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Passports for Children Under Age 14
Also see: Getting
Your First Passport, Passports
for Teens
Special rules cover passports for children under
the age of 14. Basically, you’ll need to prove the citizenship and
identify of both your child and yourselves as parents as well as proof
of your relationship to the child.
For proof of citizenship, you need to provide on
of these items for your child:
- Certified U.S. birth certificate (one with a raised
seal)
- Previous fully valid U.S. Passport
- Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240)
- Certification of Birth Abroad (Form DS-1350)
- Certificate of Citizenship or Naturalization
You also need to prove that you are the child’s
parents. Parents need to supply one of the following:
- Certified U.S. birth certificate (with parents'
names
- Certified Foreign Birth Certificate (with parents'
names and translation, if necessary
- Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) (with parents'
names)
- Certification of Birth Abroad (Form DS-1350) (with
parents' names)
- Adoption Decree (with adopting parents' names)
- Court Order Establishing Custody
- Court Order Establishing Guardianship
That establishes your relationship to your child.
Next, you need to prove who you are with one of the following:
- Valid Drivers License
- Valid Official U.S. Military ID
- Valid U.S. Gov't ID
- Valid U.S. or Foreign Passport with recognizable
photo
- Naturalization/Citizenship Certificate from BCIS
with recognizable photo
- Alien Resident Card from BCIS
It’s easiest for both parents to appear together
to obtain the child’s passport. If that’s not possible or practical,
though, one of you can appear with the proper paperwork and with some
additional proof from the second parent that it’s OK for the child
to obtain a passport. This proof can be:
- a notarized statement of consent authorizing
passport issuance for the child (see Form DS-3053, Statement of Consent:
Issuance of a Passport to a Minor Under Age 14, available online,
or a written statement with the same information on a sheet of paper
from the non-appearing parent that includes the child's name and date
of birth, as well as parent's identification information or a copy of
his/her ID may be used for this purpose)
- evidence of your sole authority to apply for the
passport. This proof can be a birth certificate listing only one parent,
an adoption decree listing only one adopting parent, a court order that
gives you the permission to travel with the child, a court document
that declares the non-applying parent incompetent, or the death certificate
of the other parent.
Once this is all accomplished, you’ll need to
provide two passport photos of your child just like those mentioned in
the above section on adult
passports.
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