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Do you get a passport for my kids?


Eli_6
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10 hours ago, SRF said:

Always funny to see Americans debate passports.

 

A friend's grand son has a passport.  He is not yet 4 MONTHS old. 😄

 

 

Because the 4 months old can remember and benefit from an international trip?  

 

Having traveled extensively in Europe WITHOUT my kids and taken many international flights, putting a baby on a plane for that long is miserable for the parent, child and all the passengers around them.

 

I actually plan to get my kids passports. I just had not thought to do it for THIS trip since it isn't needed and it didn't occur to me until just recently that maybe I should get them one "just in case" for THIS trip but it's $160 something extra to expedite and even then not 100 percent guaranteed they will come in. 

 

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On 11/27/2019 at 6:23 PM, Eli_6 said:

I was just planning on using their birth certificates but then I started growing concerned about if we somehow missed the boat.  Unfortunately, I would have to expedite it and it isn't cheap.  

 

Our very first cruise was with birth certificates, and I felt like it took so long, and I was so stressed about something happening in port that my anxiety ruined the trip.  Then I got my kiddo a passport and we haven't looked back.  It's definitely better to have, they could, for any reason they choose, deny boarding with a birth certificate (this happened to a girl I know, her kids' bc's didn't have a raised seal, and they refused her boarding).  The only 150% guarantee you get on that ship is with a passport.  

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10 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

Because the 4 months old can remember and benefit from an international trip?  

 

Having traveled extensively in Europe WITHOUT my kids and taken many international flights, putting a baby on a plane for that long is miserable for the parent, child and all the passengers around them.

 

I actually plan to get my kids passports. I just had not thought to do it for THIS trip since it isn't needed and it didn't occur to me until just recently that maybe I should get them one "just in case" for THIS trip but it's $160 something extra to expedite and even then not 100 percent guaranteed they will come in. 

 


right. And every day that passes makes it less and less likely that they will make it. I don’t know when your cruise is but if you are already in the time frame where you would have to expedite them, I wouldn’t do it at this point. You have to send their birth certificates in to get the passports. What if there is a hold up and you don’t get the birth certificates or the passports in time? The bigger risk to me at this point would be missing the cruise altogether. If you miss the ship, worst case scenario is you would fly back to the disembarkation port to meet the ship to get your luggage. You will be able to fly home without your passports, it will just take some extra hoops. 

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On 11/28/2019 at 8:42 AM, mjkacmom said:

It would’ve been a waste if I purchased passports for my kids at that age as they all would’ve expired before we used them. Four of my five have needed passports for travel as children, we got them a few months before needed, since they expire in five years. My daughter’s best friend and her brother had them since they were babies, their dad is from Ireland and has a house there, they go a few times a year. Every situation is different.

 

Yes, I agree.

 

My friend's grandson, has already traveled internationally. 😄

 

 

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14 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

Because the 4 months old can remember and benefit from an international trip?  

 

Having traveled extensively in Europe WITHOUT my kids and taken many international flights, putting a baby on a plane for that long is miserable for the parent, child and all the passengers around them.

 

I actually plan to get my kids passports. I just had not thought to do it for THIS trip since it isn't needed and it didn't occur to me until just recently that maybe I should get them one "just in case" for THIS trip but it's $160 something extra to expedite and even then not 100 percent guaranteed they will come in. 

 

 

Who said he had to take a long flight to travel internationally?

 

And maybe he is traveling internationally to be taken to see relatives?  Or other family reasons, NOT for his personal growth and building banks of memories.

 

Or maybe they were MOVING to another country for work?

 

MANY reasons a 4 month old may need to travel internationally.

 

And BTW, I travel a lot internationally, and most babies are fine with long flights.  They sleep.  Sometimes they get cranky and noisy, but seldom for a long time.

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14 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

I've told myself my whole parental life...  "Gawd, kids are expensive"...   😂

 

People wonder how I can do that things I have done in life.  Simple answer, no kids. 😄

 

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9 hours ago, sanger727 said:


 You have to send their birth certificates in to get the passports. What if there is a hold up and you don’t get the birth certificates or the passports in time? 

 

I've always advocated in getting extra official copies of birth certificates.  One can be locked away in a bank box, the others can be used for travel, school registration, passports, etc.

