Children's passports
My children have my surname, their mother has a different surname. With alarming frequency she is harassed at Passport Control when travelling with them as she "cannot prove that she is their mother and cannot prove she has permission to travel with the children".

Various Immigration Officers have suggested that she travels either with copies of their Birth Certificates – which do not show parents' names, are "not to be used for identification purposes", and can be obtained by anyone willing to pay the relevant fee – or with a letter from me giving my permission for her to travel with them – trivial to forge. This is to "help prevent child abduction". Neither suggestion takes into account the possibility of a child being abducted by someone with the same surname.

BUT this only ever happens when she is returning with them to the UK, never on departure. It's hardly abduction if she's bringing them back, is it?

If children under a certain age are not allowed to travel without the permission of their parent(s) or guardian(s) then why are those details not in their passports?

This used to annoy my sister so much that she got passports for her children in her husband's nationality.
( wakeupandsmellthebacon, Thu 1 Mar 2012, 11:50, Reply)