Travelling, Holidays & Beyond

Although it may seem a little ridiculous to some people, anyone with an infant must have an infant passport in order to be able to cross a border with a child. There are actually some very good reasons for this and it is actually for the children’s protection, not to make the parent’s life more difficult. There are some exceptions to the process, but it is very similar to what adults are already familiar with in order to get their passports.

While it may seem silly to force an infant to carry a passport, there are several practical reasons that make it necessary for all U.S. citizens to carry passports during international travel. First of all, it is a matter of national security and border security. The government needs to know who is entering and leaving a country at a given time. Allowing infants to forego passports would make it easy to sneak in infant illegal immigrants–an action that seems innocuous, but could have serious consequences twenty years down the line.

Requiring passports for infants is also an issue of human rights. Requiring children and infants to carry passports helps to seriously curb illegal human trafficking. By requiring infant passports, the government has made it much more difficult to deal in the illicit trafficking of children.

The infant or child will get their passport in much the same way that an adult does. It goes without saying that the child will not be able to do this on their own, so mom and or dad are going to have to do all of the work in order for a valid passport to be obtained. In addition to the forms, do not forget to get the passport photos of the child.

Since an infant cannot sign their own name, mom and or dad are going to have to handle the task for them. It is actually a co-signature that goes on the passport until the child can sign the passport by themselves. When the child is able to sign their own name, the passport can be renewed with their actual signature on the passport.

For the parent signature to be valid on the passport, it has to be done in a very specific way. The parent will have to sign the child’s name and then sign their name right next to it. After that, they need to put their relationship next both signatures in parenthesis stating their relationship to the child. If only one parent will be going on the trip with the infant, it is best if that parent is the one that signs the passport for the baby.

If a child is not yet 16 the passport can only be obtained if consent is given by the parents. The obvious reason for this is so that one parent does not get the passport and take the child out of the country without the knowledge of the other parent. This will not be a problem for parents that are still together, but if there has been a divorce or separation, make sure time is allotted to get everything together so there is not a problem in securing tickets or making the trip.

It may have seemed a little silly before reading all of this as to why an infant U.S. passport is required, but it should be clear now. Unfortunately, international travel is not always about business or fun. There are a lot of people with ulterior motives that would love to be able to get children in and out of countries with no records being kept. While it can take some time, infant pasports are a necessity and always will be.