Minor Child denied boarding on Summit. Because of not having fathers permission.

[Amlee]

I was standing in line about an hour ago waiting to check in on the Summit.

 

There was a good size family behind me in line that I had started talking too. Soon they let us in the building and we each got in line. They were a mixture of Select and Concierge class. The grandparents and I were in the same line again so we were talking. Their kids and grandkids were in another line. I was a few lines up from the kids and I could here a heated and loud discussion going on, but wasn't sure what it was. The grandparents and I checked in and I went on through security.

 

I was down seating in front of guest relations waiting for my room to open, when the grandparents escorted by a crew member went to the front of the line at Guest Relations.

 

It seems one of the daughters or daughters in law (not sure which) has a child that didn't belong to her current husband. The mother didn't have permission from the father for the child(17) to board the ship. So immigrations has denied the child from boarding. The ships crew is helping the family, but the last time I ran into them it was a no go.

 

This family is so upset and crush. They have sailed several times with the cruise line and said it has never been asked of them before.

 

If I find out more, I'll post.

[Jade13]

I was standing in line about an hour ago waiting to check in on the Summit.

 

There was a good size family behind me in line that I had started talking too. Soon they let us in the building and we each got in line. They were a mixture of Select and Concierge class. The grandparents and I were in the same line again so we were talking. Their kids and grandkids were in another line. I was a few lines up from the kids and I could here a heated and loud discussion going on, but wasn't sure what it was. The grandparents and I checked in and I went on through security.

 

I was down seating in front of guest relations waiting for my room to open, when the grandparents escorted by a crew member went to the front of the line at Guest Relations.

 

It seems one of the daughters or daughters in law (not sure which) has a child that didn't belong to her current husband. The mother didn't have permission from the father for the child(17) to board the ship. So immigrations has denied the child from boarding. The ships crew is helping the family, but the last time I ran into them it was a no go.

 

This family is so upset and crush. They have sailed several times with the cruise line and said it has never been asked of them before.

 

If I find out more, I'll post.

 

I was recently in Miami with someone elses minor. Although we had multiple notorized papers from both parents, we were never asked for them. I travel with my minor stepdaughter (diff last name) and never asked if I am her "real parent". I bet women get stopped more than men (when parent with matching name not with the minor).

 

Ok, what about children with 2 same sex parents? It isn't even politically correct to ask questions any more and very surprising that a 17 year old would be stopped. What about the single parents, including those that adopt. The odd thing about this situation is this is not a 4 year old but a 17 year old.

 

So, what happened?

[JanineM]

Very unfortunate way to start a vacation!

 

I have read numerous threads here where people are really frantic to get permission from the "other" parent and they either can't find them, or they won't respond. I do recall a couple of people saying that they got court orders, but if compliance is hit and miss then who is to know if you need to take that step and spend more money on an attorney. Like most rules >>> they either need to enforce them or not!!!

[Amlee]

That is what the grandmother kept saying. She is 17!

 

I have also sailed with minors (two different times)and had the paper work with me. Even asked if it needed to be seen and was told no.

 

So that is what caught my attention to this.

 

The only thing that the guest relations person could figure out is that the mother has a different name from the daughter and it caught the attention of the system.

 

I hope I run into them later and find out what happen.

[cantwait2cruize]

I feel so bad for them. Please keep us posted.

[Iggipolka]

 

Ok, what about children with 2 same sex parents?

 

If the parents are both female, the non-birth mother has to legally adopt the child through a second parent adoption process. This is similar to what a step-parent does to legally adopt a spouse's children from a former relationship.

 

If the parents are both male, both of them need to legally adopt the child.

[judyfssw]

The first time I heard about this was about 10 years ago when a friend was taking her 8 year old son home from a vacation in Mexico and needed to have his father's permission to fly. The father came home days earlier. They were able to fax a letter from the father in the states to the airlines and that was okayed.

I think that it depends on the immigration person. I'm glad that the situation was resolved and the vacation wasn't spoiled. Something to talk about in years to come.

[calgarycowtown]

Will become more prevalent as traditional familes do change.

 

we took 3 teenagers to mexico last month.

