Any parent that is going on an international trip and that plans on taking their child should get familiar with <a href=”http://trcb.com/Travel/Travel-and-Leisure/An-Infant-Passport-Is-A-Matter-Of-National-Security-23283.htm” target=”_blank”>infant new passport</a> laws immediately. If you think that just because the child is a newborn or a minor that they can freely pass between borders, you are sadly mistaken. The process itself is almost identical to what an adult has to do, with provisions in place because of the age of the young international traveler.
There are plenty of people that merely shake their head as the prospect of having to have a passport for their child. First and foremost, it is still a matter of national security. If children were able to come in and out of the country with no checks and balances, pure chaos could ensue. As any parent can imagine, this could lead to plenty of legal problems.
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.
Likewise, an infant will not be able to sign his or her passport. This is a bit more significant than the child’s inability to fill out an application. In situations where a child is too young to sign his or her own name on their passport the parent must co-sign the <a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/infant-passport” target=”_blank”>infant passport</a>.
In order for the co-signature to be valid, the parent will have to sign their child’s name and then their name next to it along with their relationship. In other words, it would read: child’s name, parents’ signature and then mother, father or guardian in parenthesis. The ideal situation would be that the parent that is signing the passport would actually be accompanying the child on the trip. This could alleviate any challenges that may be faced going through customs.
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 should now be pretty obvious why the <a href=”http://www.uspassportnow.com/services/ChildPassport” target=”_blank”>infant American passport</a> exists. It may sound a little silly when you first look at the law, but it actually there to protect children from various things. Therefore, getting these passport is a smart decision for any parent, regardless of how old their child is. If an emergency or surprise trip comes up, the baby or young child will be ready to go with you and there will be no challenges in getting in and out of the country.