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23 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

 

 

I actually plan to get my kids passports. I just had not thought to do it for THIS trip since it isn't needed and it didn't occur to me until just recently that maybe I should get them one "just in case" for THIS trip but it's $160 something extra to expedite and even then not 100 percent guaranteed they will come in. 

 

Since you're so close to travel date at this point I wouldn't bother, but I believe passports to be a good investment. As your kids get older, they may have more travel opportunities available that do require a passport. All three of our sons have had passports since the youngest was 4 (he's 19 now). That youngest goes to college in Buffalo and let me know that he will be bringing his passport to school with him for the spring semester so he can go over to Canada on weekends.

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On 11/29/2019 at 4:43 AM, sanger727 said:


right. And every day that passes makes it less and less likely that they will make it. I don’t know when your cruise is but if you are already in the time frame where you would have to expedite them, I wouldn’t do it at this point. You have to send their birth certificates in to get the passports. What if there is a hold up and you don’t get the birth certificates or the passports in time? The bigger risk to me at this point would be missing the cruise altogether. If you miss the ship, worst case scenario is you would fly back to the disembarkation port to meet the ship to get your luggage. You will be able to fly home without your passports, it will just take some extra hoops. 

 

I wouldn't mail in their birth certificate.  I have to go in with them to the passport office with their birth certificate and my husband has to go, too, or I have to get a form notarized by him giving permission.  (I guess they don't want one parent absconding with the kids.)  Regardless, I would have to pull my kids out of school to go up there so it doesn't seem worth it...and my youngest already misses twice a week for speech therapy.  I am just going to wait and get them later.  

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1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

 

I wouldn't mail in their birth certificate.  I have to go in with them to the passport office with their birth certificate and my husband has to go, too, or I have to get a form notarized by him giving permission.  (I guess they don't want one parent absconding with the kids.)  Regardless, I would have to pull my kids out of school to go up there so it doesn't seem worth it...and my youngest already misses twice a week for speech therapy.  I am just going to wait and get them later.  


That works if you have an office near you. Closest one to me is a 5 hour drive so we always do mail in.

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On 11/29/2019 at 8:25 AM, SRF said:

 

Who said he had to take a long flight to travel internationally?

 

And maybe he is traveling internationally to be taken to see relatives?  Or other family reasons, NOT for his personal growth and building banks of memories.

 

Or maybe they were MOVING to another country for work?

 

MANY reasons a 4 month old may need to travel internationally.

 

And BTW, I travel a lot internationally, and most babies are fine with long flights.  They sleep.  Sometimes they get cranky and noisy, but seldom for a long time.

If you are from America, as I am, any place you go that requires a passport will require an airplane flight. I used to live in Laredo and unless they changed the law, we didn't need a passport to go across the border as an American citizen.  A birth certificate and photo ID will work for Canada, too, if you are an American citizen. So anywhere I would take MY children where they would require a passport would require a LONG flight.  It is not insane for me to assume that because you are posting in English on a forum that appears to be primarily in English that you are most likely either American, Canadian, British, Australian, etc and the same logic would hold true for those countries with respect to my comments above re flying with the singular exception of London to France or if, perhaps, one lives in India.  Travel is even allowed in the UK without a passport. 

 

Now, I realize not everyone who posts on here is from one of those countries. My brother and sister-in-law (native of Colombia with a law practice in Spain but lives in Texas) have three children and all three of their children have triple citizenship. But not even she traveled to Colombia or Spain with any of her children at four months old! I have many friends who are originally from India or middle eastern countries who moved to the US to do their medical residencies. Yes, they take their kids back to see family. Not at four months. That's an exceptional situation and not the norm.  

 

I understand that sometimes there are extraneous circumstances that can't be helped like moves or deaths, etc.  But those are the exceptions rather than the rules. Most four month olds don't need a passport. 

 

As for the plane comment: I am guessing it has been a really long time since you have had a young baby because you would know that flying with them in this day is painful. Even going through airport security with two under two (like I had) and carseats and all their stuff is an ordeal. And God forbid you try to fly with breast milk that isn't frozen or a breast pump or both. (I HAVE done this before FYI.) 

 

Mine never did well on even short flights. This is actually not uncommon for babies and toddlers to have trouble flying and there is a physiological reason for it so it isn't something I am inventing. Until a child is about 2.5 to 3 years old, their ear canals are narrower and their ears  don't adjust as well to the pressure change as those of an adult. (Also why babies and toddlers get more ear infections, are more likely to need tubes, etc.) Flying actually causes many of them pain. That's why crying babies/toddlers on airplanes are such a common stereotype/trope of bad flying experiences.  