• my partner and i are not married
  
• we had his 16 yr old daughter. need the ex's notorized permission which can be nasty to obtain when the splits drag on for 10 YEARS IN AND OUT OF COURTS!!! (come to think of it, how did we even have any money left over for vacation). you stress big when the paper doesn't come until the day before. grrr
  
• then 2 other girls, 15-16 yrs old sisters. so we need papers from their parents. normally one set of papers then to authorize us to take them, but their parents are divorced so another full set needed.

and then -- nobody asks for anything. canadian, us, mexican immigration.

but, we were prepared.

[terinzak]

Did the 17 yr old have a passport or just a BC? It's my understanding that with children 16 and under you need both parents permission to get the passport. The passport may have allowed her/him on board. I am a single mom who barely managed to get my 13 yr old a passport. Since his dad had to sign, I no longer need a notarized permission letter.

[brazilgirl]

Here in Brazil , if you travel with your child alone (the other parent not present) , you MUST have a notarized letter of permission from the parent who is not along with the child.

This law is very firmly enforced-you cannot travel on a plane domestically or internationally without this "permission" slip.This applies to all families , divorced or not.

This law apparently is enforced to prevent "childnapping" .As I am sure you all know , must child abductions are practiced by estranged family members.

It is a sad reality ,but.....

I suppose the hassle is worth the pain of having a child disappear.

Of course , the regulation should be clearly stated and explained ahead of time as not to ruin one´s travel plans.

[Hootsie]

This happened to my friend a couple years ago when she took her teenage son on a cruise. She's a single mom and the dad has no visitation rights and also pays no child support. She STILL had to find him to get permission. She was ticked. Thankfully she knew where his parents lived and was able to reach him thru them.

[frodo63]

Did the 17 yr old have a passport or just a BC? It's my understanding that with children 16 and under you need both parents permission to get the passport. The passport may have allowed her/him on board. I am a single mom who barely managed to get my 13 yr old a passport. Since his dad had to sign, I no longer need a notarized permission letter.

 

From what I understand, giving permission for a child to get a passport does not imply permission for 1 parent to take the child out of the country anytime they want. You still are required to have a notarized letter for the particular trip with dates, countries visited etc. There are some parents who would for example allow their European spouse take their child to the Caribbean where he/she has no resources or family but not allow him/her to take the child to their home country where the spouse/ex might decide they are with family and not come back to the States.

[bullydogsmama]

I had posted this same question on another thread but will ask here also. What If the mother had just said "her fathers dead." What would have the cruise ship done then? I doesn't seem as if she would have to have a copy of the father death certificate to board.

[Sea Island Lady]

This could all be avoided if passengers would just read the regulations for cruising. Plus, a good TA would make the parent aware of this requirement.

 

My sisters daughter is adopted and my sister and husband are divorced. A few years ago, she somehow talked her XDH (who is very active in his daughters life) into letting her new DH adopt their daughter. My sister said that it would just make the child's life easier if she had the same last name as my sister and her DH.

 

They had no problems when we cruised a few years ago. However, just in case, she had a written notarized letter from her XDH.

[dkjretired]

This has come up usually on Ask a cruise question or Family cruising board a number of times. Some things to remember are that these are rules of the foreign countries that you are entering and the cruise line or airline are just following those rules.

 

A court order is not always valid because a foreign country does not have to abide by a court order from the US.

 

To answer a question that was alluded to in another post, a passport is not permission by parents to travel. You must have seperate travel papers signed by both parents for each trip.

 

Best thing to do is contact the cruise line in advance as to their requirements, get them in writing and take that corrosponsdence with you to the dock.

[brazilgirl]

If the father is dead , a copy of the death certificate is required when taking the child out of the country.

This is a necessary measure.Unfortunately , children can be taken out of the country by one parent and because of extradition laws in other countries , the other parent can´t get them back.

These laws are made to protect children. Sadly , many people don´t have good intentions and others must pay.

If you leave one country and go to another with a car , you must have the proper documentation. Imagine with a child....

[bubbie617]

I'm wondering if they're following the letter of the law because it's spring break time and they've been told to follow every rule and then some!

[embellish]

Sea Island Lady gave the best advice in this entire thread, i.e., read the regulations prior to sailing. In this post 9-11 era, the rules keep changing and one can never rely on a "that's how it was done before" approach when traveling. I suppose this is a healthy dialog to help make everyone more mindful of necessary pre-travel preparations, but we may all never know the entire story behind the reported encounter as it was a second-hand accounting.

