Documents for entering the UK with kids

[boulders]

A lot of people come to these boards with the question "What documents do I need to go on a cruise with my kids?" We just flew into London today and the experience clearing immigration was different from other countries including other European countries, so I thought I'd share what our experience was.

 

We are dual Canadian/US citizens, and we travelled with the US passports. We flew into London for a 6 day stay before flying out for our cruise from Barcelona. At immigration, I was asked for passports AND birth certificates for the kids. This is the first time I've ever been asked for birth certificates. Normally I don't travel with them. Luckily I had them for 2 out of 3 of my children. The immigration officer questioned my dd13 whose birth certificate I didn't have. He asked her about 5 questions, such as my date of birth. If she hadn't been old enough to answer questions, we may have been in trouble. He also questioned my youngest child, aged 6, even though I had his passport and birth certificate. By the way, I also showed my proof that I had sole custody of the kids, my dh's death certificate.

 

From now on, I'm travelling with everyone's birth certificate as well as the passports.

[Keith1010]

Excellent information.

 

Keith

[1025cruise]

Hmm, if I had passports, it would not occur to me to travel with birth certificates.

[kitty9]

How long was the line for clearing Immigration? There have been horror stories of waits up to four hours at Heathrow. I can't imagine going through that with kids in tow.

[E&B]

Personally, I was planning on bringing my kids' BCs anyway, even though they have passports, we are sailing in the carribean and my husband (their father) is traveling with us. The passports do not show who their parents are, although the BCs do. Even though we have the same last name, we could be a relative taking them out of the country without permission. BCs just link everything together.

[SadieN]

How long was the line for clearing Immigration? There have been horror stories of waits up to four hours at Heathrow. I can't imagine going through that with kids in tow.

 

DD just went through Heathrow, around 10:30am Friday. She said there was hardly any line for passport control.

[boulders]

DD just went through Heathrow, around 10:30am Friday. She said there was hardly any line for passport control.

 

I went through immigration at 11 am Saturday. Still no line. They had all the booths open plus a special line for the Olympics as well as several special desks for the Olympics before immigration. Our luggage was waiting for us at baggage claim when we got there. We were on our way in the taxi less than an hour after getting off the plane.

[kitty9]

Thank you for the information. I can tell my cousins, traveling with four kids under 5, that hopefully the lines at Heathrow won't be 3 hours long.