Traveling with children under 18 - 09/14/15
Up until this week, all kids needed was a USA passport, or a notarized
" original" birth certificate
However I had clients with trouble this week. Parents with 16 and 17 year old kids that had passports. They did not have birth certificates. RSA requires the Birth certificates AND passports now. Delta would not let them board the flight in Atlanta
Odd to me that this did not come up in Portland when they departed with a known flight to RSA, checking bags all the way through? However in Atlanta they were told the kids cannot board the flight at the gate!
The parents scrambled to get Birth certificates over night from the county courthouse in Wa state. They were able to leave the next day and resume the trip. This however is not the norm. Odd that the courthouse would make the effort to overnight original copies and send them based on a phone call only? Also odd that the flight would have space available the next day.
This was a massive screw up because RSA now requires this birth certificate AND a passport. Up until now a passport was 100% all that is needed. I have had several kids travel to RSA with parents this years and they were only required to have the passport. Not a single one had to have a Birth Certificate as well.
Just be warned that these things change frequently. This family made it work at the airport and lost one day, however we are trying to add a day and change the tickets now. Still not sure about that outcome.
In the USA you must have a birth certificate to get the passport for a kid, it's pretty simple. This is an RSA requirement, not the USA requirement.
" original" birth certificate
However I had clients with trouble this week. Parents with 16 and 17 year old kids that had passports. They did not have birth certificates. RSA requires the Birth certificates AND passports now. Delta would not let them board the flight in Atlanta
Odd to me that this did not come up in Portland when they departed with a known flight to RSA, checking bags all the way through? However in Atlanta they were told the kids cannot board the flight at the gate!
The parents scrambled to get Birth certificates over night from the county courthouse in Wa state. They were able to leave the next day and resume the trip. This however is not the norm. Odd that the courthouse would make the effort to overnight original copies and send them based on a phone call only? Also odd that the flight would have space available the next day.
This was a massive screw up because RSA now requires this birth certificate AND a passport. Up until now a passport was 100% all that is needed. I have had several kids travel to RSA with parents this years and they were only required to have the passport. Not a single one had to have a Birth Certificate as well.
Just be warned that these things change frequently. This family made it work at the airport and lost one day, however we are trying to add a day and change the tickets now. Still not sure about that outcome.
In the USA you must have a birth certificate to get the passport for a kid, it's pretty simple. This is an RSA requirement, not the USA requirement.