[mahdnc]

When our family flew to Venice for our Millennium cruise last year, we ended up having to book our freq flyer award tickets on two different itineraries.

 

My wife and daughter flew on Alitalia while my son and I flew on Delta. We each carried notarized letters with us giving each other permission to fly out of the country with our child alone.

 

In the end, no one ever asked us to provide the documentation but we wanted to be ready--just in case!

[Desertbelle]

People need to remember this isn't just for parents who are separated, divorced, widowed, etc. Even if you are married to the child's father/mother, you need to get notarized permission to take that child out of our country and into other countries.

 

I feel very sorry for this family...it's very unfortunate that they weren't informed.

 

How we found out about this requirement was my son and his brother-in-law were flying to Cancun for a few days of golf before the wives and kids came down to meet them a few days later. At the airport, at nearly midnight, the woman checking in my son mentioned that their wives would need letters to board the plane a few days later. Fortunately there was an airline employee that was a Notary...the next hour was spent dragging kids out of bed and running to the airport, writing letters and getting them signed before my son and his brother-in-law's plane left. We learned our lesson well.

[terinzak]

and what do you do if you have no idea where the other parent is? In my case, I havent seen/spoken/heard from my ex in 13 years. Matter of fact, he's never even seen his son. Should my son be penalized, and not allowed to travel, just because I can't produce a letter from his dad? For what it's worth, I have traveled with my son many times to/from Mexico/Europe, etc and have never had a letter...just the passport.

[Desertbelle]

terinzak,

 

You are not alone. There are a great many parents who have missing ex's or even hostile ones, where it's impossible to get in contact with let alone get a notarized letter from.

 

What I would do in your situation would be to spend a couple hundred dollars and get the courts to grant me full and complete custody of my son including the right to travel with him anywhere. Then I would carry that court order with me.

 

It's a small price and hassle to pay in order to save thousands of dollars if you were to get refused at the port or airport.

 

Just because you haven't been stopped before doesn't mean you won't.

[dkjretired]

terinzak,

 

You are not alone. There are a great many parents who have missing ex's or even hostile ones, where it's impossible to get in contact with let alone get a notarized letter from.

 

What I would do in your situation would be to spend a couple hundred dollars and get the courts to grant me full and complete custody of my son including the right to travel with him anywhere. Then I would carry that court order with me.

 

It's a small price and hassle to pay in order to save thousands of dollars if you were to get refused at the port or airport.

 

Just because you haven't been stopped before doesn't mean you won't.

 

Unfortunately that does not alway do the trick. As I stated in an earlier post, these are the laws of other countries and they have no obligation to honor a court order from the US. This has been written about with some horror stories on other boards. Mexico appears to be the stricthest especially if you are staying in country for over 24 hours.

[MICHE99]

WOW......... this is pretty scary. I am on this same ship next week with my fourteen year old. I kept my maiden name so it is not the same as my daughter's. I am married to her father but that doesn't seem to matter. I am so glad I read this. I will get a letter this week just in case. Does anyone know what one needs to include in this letter and to whom it should be addressed??

[dkjretired]

WOW......... this is pretty scary. I am on this same ship next week with my fourteen year old. I kept my maiden name so it is not the same as my daughter's. I am married to her father but that doesn't seem to matter. I am so glad I read this. I will get a letter this week just in case. Does anyone know what one needs to include in this letter and to whom it should be addressed??

 

Ok, I hope this works...

 

CONSENT FOR MINOR CHILD TO TRAVEL

 

Date:_____________________

 

We, ________________ and __________________, parents of ___________, born ______________, authorize our minor child to travel to __<Country(ies)>___ on __<Departure Date>_, aboard cruise ship _____________________, with ______________________. Their expected date of return is _______________.

In addition, I authorize _________________ to consent to any necessary routine or emergency medical treatment during the aforementioned trip.

 

Signed:_________________________________ (Father)

<Father’s Name>

 

 

 

Signed:_________________________________ (Mother)

<Mother’s Name>

 

Address:

 

Telephone:

 

Sworn to and signed before me, a Notary Public,

this _______ day of _______________, 20____

________________________________________

Notary Public Signature and Seal

 

There are also several websites out there with samples but be careful some will charge you....