Securing cheap airplane tickets and cheap discount hotel rooms is only part of the advance planning a single parent needs to do prior to taking a child overseas. These days you need to make certain your child has a passport and the proper paperwork has been filled out prior to your trip. Concerns about child abductions have made traveling alone with your child more complicated.
A single parents needs to bring written consent from the childs other parent or legal guardian as well as the childs birth certificate. Many countries require that the consent document be witnessed and notarized. Since specific rules concerning documentation vary by country prospective single parents planning to travel outside the U.S. should go to travel.state.gov for information concerning the requirements of their destination countries.
The following is an excerpt from the State Department concerning single parents traveling to Mexico with minor children Mexican law requires that any non-Mexican citizen under the age of 18 departing Mexico must carry notarized permission from any parent or guardian not traveling with the child to or from Mexico. This permission must include the name of the parent, the name of the child, the name of anyone traveling with the child, and the notarized signature(s) of the parent(s). The State Department recommends that the permission should include travel dates, destinations, airlines and a brief summary of the circumstances surrounding the travel. The child must be carrying the original letter not a facsimile or scanned copy as well as proof of the parent/child relationship (usually a birth certificate or court document) and an original custody decree, if applicable.
Clearly the above very specific requirements makes it obvious that single parents traveling with children must know exactly what their destination countries require for documentation well in advance so that they can have the proper paperwork filled out and ready prior to travel.
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