Parents can sometimes get caught in the trap of thinking that
their small child is immune to the law and that they do not have to
worry about silly things like passports. If there is an international
family trip planned in the near future, that philosophy is going to have
to be rethought. However, there is no need to hit the panic button,
because an expedited child passport is all that is needed.
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.
While there is one set of rules as they pertain
to adults and there are specialty laws that pertain to children. One of
the concerns of authorities is that a parent will unknowingly flee the
country with a child. This is why both parents must sign a consent in
order for the child to be able to get their passport. Doing this gives a
little more reassurance that both parents know about the travel, even
if the child is only traveling with one parent.
This special
passport law means that an additional step has been added to the
process, but other than that, the process is pretty similar to adults.
Once the consent forms have been signed, the application process will go
as a new passport application would. Just make sure that the consent
form is properly done so that there will be no snags as the process
moves forward.
The first step for a child at that point, just as
it would be for an adult, is to get a valid passport photo taken.
Because of the rush, it is probably best to utilize the one-hour photo
shops that do passport photos. Let them know specifically that the photo
is for an express passport and they make it the proper size.
Before
the application can be submitted, the dual consent form has to be
properly filled out and signed by both parents. If the parents are
divorced or living in separate cities, this can sometimes cause a
problem, especially if expedited service is needed. This is actually the
cause at times for the expedited service as it takes both parents so
long to get the forms signed.
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 child passport are surely in your future. If it is an an emergency, there are express passport services available to help.
