Parental Consent for New Children’s Passports
Hello everyone!
Today’s blog will address another very common issue that our customers face when using the services that Fastport Passport offers: parental consent for obtaining a new child’s passport.
When you are applying for a new passport for your child, you will have to go through most of the same steps that you would for applying for a new adult passport. However, for children (anyone under the age of 16), proof of parental consent is required in order to apply for a passport.
Anyone applying for a passport needs to fill out the DS-11, or Application for a U.S. Passport. In the case of a child, this form must be fully filled out by a parent. In addition, the DS-11 MUST be signed at the local post office or county clerk’s office in front of a government official by BOTH parents on behalf of the child needing a passport. This form essentially confirms that the parents signing are in fact the parents of the child and that they grant permission for the child to leave the country. Before heading to the post office or to the county clerk to sign the DS-11 on behalf of your child, be sure to go through this checklist to be sure that you have all of the right forms of identification, including the child’s original birth certificate.
A common issue for people needing to grant parental consent for their child is that one parent is unable to be present at the post office or county clerk’s office to sign the DS-11 form for their child. Fortunately, there are solutions to this problem depending on the individual circumstance.
- In the most common instance- that one parent is simply unable to be present for the parental consent signing– then that parent’s presence can be substituted by a notarized Parental Consent Letter, or DS-3053. In addition to this notarized document, a photocopy of the absentee parent’s photo ID will be needed at the county clerk’s/post office.
- In the case that one parent has sole custody of the child needing a passport, that parent can go with the child to sign the Application for a U.S. Passport on behalf of the child, but must also provide the original state-issued document verifying that the present parent has sole custody of the child.
- If the child’s birth certificate only has one parent listed on it, then that parent is the only one required to sign the DS 11 on behalf of the child.
- In the case that one of the child’s parents is deceased, the present parent must provide the original death certificate of the deceased parent at the county clerk’s/post office at the time of the signing of the U.S. Passport Application (DS-11).
Should you be in need of a new child’s passport and have extenuating circumstances not listed above that prevent both parents from being able to sign the DS-11 form on behalf of the child, please do not hesitate to go to our website and use a live chat with a customer service representative, or call us to speak to one of our passport experts over the phone.
Thank you to all of our customers from all of us here at Fastport Passport!