 

Frankly, with all the "non-vaxers" out there and the numerous measles, pertussis, RSV, etc. outbreaks, I would not fly with a 4 months old unless there was absolutely no way of getting around it.  They haven't had many of their vaccines yet or have only had one dose and airports and planes are notorious for bringing them in contact with a host of people who could be contagious and not know it.

 

So, yeah, not even sure what my point is other than most people are not country hopping with infants.  A baby that young needing a passport is the exception and not the rule.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

If you are from America, as I am, any place you go that requires a passport will require an airplane flight. I used to live in Laredo and unless they changed the law, we didn't need a passport to go across the border as an American citizen.  A birth certificate and photo ID will work for Canada, too, if you are an American citizen. So anywhere I would take MY children where they would require a passport would require a LONG flight.  It is not insane for me to assume that because you are posting in English on a forum that appears to be primarily in English that you are most likely either American, Canadian, British, Australian, etc and the same logic would hold true for those countries with respect to my comments above re flying with the singular exception of London to France or if, perhaps, one lives in India.  Travel is even allowed in the UK without a passport. 

 

Now, I realize not everyone who posts on here is from one of those countries. My brother and sister-in-law (native of Colombia with a law practice in Spain but lives in Texas) have three children and all three of their children have triple citizenship. But not even she traveled to Colombia or Spain with any of her children at four months old! I have many friends who are originally from India or middle eastern countries who moved to the US to do their medical residencies. Yes, they take their kids back to see family. Not at four months. That's an exceptional situation and not the norm.  

 

I understand that sometimes there are extraneous circumstances that can't be helped like moves or deaths, etc.  But those are the exceptions rather than the rules. Most four month olds don't need a passport. 

 

As for the plane comment: I am guessing it has been a really long time since you have had a young baby because you would know that flying with them in this day is painful. Even going through airport security with two under two (like I had) and carseats and all their stuff is an ordeal. And God forbid you try to fly with breast milk that isn't frozen or a breast pump or both. (I HAVE done this before FYI.) 

 

Mine never did well on even short flights. This is actually not uncommon for babies and toddlers to have trouble flying and there is a physiological reason for it so it isn't something I am inventing. Until a child is about 2.5 to 3 years old, their ear canals are narrower and their ears  don't adjust as well to the pressure change as those of an adult. (Also why babies and toddlers get more ear infections, are more likely to need tubes, etc.) Flying actually causes many of them pain. That's why crying babies/toddlers on airplanes are such a common stereotype/trope of bad flying experiences.  

 

Frankly, with all the "non-vaxers" out there and the numerous measles, pertussis, RSV, etc. outbreaks, I would not fly with a 4 months old unless there was absolutely no way of getting around it.  They haven't had many of their vaccines yet or have only had one dose and airports and planes are notorious for bringing them in contact with a host of people who could be contagious and not know it.

 

So, yeah, not even sure what my point is other than most people are not country hopping with infants.  A baby that young needing a passport is the exception and not the rule.

 

 

You can enter Canada without a passport, I believe, but you can’t re-enter the US without one.

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On 11/28/2019 at 5:22 AM, SRF said:

Always funny to see Americans debate passports.

 

A friend's grand son has a passport.  He is not yet 4 MONTHS old. 😄

 

 

There was a milestone birthday (on the rich side of the family) and three generations went to Costa Rica. Grand-boy Wiley was just a few months old and got his passport. He was sick with a cold and it's a really bad pic 🙂

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11 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

If you are from America, as I am, any place you go that requires a passport will require an airplane flight. I used to live in Laredo and unless they changed the law, we didn't need a passport to go across the border as an American citizen.  A birth certificate and photo ID will work for Canada, too, if you are an American citizen. 

 

 

Nowadays to cross the land border (Mexico or Canada) you need a passport, passport card, Enhanced Drivers License and I think a NEXUS or SENTRI card (I don't know too much about those options). Children under 16 may use their birth certificate/Consular Report of Birth Abroad/Naturalization Certificate (up to 19 on a school sponsored field trip). While on paper it appears that you may enter Canada without one of those documents in practice they generally won't admit you unless you can show that you can return to the US. Next time I make the crossing I'll ask if the border station isn't too busy.

