Getting a passport prior to adoption order

[iwishkidslikedtomatoes]

Happy New Year Everyone

Just wandering if anyone could help. We want to take our children abroad a few weeks after adoption order should go through and are stressing on what to do about passport.

We think it is safest to apply in BP's surname as any hold up in court could result in booking tickets in new name and then them not having new name, plus turnaround of passport could be short even if no issues and goes through court. But don't know if they can then travel under a passport with old name once adoption order gone through. I know you can do this when get married but as they will have different surnames to us wandering if we will get questioned at desk, then highlighting name change, whereas newlyweds don't.

We are debating asking to delay court date but obviously no one wants to do that. Has anyone been in this situation with any ideas?

I appreciate that just going later or next year would be better but this can't be done due to annual leave entitlement and temperature not being suitable for children. I also appreciate that most children being adopted don't travel at this stage due to prior experiences impacting their security/happiness with all the disruption travel involves but this is not the case in our situation. And I am also aware of SS needing to support passport application, give permission etc.

Any advice greatly appreciated. I should probably say we're all UK residents travelling to US.

Thankyou for any help you can give, if there even is any!

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Hmmm, I'd book tickets and apply for passport in current name, I think.

[RedPT]

I took got a passport for dd in her birth name before the adoption order (was a bit of a nightmare to get though - with the social workers dragging their feet). We travelled for another year with the same passport and have just applied for a passport in her new name. This isn't proving straight forward either! - the passport office phoned yesterday asking for a solicitors letter to prove change of name!

[RedPT]

We were only ever asked once about our many different surnames! We always took documentation about the adoption with us but have never been asked to show it. The social worker gave us a permission to travel document, which again we were never asked to show.

[Threesocksnohairbrush]

I may be wrong but am not sure you as prospective adopters can apply for a passport until the order is through. I don't think you have that level of PR. It may have to be done through SS unfortunately. Have you clarified this?

Have the children been abroad before from what you say? In which case they must have passports which will be in the custody of SS and yes, id book tickets in old name in that event.

I realise from your post that there may be circumstances you don't want to air online, which mean either you don't feel the travel will disrupt the children, or that you have really good reasons to do it anyway. Not asking. In the normal circs of a child recently placed from local authority care for a 'stranger' adoption I would be really really hesitant about a long haul flight to another continent soon after placement. Around the time of DS adoption order, when he was a toddler, we made the journey all the way to the exotic wilderness of North Wales for a long weekend. He loved it but very plainly struggled with the disruption of being in unfamiliar surroundings and away from the place he was beginning to call home.

If you have any option to delay the trip a little bit I would seriously consider squaring the circle that way. But fully appreciate you may not have.

Best of luck.

[RedPT]

Yes social worker has to apply for the passport.

[andnowforsomethingcompletely]

I gather from a post on here a few months ago, that though after adoption order, it takes about a month at least to get a passport (with the new name), because you have to wait around 3 weeks to get the new 'long' adoption certificate which you need in order to apply for a passport. However that post said that you can get a name-change in an existing passport much quicker, within a week or so of AO.

So I would suggest looking into that: Get passport in old name now (through SS - by the way we have been trying to do that since October and are looking at at least another 6 weeks, if we're lucky - SS can really drag their feet! Though they are making all of the right noises, it is clearly not their priority.) Then as soon as AO goes through, apply for name change.

Of course that would mean that you either wait with booking your flights until the name change has gone through, meaning probably higher prices; or you take quite a risk and book in the new name, which risks that you will have a redundant ticket if things don't happen to schedule.

If you do decide to travel on old name/old passport, please do ensure you have a letter from SS explaining things. Might not be needed, but rather have it and not need it than the other way round!

[iwishkidslikedtomatoes]

Thank you so much for all your responses. They are so helpful and gave me far more info than quite some time on Google gave me. I think we will take approach of applying in old name for passport (they don't have one already) and getting letters etc from social services to explain. Although we have a very good social worker I do worry about them holding application up. Didn't know they had to apply, thought it would be a case of us applying with them writing a letter of permission or something, so yes them applying does put the ball very much in their extremely busy court!

We have already taken them away in UK and stayed overnight elsewhere and most surprisingly to us had the opposite of an unsettling effect, they absolutely loved it and are asking to go again and when can they go on a plane? They have gone against a lot the training taught us in some cases and not in others. Every case so unique I suppose. We never thought we'd be able to take them overnight anywhere in UK for atleast a year, or abroad for couple of years based on all taught but bless them, they like to be different! However whilst we are confident this is absolute right thing we will be taking advice from their social worker on the matter and if they think we've judged it wrong (apart from the fact they won't approve passport) we wouldn't take them anyway. It's a case financially and for A/L allowance, now or never type situation for them to go.

Thanks again for all your advice, much appreciated.

[floatyjosmum]

The sw has to apply for the passport and it's signed off by a manager higher up as the parent.
In theory though once it is sent off it is only subject to the normal passport times. The passport office has a team that deals with these cases and are in the know. Just bear in mind depending on the age of birth parents they may need grandparents birth certificates as well as birth parents which can take a while to get if place of birth is unknown etc.

[iwishkidslikedtomatoes]

Im presuming that they may need grandparents if BP's under 18? Ours are in 20's and 30's so should be ok.

We not planning to go for 4 months, hopefully long enough to sort, if indeed they say yes!

[iwishkidslikedtomatoes]

And thank you floaty

[floatyjosmum]

It's older than that I'm afraid - think it's born after December 1982.

[blossom101001]

I was told when I asked about passports the bp still have to sign the passport forms because they still have some parental responsibility until the AO goes through.

I might be wrong though!

[floatyjosmum]

If a child is subject to a care order then a manager (quite high up but vary in title between la's) can sign as parent and then the sw can sign the photos etc.

[Whatutalkinboutwillis]

Our ds also goes against the norm and loves his wee holidays. We went abroad twice in his first year of placement he loved it.

We had his old passport as he had been away with foster carers but also needed birth parents permission to take him on holiday. We just booked under his original name and also got the letter from social work saying we were authorised to take him although we were never asked for it. Have a great holiday.