Passports

[doodlesinkentucky]

A child under two does not need a passport to Carib and Mexico do they? I have heard mixed things. We are driving to the port in Tampa.

[1025cruise]

Unless you have an emergency where you may need to fly home, you should be OK.

 

The minute you need to fly internationally, you require a passport.

[cherylandtk]

The age of the child has nothing to do with it. A US citizen can travel on a cruise such as yours (RT out of Tampa within the Western Hemisphere) on just a certified Birth Certificate and ID for anyone 16 and over. Make sure the birth certificate is government issued, city-county-state, and is not the hospital certificate.

http://getyouhome.gov/html/lang_eng/eng_sa.html

[MardiGras316]

We got our daughter a passport at a young age just to be safe AND to have a legal photo identification for her. It was $125 and it was worth the peace of mind. You never know if you would have to fly home, if you had to "prove" it was indeed her. Better to have it and NOT need it.

Tricia

[milton333]

We got our 18 month old a passport book, it was only $80. Good for 5 years.

 

The issue, as noted above, is that you need a passport to enter the U.S. by air. If there should be a problem with your cruise (you or child get sick, someone back home does), having a passport is peace of mind that you can return without hassle.

[crusinmama06]

The parents on the Family board are the most informed cruisers. :D;) Yes, all of the answers above are correct. You aren't required to have one on your cruise. Make sure you have a CERTIFIED state birth cerficate (not a fancy one they give you at the hospital). It has nothing to do with age.

 

AND, if you need to FLY home in an emergency, a passport book would have been a better choice. ;)

 

Happy cruising! :D

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

As everyone stated previously, birth certificates are OK. Just make sure you have proper idenitification on hand if last names are different or one parent is absent. I personally think a passport is more praticle if an emergency were to occur, you'd have easier access to leave the country than without one.

[6rugrats]

As everyone stated previously, birth certificates are OK. Just make sure you have proper idenitification on hand if last names are different or one parent is absent.

If you don't have sole legal custody, and the other parent isn't traveling, you need a notarized permission to travel letter signed by the absent parent, not just proper I.D.

[mikesteg]

(not a fancy one they give you at the hospital).

 

What kind of fancy state do you all live in? I read this frequently, but in Texas we didn't get jack from the hospital. Heck, I had to chase them down to fill out the darn paperwork. The woman's excuse was that she didn't have 2 copies of the forms! :eek:

 

After that, I had to go get the BCs at the county (in order to get passports, of course :D). Had we not done the legwork, we wouldn't actually have BCs in hand for the kids.

 

However, this link Cheryl and/or TK posted is interesting:

 

http://getyouhome.gov/html/lang_eng/eng_sa.html

 

Says

a government issued photo identification, along with proof of citizenship (an original or copy of his or her birth certificate, a Consular report of Birth Abroad, or a Certificate of Naturalization).

(the italics are mine) .... Since there is really no such thing as an original any more, I'd interpret "original" to mean "certified", which would mean that "copy" literally means "copy".

 

Not that I'd risk going without a $15 certified copy, but the language is interesting. Maybe they figure that the certified copy from one of 10s of 1000s of country seats doesn't really mean anything. :confused:

[crusinmama06]

What kind of fancy state do you all live in? I read this frequently, but in Texas we didn't get jack from the hospital.

 

Some hospitals give a record of birth. It's handwritten. Not official. And its more for the baby book than anything else. ;)

 

And yes, we had to get the "copies" from Vital records. But they were certified copies. And we traveled with those for years before we got our passports. :)

[Nebr.cruiser]

Some hospitals give a record of birth. It's handwritten. Not official. And its more for the baby book than anything else. ;)

 

And yes, we had to get the "copies" from Vital records. But they were certified copies. And we traveled with those for years before we got our passports. :)

 

We used to get very 'pretty' (decorative) certificates in Nebraska, too, that were not official birth certificates. I don't know if hospitals still give these out since my youngest is 38!

 

The official copies will have a raised seal. For closed loop cruises, this is all anyone needs (unless traveling with only one parent, or a non-parent, when a notarized letter of permission is needed) to travel, regardless of age.

 

Of course it is safer, in case of the extremely rare possibility that you may have to fly home from a port due to an emergency, to get passports for everyone, but sometimes not practical, as when we took 7 grandkids on a cruise last winter.

[mikesteg]

Well, the nurse(s) at the hospital did do the footprints in the baby books for us. Given their expertise in doing that we got very nice prints, so I guess I won't complain. :D

[crusinmama06]

mikesteg - can I go off topic and say that I LOVE that toothy smile in your signature. SO CUTE! :D

[mikesteg]

Well, in that case I guess you can go off topic ... :D

 

While we're off topic, I have to say that your signature was the one that inspired me to go figure out how to make my own rotating gif. :)

 

TY for the compliment, BTW. :D

[ms7136a]

In Maryland, for $25, you can get a decorative birth certificate signed by the governor. At the top in large print it says, This is a Legal Document." We used the generic looking one to the Dept. of State.

 

A nice thing about a passport is that you can go into the Customs House at every port and have the authorities stamp it. Makes for a nice souvenoir. Besides, there is no better form of ID. My son got his when he was 6 months old.