Notarized letter of consent required for child?

[newbie202020]

Hi I'm a Canadian citizen and will be traveling on Eclipse to Alaska from Vancouver with my child without my spouse. My child has a passport and I will bring the original birth certificate. We have different last names. 

 

Do I need to get a letter of consent from my spouse? Does it have to be notarized? Thanks 

[1025cruise]

No need for the birth certificate with a passport. While a letter might not be needed, it doesn’t hurt to have it.

[jsea]

I am not sure if this applies to your cruise, but this is the fine print for our upcoming Beyond Mediterranean voyage:

 

Family Legal Documents

Should the last names of the parent sailing with their minor child differ, the parent is required to present the child's valid passport book and visa (if required) and the child's birth certificate (original, a notarized copy or a certified copy). The name of the parent(s) and the child must be linked through legal documentation.

Edited May 28, 2023 by jsea
Typo

[HWC_Mom]

I'm Canadian and I travelled a few times with my son and not husband because we were travelling to meet him.  We always took a letter just in case.  I've known people to frantically need to get a letter done (my husband is a lawyer and he has had these frantic calls from friends and family to get them a letter).  

 

So I'd take one just in case.  Usually no one looks at it but you don't want to get stuck because you get that one person who wants to see it 

[mahdnc]

4 hours ago, newbie202020 said:

Hi I'm a Canadian citizen and will be traveling on Eclipse to Alaska from Vancouver with my child without my spouse. My child has a passport and I will bring the original birth certificate. We have different last names. 

 

Do I need to get a letter of consent from my spouse? Does it have to be notarized? Thanks 

 

Yes, you have a couple red flags (different last name + both parents not together) that you will want to have a notarized travel consent form.  Here is a template that you might want to consider using: Travel Consent Form

 

When I flew my family of 4 from Chicago to Venice for our Mediterranean cruise, my wife and daughter flew out on Alitalia while my son and I flew on Delta.  My wife and I both carried a notarized travel consent form.  I cannot remember if we were asked to produce the document at either airport.  

[martincath]

Get a letter (or cruiseline-specific form) and ensure that it includes 'live' contact info - cell or office or home phone depending where your spouse will be on embarkation/border-crossing day. If you have the correct evidence you probably won't be asked to show it, that's usually how fate works - but if you don't have the right proof and they do ask you will absolutely be stopped from boarding until they can verify that your spouse gives approval! Even if you do show the letters/forms, sometimes (especially with young kids) the agents like to call the other spouse anyway!

 

I've got widowed friends with kids both sides of the border, and ALL of them have had trouble crossing when they have not been carrying their spouse's death certificate - as in 'had to go home and get it or have someone with house keys go find it and fax it' trouble. With living spouses, at least CBP/CBSA can try and contact them for approval by phone!

Divorcees with, shall we say 'a difficult relationship' with their Ex, have the further issue that without getting all the docs signed off on in advance or having court papers proving sole custody you never know whether any call to that ex about border crossing might be refused spitefully or simply ignored... either means no border crossing for you!

 

Notarized is not legally required by either US or Canada (potentially of course any cruise line might demand any extra requirements they choose to add, so check the forms carefully and be sure to comply with what your line wants!) but especially if there's a surly ex-spouse involved it certainly cannot do any harm to have trusted third-party verification of signatures!

[neverlaysup]

We have traveled with our minor nephew a few times and we always needed a letter of consent since we are not his parents. If the child is yours, the passport and birth certificate should suffice but it can't hurt to have the letter as well. I am no expert on this but this has been my experience.

[lostchild]

18 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

No need for the birth certificate with a passport. While a letter might not be needed, it doesn’t hurt to have it.

I think the birth certificate is still needed to prove that OP is one of the parents of the minor.   Not sure about letter of consent, although when my wife took our son out of the country, we did get a notarized letter saying that I gave consent for them to leave the country just to be safe.   Don't think it was ever looked it.

[mayleeman]

My wife had custody of her 2 preteen sons and her ex tried to apply for passports for them to take them to Denmark. The State Department had the FBI contact my wife to see if she had granted permission. She had not, so they denied the passports. Turned out he was scheming to take them there to live with his girlfriend.

 

That was in the late 80's but they are very alert to the possibility of child abduction by non-custodial parents. I would have every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed just to make everything smooth and easy.  The OPs is just a name issue, not custody, but different names do trigger alerts.

 

Of course the jerk ex was trying to abscond by jet. Trying the literal "slow boat to China" (or wherever) method on a cruise isn't very suspicious!

Edited May 28, 2023 by mayleeman

[1025cruise]

1 hour ago, mayleeman said:

My wife had custody of her 2 preteen sons and her ex tried to apply for passports for them to take them to Denmark. The State Department had the FBI contact my wife to see if she had granted permission. She had not, so they denied the passports. Turned out he was scheming to take them there to live with his girlfriend.

 

That was in the late 80's but they are very alert to the possibility of child abduction by non-custodial parents. I would have every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed just to make everything smooth and easy.  The OPs is just a name issue, not custody, but different names do trigger alerts.

 

Of course the jerk ex was trying to abscond by jet. Trying the literal "slow boat to China" (or wherever) method on a cruise isn't very suspicious!

This is the reason for the notarized permission letter.