An Expedited Children’s Passport To The Rescue

Mar 3rd, 2010 by beauty writer

It seems that many people have the misconception that very young children and infants do not need passports. This is simply not true, and this misinformation could result in a child being denied travel at an airport. This type of misinformation often results in parents scrambling to get their child a passport at the last minute. Luckily, the U.S. State Departments provides channels to secure an expedited minor passport.

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.

However, there are some amendments to the law that have been added specific to children. The most important of these is that any child that is not at least sixteen years old will have to have written consent from both parents before a passport can be obtained. This law is in place to prevent a parent from unknowingly leaving the country without the second parent’s permission.

This means that when a passport for a child is in the process of being obtained, there is actually an extra step that is required in the process. This is important to know because the process is already a bit time consuming. Adding this extra obstacle means that more time should be allotted for the overall process.

Everyone has to have their photo taken for a passport before they apply, and a child is no different. To speed things up, it may be best to go to an establishment that takes the passport photos right on the spot and returns them right away. There are plenty of one-hour photo shops in malls that do this express passport service and the photos can be returned before the applicant finishes their shopping.

Before actually heading to the local passport center, make sure the consent form is filled out properly and that both parents have signed it. If not, the application will be refused and it is back to square one. Believe it or not, this is the reason that many parents end up having to get an expedited passport for their child. By the time they get everything together, the trip is right around the corner.

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.

When traveling abroad, it is best to have all the ducks in a row so that there are no issues at the last second. However, it is perfectly understandable to see how a child’s passport could slip the mind of the parents that they would need to get an expedited children’s passport. When this happens, know that there are several measures in place to make the express pasport process as easy as it can be with the added pressure of a short turnaround time.

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