Stopped at Rotterdam border

[vicnew]

Just thought I would warn you about what happended to me in Rotterdam. I travel with my daughter perhap 6 times per year, and often get questioned as I am divorced from her father and therefore have a different name. They usually check a birth or marriage certifcate or ask daughter who she is travelling with. This time however they asked where the consent form was, I explained I knew nothing about a consent form and have never had one before. He said that since 2016 this is a legal requirement and you must have permission from the other parent. There is a form here www.mumsnet.com/pdf/recommended-consent-letter-for-children-travelling-abroad.pdf

I hope you all have reasonable exes who will fill in the form!

Shit that's terrible!

I travel through Rotterdam a lot and for the same reason as you I always take a birth certificate.

I'm not filling out a fucking consent form!! I have every right to take my child abroad!!

That's shocking.

So is the issue for any time that a child is travelling with only one parent?

What if they have different names, but the parents are still together?

What if one parent has passed away?

What about step-parents where the step parent is effectively the other parent to a child, not the biological parent, eg my friend is not the biological father of his partners teen DD, but he has been the father figure in her life since she was a toddler and the DD doesn't really have a relationship with her biological father who is named on her birth certificate.

How would they know if the 2 adults that the child is travelling with are the child's parents or not (does it name parents in a child's passport?) . Eg a woman travelling with her brother and daughter?

Seems like there are lots of ways to make life difficult for people, although presumably it is to stop estranged parents taking their DCs abroad and not bringing them back.

Another question to ponder, is how they check the signature on any letter of consent.

Lol we had that once coming home from Crete my ex-partner name was different to mine and her 2 boys (they have Greek names) when trying to leave passport control wanted them to stay there because they thought they were trying to get out of doing national service over there even though they were born in the UK and had uk passports.

I't was so funny seeing the face of the passport guy when she hit him with a barrage of Greek swearing (they do it so well) until he relented and let us leave.