t apply to you.

Understood. Perhaps both of our experience end guidance will provide some insight and help someone in their travels.

Have a great day.

FYI: For Canadian cruises, Canada is much more strict about this. It is their official law but I don’t think it is in the US. Even to cross the border in a car they say you need this letter. Of course when we drove to Quebec no one asked us for it [emoji19] it’s up to the border agent discretion.

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My son travelled with a different surname to me a couple of times on ncl. We both have passports and they never asked and good job as I never took a letter with me. Only time we had an issue was when he turned 18 and wanted a beer waiver and it needed a parent, having different names caused an issue at guest relations. In the end the manager looked at us both and said we look so alike to obvious I was his Mum

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Have traveled on a lot of cruises with my step kids who have different last name as me and wife. Always had the letter (downloaded from cruise line web site or other ‘authority’) but was never once asked to produce it.

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