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14 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

If you are from America, as I am, any place you go that requires a passport will require an airplane flight. I used to live in Laredo and unless they changed the law, we didn't need a passport to go across the border as an American citizen.  A birth certificate and photo ID will work for Canada, too, if you are an American citizen. So anywhere I would take MY children where they would require a passport would require a LONG flight.  It is not insane for me to assume that because you are posting in English on a forum that appears to be primarily in English that you are most likely either American, Canadian, British, Australian, etc and the same logic would hold true for those countries with respect to my comments above re flying with the singular exception of London to France or if, perhaps, one lives in India.  Travel is even allowed in the UK without a passport. 

 

The laws changed.

 

You need either a passport book, a passport card, or an Enhanced Drivers License (NOT a REAL ID) to travel since about 2009. 

 

As someone else stated, you do not need a passport to go TO Mexico, but you will need one to get back. 🙂 

 

Round trip cruises within the WHTI countries are an exemption.

 

Actually, you need a passport or national ID card to fly from London to Paris.  Both countries are EU, but UK is not part of the Schengen Agreement, which actually is what allows documentless travel between European countries.  UK, Bulgaria, and Romania are EU countries, but not part of Schengen, and you need to show documents to travel to/from them to a Schengen country.  While Switzerland is Schengen, but not EU.

 

Hmm, is it a long flight to say Panama?  Or Costa Rica?  Or Mexico?  Or Canada?   A LOT of countries are close to the US.

 

And also, you have to define a "LONG" flight?  You might think a 5 - 6 hour flight to Europe is LONG.  But to me, you need to get well over 10 hours to be LONG.  Realizing, there are flights over 17 hours.  And Quantas just test flew a 19 hour flight (non-stop).

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8 hours ago, ldubs said:

Our of curiosity, if a passport is obtained for a 4 month old, how long is it valid?   

 

It also depends on the county issuing them.

 

In the case I mentioned, the child was not a US citizen, and the country's passports for adults are only valid for 5 years.  It makes it a PITA when you have a 10 year US visa.  So have to carry both the old and the new passport.  

 

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3 hours ago, SRF said:

You might think a 5 - 6 hour flight to Europe is LONG.  But to me, you need to get well over 10 hours to be LONG.  Realizing, there are flights over 17 hours.  And Quantas just test flew a 19 hour flight (non-stop).

Yup. Living in the West and traveling to Europe or South America, the long sector is ten hours. And if IIRC when we went to SE Asia, we flew from here to lax, long layover, then 14 hours to Taipei another (shorter layover) and then to Bangkok. And, darln' there's no U in QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) 🙂

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Enhanced DL is not required until next Oct.

Son rode his cycle US into Can and back last Aug. No passport or card and no enhanced license required.

Funny how people with no children freely dispense parenting advice. A 3 hour flight with an infant is a LONG flight, not to mention the health dangers. Very eloquently stated by Eli_6.

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17 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

Enhanced DL is not required until next Oct.

Son rode his cycle US into Can and back last Aug. No passport or card and no enhanced license required.

Funny how people with no children freely dispense parenting advice. A 3 hour flight with an infant is a LONG flight, not to mention the health dangers. Very eloquently stated by Eli_6.

First, the Enhanced Drivers License has been around for several years and is not to be confused with the REAL ID compliant licenses that will be required in limited circumstances after next October. If your son is under 16 he could have presented his birth certificate but something needs to be presented at the US border to demonstrate citizenship or one will be routed to secondary inspection.

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17 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

First, the Enhanced Drivers License has been around for several years and is not to be confused with the REAL ID compliant licenses that will be required in limited circumstances after next October. If your son is under 16 he could have presented his birth certificate but something needs to be presented at the US border to demonstrate citizenship or one will be routed to secondary inspection.

 

Huh, I thought the EDL could be used in place of the Real ID come 10/2020.  Probably opening a can of worms here.  

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1 hour ago, 2wheelin said:

Funny how people with no children

Oh, did someone say they have no children. We have children and grandchildren. Our daughters thought flying five or more hours with an infant far easier than with a toddler.

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33 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Huh, I thought the EDL could be used in place of the Real ID come 10/2020.  Probably opening a can of worms here.  

Yes, the EDL is REAL ID compliant but a REAL ID compliant license does not prove citizenship in one document the way that the EDL does.

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