Passport control - kids with a different surname to parent

[lucjam2105]

After some advice. I'm travelling with DD (age 14) and DS (age 10) to France next week without DH. We are flying from LGW with Easyjet.

I still have my maiden name on my passport even though we got married 16 years ago. The reason for this is that we got married in Sweden and the UK passport authorities won't accept our marriage certificate as it's in Swedish, I would have to get a certified translation which costs £££ so I've never bothered. Not been an issue until now.

I do have my driving licence in my married name as the DVLA were happy to accept swedish certificate. So if I take that and letter from DH giving permission to travel, a copy of his passport, both kids birth certificates and the certified copy of the entry which lists me as their mother (and also says what my maiden name is) do you think that will be ok.

I do know someone who was doing the same journey (UK to France) with the same airline who was refused travel as she couldn't prove the link to her daughter.

Do you think I have all bases covered? I flew easyjet the other week (on my own for work) and asked at the LGW desk and they said not to worry about it...can't say it really made me feel any better!

Same surname doesn't stop it happening.
All 4 of us have the same surname, and I get questioned when traveling without DH.

I had the same surname as my DC until youngest was 16 so perhaps that helped. I have been through SE Asia, Australia, Heathrow, and not asked. Ferries lots if times and searched once but never questioned about the dc

So if you're refused onwards travel because you can't prove your children are indeed yours, what happens then?
I can only assume travel is refused because immigration /airline/whoever has reasonable doubts that you have permission to travel with that child. Do they just let you leave with the children? Seems a bit of a double standard to say they have doubts but then not follow up.
I mean it would be ridiculous to do so and I wouldn't want that to happen, but if child safety is the reason for the questioning then surely they should follow up any concerns?

You don't get refunded if you can't travel due to immigration, that's you issue to sort out.

r God's sake!! What about the (many) countries where women routinely don't take their DH's surname?

The answer to this is they never asked if you are from a culture where you don't change names. I'm ethnic Chinese and have never been asked. You can say the immigration officers are racists. (Ie only ask if you are British). I bet they also know Spanish women keep their birth names too.

I think exexpat probably has it spot on. It depends on where you are getting in and out from.

I've got an eu passport, different to my dcs Europe passport. I also have a different name. Dh is non-Eu, so I go through customs by myself with 4dc when travelling by plane in the EU. I've never been asked, but will probably travel with passports from now on!

You don't get refunded if you can't travel due to immigration, that's you issue to sort out.

I said refused, not refunded.I totally understand that it's my responsibility to ensure I have all relevant visas etc to travel. However, if border control are basically saying "we don't think you have the right to travel with these kids" then do they call the police, social services? Has anyone actually been stopped from travelling or is the experience solely of being questioned?

I travelled to Menorca with the DDs last week from Manchester. My passport is still in my maiden name and DDs have DH's surname. I took their birth certificates just in case but we went through passport control with no trouble at either end - just checked our photos.

nuttymango
I know, it stinks. What really rankles is that, if a man remarries, and his new wife is travelling with them then he wouldn't get asked any questions as the assumption would be that the new woman is their mother.

Plus, a single Dad never gets asked do they?

I travelled with my single dad in the late 80s to mid 90s and we would regularly get stopped. We all had the same surname but we just assumed that the border control agents thought it was suspicious, a man travelling alone with two children. We got stopped every time!

One time we were driving over the Canadian-US border and we had a family friend with us. So we had 2 men (1 Brit, 1 EU) with two children (both Brits), we were searched, our vehicle was emptied and searched, they really went to town on us!

More recently, travelling again over the Canadian-US border we were travelling as a party of 6, 4 adults, 2 children. Five of us had the same surname, four of us has one citizenship and two of us had another. We'd arrived in two groups into Canada on different days and our outward bound flights taking us out of the US at the end of our holiday were on different days to different countries.

They pulled us over because we had different surnames and citizenships, we were held up for ages that time.

UPDATE to Original Post:

We flew back into Gatwick yesterday. I didn't get asked at all on the way out but on our return I got asked to prove that I was DS's Mum. DD who is over 12 had gone through the automatic barriers. I had to show him DS birth certificate and the certificate of entry which has my maiden name on.

I also had with me a letter from DH, copy of our marriage certificate, copy of DH passport. He was only interested in the birth cert. So if you are travelling alone with kids with a different surname you do need proof that they are your children.

I looked this thread up to post a very similar update.

Flew into Heathrow on Thursday, itinerary was Leeds Bradford to Heathrow to Seattle to Anchorage and back. I wasn't asked anywhere for proof of my relationship to my ds except for re-entering the UK at Heathrow. I offered my expensively-notarised permission letter but they weren't interested in that, only the copy of the birth certificate.

I still don't know what the point of asking UK citizens upon their return to the UK is, or really what would happen if I didn't have his birth certificate with me, but I won't get a permission letter notarised again (although I will carry one anyway).

I still don't know what the point of asking UK citizens upon their return to the UK is, or really what would happen if I didn't have his birth certificate with me, but I won't get a permission letter notarised again (although I will carry one anyway).

The point is to stop children being smuggled into the country. There have been cases so it isn't madness.

It's just an irritant to the innocent and sexist in implementation.

I had ID and bank accounts in both my names, which I used for different things (personal and professional).

I used to carry my marriage certificate in my passport holder so I could evidence both names.

I've now had my passport reissued with both surnames on it so I can easily show a link with all my DC (two different surnames between them, both of which I use).