How To Get An American Passport For Children

by garrett on February 16, 2012

Passport let American citizens travel freely throughout the world. They give an individual permission to enter countries and then to re-enter back into America. For a long time, young children were able to travel with their parents without having a child passport. This scenario is no longer acceptable to the government. Due to problems like child trafficking, even infants are now required to have a U.S. passport for children for international travel.

Young Travelers

A children’s passport is a passport for a U.S. citizen who is under the age of 18. These passports expire every five years and are not renewable at that time. This means that a new passport for the child must be applied for every five years.

Application

In order to acquire a children’s passport a new passport application must be obtained. This will act as the child’s application to receive a passport. In addition to filling out the passport application all corresponding documentation must accompany the application.

Things To Include

There are a multitude of requirements a person must meet before getting a child passport. You have to fill out a brand new application, show proof of citizenship, obtain parental consent, and include a passport photo. You will also need to state the reason you are traveling. If you want to obtain a child passport you must make certain you follow all of these steps.

Methods

There are a couple different ways you can prove you are a citizen of the United States. You can send in your original birth certificate that you got from the hospital you were born in. You can also show your United States social security card as proof of citizenship. You also have to include two recent passport photos to have your application accepted and processed.

Applying For A Children’s Passport

Once all documentation is filled out it can be taken to any agency that handles passport matters. The consultant will go through paperwork to double check and the necessary requirements. Additionally a passport can be applied for online, which makes things much easier. There are also fees incurred when applying for a passport. There is nominal government fee, and then depending on the agency in which you go through to obtain the passport there may be additional agency acquired fees.

How Long It Takes

It can take up to eight weeks to receive your children’s passport. That is if all documentation was filled out properly. If a problem occurred it could take even longer. If there are time constraints it is best to go through a private agency. Private agency fees may be a steep, but you are assured a pass port within the timeframe needed.

If you are traveling outside of the United States to another country, and you are traveling with children, you must remember that they need their own passports to get through customs. You can go online and find all of the necessary paperwork required to apply for a American passport. If you forget to do this you will have a very unfortunate situation on your hands where you may be required to delay your trip. Avoid this headache by planning ahead and making sure you get your pasport for children well before you are scheduled to depart the country.

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