Travelling before adoption order granted

[howmanyusernames]

We are in the process of doing the paperwork for the adoption order, and our SW's have asked if we want a passport in LO's current name.
I think 'Yes, we don't know how long the court date will take, then we have to wait for the paperwork/new birth certificate to come, and then we have to apply for the passport, so it gives us more freedom to go away if we want to' but my OH is really worried about taking LO abroad with a different name to us and thinks we'll basically be given the third degree and be held up for hours and hours!

We would only go to Spain/Europe, and I've read that with all the right paperwork authorities 'know' and there isn't any issues or hold ups?

So I guess it's just asking if anyone has done this, and how smooth it was to do?

Also, my theory is that once we get LO's new birth certificate and want to get a passport in that name, it would be easier to just send off the passport we have and have it changed?
Again, anyone had any experience of doing this?

LA will also pay for the passport, which is an added bonus!

Your social worker will give you a letter to bring with you stating that your DC is in the care of the state and that you have permission to travel with him/her. That's what happened with our DC, we even went to Malaysia to visit family with DS. We did have to give our social worker flight numbers and dates, and the date and address of everywhere that we would be staying because they need to know exactly where children in their care are.

I do see what your saying, and the added bonus of LA paying is alsmost unheard of... but... are you actually planning to go away? I think it’ll be a right faff in my experience of having to change it at a later date, these things are not simple.. personally in year 1 we made the decision to staycation to make life simple whilst the order went through and we’ve now been able to order our new adoption certificates so a passport will follow.. my feeling was always to just wait as it seemed a waste of time and money, but it depends on how desperate you are to go abroad.

We had to do this cos my mum, who lives in another country, was (and is) seriously ill, so we wanted to take DD to see her.

As a PP said, we got a letter from the LA, explaining the situation, and showed that at border control.

When it's time for the new passport, you want to do 'change of details' on the form (it took me THREE weeks to get that information from the passport office. I wasn't sure if it was whole new passport or what to do).

I don't remember it being a big ordeal to have the passports changed, I mean I wouldn't leave it until the last minute before a holiday but there were no issues with it. I did phone to check what documents they needed. If you have an original birth cert for your DC then make sure you hold on to it. Our social worker told us we had to destroy it because it wasn't valid anymore but I have a feeling that the passport office wanted to see both the original birth cert and the adoption cert.

Have gone abroad twice pre adoption order, first time to France trip was seamless!
Second time, different ds we flew to Northern Cyprus, (birth sons wedding,) he was 5 with complex health needs. As his surname was different to ours the airline put him at the back of the plane us at the front.
It was soon sorted when I smiled sweetly and said could someone give him his drugs via his tube.
Go for it and enjoy!
BTW both LA paid for passports.

Actually, I did think that there might be a problem with DS's passport as his original name passport had him down as a girl. We hadn't noticed, but the check in lady at Kuala Lumpur airport did so we looked dodgy as hell travelling with a boy on a girl's passport. So I thought there might be an issue when I sent that one in to get his new name one, but obviously no one in the passport office noticed either as it came back with the correct sex. We did very slightly change his first name on adoption, mostly because of the passport thing, we felt that he might be administratively mistaken for female on other occasions too as his name was more common for girls than boys, think Robin which we changed to Robert (not his actual names).

Thanks for the responses.

We don't have to go away but thought it would be nice, and we also haven't had a holiday this year so it would be lovely to get away (we'd usually go away 3-4 times a year).

For me it's also that we can take advantage of not having to pay for a plane seat for LO, and also that my OH is on adoption leave so we don't have to worry about time off work. Plus it would be nice to just get away for a few days!

It would just be nice to have that option, and if we had a passport for LO and woke up and thought 'Let's see if there are any flights to X tomorrow' we can!

We have a letter from our social worker (which they will also translate for you into the language spoken where you're going) but we've taken our two children abroad twice now & never had a question asked so haven't had to show our letters. Ours came with passports. I guess in this day & age it's not uncommon for kids to have different surnames - I decided it's not different to them having an ex-husbands surname & me remarrying, then me & new hubby taking kids abroad. It must come up all the time

How old is your child? If very young it may all smoothly but holidays with adopted children sometimes don't go quite so smoothly.

If you had family to visit etc then I could understand more. We holidayed in the UK with our son for the first two years. He was 3 when he came to us so aged 3 and 4 for first annual holidays.

Our LO is 10 months now, been with us for 4 months, almost 5 months.