Family wedding in US - attend or skip?

I did the same years ago (travelled with eldest on ESTA) before getting her US passport and it was fine. But I might be more cautious now given the state of border security.

If you get them passports, you can then look forward to the joy of attending the Embassy every five years to do the renewals in person 😩😩. At least you can try to align the expiry dates - my kids’ passports are two years out of sync 🙄

@WolfMother326I really wouldn’t risk it, especially with the possible confusion over your children’s status.

If anyone is going I think you should go alone.

Regardless of whether her children and partner could be denied entry or held by ICE or they could get in trouble for having the wrong documentation for her children who are US citizens.

Are you really sure none of that matters because of a wedding?

I have a few American friends here in the UK with DC who don’t yet have US citizenship sorted and the sentiment pre-crazy ICE stuff was sometimes the border agent would question them intently about why the DC aren’t Americans and sometimes they’d be waved right through. One friend was pulled aside for extra questioning, which sounded a bit intense. None of them have travelled with their DC to the US since last Jan though.

I think the suggestions to go via Dublin are the most sensible. Worst case your DH and the DC book a cheap flight home and you continue on. It’s a weird time. I’m Canadian and heading “home” in the summer for a visit with my DD and where I’d normally consider a US layover it’s simply not happening for the foreseeable future.

After reading this, I wouldn’t consider it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice

It's definitely not permissible but also they don't always figure it out. My friend brought her kids to the states several times without issue, but given everything going on right now, lying on an immigration form seems like it 'could' be problematic. Your kids are American citizens and you'd have to pretend they aren't. She wasn't comfortable lying so she left the kids at home.

I had/have the option of travelling to America recently with my kids but elected not to for now. Fortunately for me there wasn't a particular deadline to the travel, just an open "We would love you to come visit us some point in the future" from family in the US. I will 100% be taking the DCs there on holiday at some point but not right now as I wouldn't feel safe. However, will say that a friend of mine recently went to the US (family event she didn't really want to miss) and she said it was fine, she is an ethnic minority but fwiw she basically didn't leave her families house the whole time she was there. Just airport > family home> airport 🤷‍♀️ she wouldn't have gone if not for the family event but enjoyed it nonetheless

Go and have a holiday there.

How could you miss your sisters wedding??? 💒 please go regardless.

American DP did this with his daughter twice when she was very little, and the first time just got told off, and the second time got told under no circumstances would he be allowed to do it again and if he wanted to bring her back a third time she needed a US passport....

It’s your sister’s wedding, of course you all go. The Dublin suggestion is brilliant. Go and have a wonderful time. I would.

I wouldn't choose to holiday there, but its your sisters wedding so I think you should go

It’s this bit. It’s totally possible for someone to be American but not eligible to pass down citizenship.

OP is an American Citizen, wasn’t just resident. Her kids are American citizens - automatically by birth. There are very clear rules on this. I know because we are in this exact situation. This can trip people up quite a number of decades down the line, as it did Boris Johnson.

That’s a good idea.

It’s not necessarily true. Her kids are American if she was a resident in the states long enough to pass it down. My kids are American by birth, but their kids likely won’t be as they aren’t living in the states and probably never will.

Honestly? I’d go and I’d take the kids.

They aren’t randomly splitting young families up at airports let alone families where one parent is a US citizen.

surely there have always been ‘guns around’ in the US? The ‘weird atmosphere’ isn’t everywhere and won’t affect your sisters wedding?

if you’re from a liberal state then how bad can it be.

Ny husband and I are Americans but we immigrated to the uk 20 years ago and our kids were born here. We all have 2 passports and I still didn’t want to take them to the states last year. It’s a weird time.

The major issue for you is your kids are possibly American but would be travelling on British passports. I don’t know what you’d need to do for their visa, but could that get picked up? My friend in the same situation didn’t bring her kids to the states as she didn’t want to get into issues with that.

We are the same setup but it’s my husband that’s American. We have no problems going in and out the states- presumably because we are all white and they see him as “one of their own”. Have you considered flying via Dublin and clearing immigration there? I found the TSA officers to be a lot less intimidating when they aren’t on their own soil and are unarmed.

I wouldn't want to go to the US right now so I understand your feelings to a point, but it seems very extreme to me to prevent your family from attending a family wedding just for that.

If your children aren't American then they would just enter the country as tourists with your husband. As far as I know there are no guidance against British tourists entering the US.

I'm not sure what you mean by "being separated". Yes you might have to cross the border through a different line, but your kids will be with your husband, it's not a big deal.
It happens in plenty of countries,. including the UK if some members of the family are British or EU, and others are non-EU.

Interrogations at US border can be absolutely stupid and patronising, but not unsafe.

I won’t travel to the US at the moment. Side note - your children may automatically be considered citizens and therefore required by law to enter the US using US passports.

https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/planning/personal-needs/dual-nationality.html

”If your child is a citizen of the United States, they are not eligible for a U.S. visa. This is true even if you have not taken steps to document your child as a U.S. citizen. If you want to enter or leave the United States with your U.S. citizen child, you must obtain a U.S. passport for them.“

it’s going to be fine. Most of the people being picked up have overstayed visas and things like that.

I’ve leapt on here, not really to comment on the wedding - I think you just need to decide whether you go or not and it sounds like it’s close family so I would consider going - but to comment on what you say about how your kids are ‘eligible for US citizenship’.

As you are an American citizen, your children ARE already American citizens by birth. This is not something you apply for. They are automatically and legally Americans. You just haven’t applied for their American passport yet. Even if you ignore this, this could still come to bite them in the backside once they are adult as their tax reporting obligations will be the same as yours - annual return to the IRS, capital gains tax on sale of your principal residence (which a UK citizen doesn’t pay).

If you or your children want to relinquish their citizenship, you need to do it via a very careful process. You can’t just decide one day to give it up.Otherwise you become a ‘bad ex patriot’ which again has many consequences and ramifications.

I know this because of my own family circumstance.

Personally I would get the passports for your children - it will make going in and out of the US very easy. They have the option too as adults whether or not they want to work in what is still the wealthiest country in the world with huge amounts of job opportunity, or to stay in Little England that post Brexit is frankly going down the pan

I wouldn't take my kids. I work for a university in a country that is neither the US nor the UK, and we are getting advice to reconsider travel.

Honestly I wouldn’t take the risk of taking your family there right now. ICE get bonuses for every person they detain and there are loads of reported cases of people being held for weeks, separated from family, when they haven’t done anything wrong.

It’s a small risk, statistically, but it is there.

We used to holiday in the US every year, sometimes twice a year, but I refuse to go at the moment.

I think it’s a fair compromise to just go by yourself - when friends and family ask why you can explain that ICE has been randomly detaining British people, they likely have no idea.

And flying from Ireland gives you some level of protection but several people (including the British pensioner detained for 6 weeks recently) have been held while actually trying to leave the US - they get threatened with deportation when the are already actively trying to leave! So it doesn’t protect your family while you are trying to leave sadly.