Non-notorised letter for italy

[ThatGiddyHedgehog]

Pls help, travel to italy with my children on Friday. I do have a handwritten consent from father, we are not a talking terms so this was hard enough. Now ive read that i need notorised letter. No way will he do it. Should i try and get photocopy of his passport or just not bother go or is this letter enough?

You have left it too late I’m afraid and a copy of his passport won’t be sufficient

Is the above not just for Italian citizens only? I’m presuming OP is British, visiting Italy on holiday.

I travel to Italy a lot and have once been stopped, or needed to show a letter. If you’ve got one that should be fine, but I’d take a copy of the birth certificates, too. Conversely, French border control kept me for 10 minutes last month, even though I had masses of paperwork proving addresses etc.

DS and I are both dual citizens with Italy, and I’ve never been stopped leaving Italy either.

I took one of my kids on holiday to Italy last summer, just the two of us, we have different names as I didn’t change my name when I got married. I didn’t even consider it might be an issue to need her father’s consent, and it didn’t come up at all. I’ve travelled a fair bit with the kids on my own over the years and never been asked if he consented.

I've only been asked once in 15 years of travelling with DD, and it was in 2023 boarding a cruise in Spain. I'd googled beforehand and took a standard typed letter giving permission. DD's dad sent me a pic of his signature to copy (we are on good terms, and they have no way of knowing his signature anyway!) It was asked for but only glanced at.

That is very unusual and they certainly weren’t following regs

Thank you. Yes we are all British and have a letter of permission signed by the father. Im just concerned it has to be notorised, however on gov.uk it does say that a letter is enough. Just wanting to see what ur thoughts are. Ive been on hold for 2 hours to the consulate and still waiting to get more clarification

I travel to Italy a lot with my DC (different surnames) and the only time I have been asked about our relationship was on the return to the UK (once) and even then I was only proving our relationship, there was no mention of their father. I take a copy of their birth certs every time we travel.

Another one who has travelled all over the world (including Italy) and never needed to show documentation here.
Take the letter.
You have his phone number so in the extraordinarily unlikely scenario that they care, immigration can call him.
Are the kids old enough to say you are mum and dad is staying at home in the UK?
Enjoy your holiday.

I've been Finland, Spain, Tunisia and never been asked for a letter.
I've been asked on arrival back at the uk, well DS was asked how we are related.
I always took his birth certificate just in case as his dad is NC with us. Border control at Manchester were happy with the birth certificate as proof we were legit.

Thank you all… :)

You'll be fine, Think about Italian women, they don't change their surname after marriage so they all have different surnames to their kids.

Just a letter is fine. I am Italian w British kids and different surnames. I travel to Italy lots without DH. Take a copy of birth certificates.