Holiday w one parent

[NET145]

Hello
has anyone traveled abroad with a baby and just one parent from the birth certificate?
i understand that a consent letter signed by the other parent is required and that potentially this needs to be notarised and for the birth certificate to be shown, but I’m unclear if that’s all of the requirements or if there js anything else they could ask to see?
thanks!

I frequently travel to Europe with DD and have never been asked for any documentation. We do have the same last name (different from DPs) so don’t know if it would be different for him

I have travelled a lot with ds & do print out a letter but have never been asked.

If you have the same last name it’s often no issue. If you have different names then yes travel with the birth certificate and letter.

I’ve never been asked, even with a different surname.

I have never been asked. Ds and I had different surnames until he was 2. I travel alone with him a few times a year on average

Are you divorced/separated or just travelling alone with the baby? Also yes sometimes you don’t get asked but I was asked many times (until I actually went to court and got a CAO in place and a name change for my daughter)

I’ve been travelling alone with my 4 yo DS since he was a year old. Mainly Europe, but also America. I’ve never once been asked for any documentation at all, or even asked if I’m his mum. He’s been asked a few times recently, when coming back to the UK “Is this mummy” or “who’s that”? Luckily he always says mummy or points at me! I didn’t even know taking a consent letter was a requirement..what about women who don’t know where the father is? What about single mothers by choice, who’ve got pregnant by sperm donation? Not everyone has two parents. As far as I know it only might be an issue if the child doesn’t have the same last name as you

I used to travel with my dds from age 18 months and 7 years old, I was never asked or stopped about taking them out of the country.

I used ferries, flew long haul and short haul.

id often go abroad with them at the start of the summer holidays and their grandfather solo would bring them back from abroad, I gave. Him copies of. Their birth certificate and letters in French giving permission - he was never asked for them or questioned about his granddaughters travelling with. Him ( I wanted to ensure the authorities didn’t think he was trafficking and he had a different name to them - thus the birth certificate to show my previous name was same as his

yet apparently men posts let will say it’s something you must. Do

so whether rules have changed I don’t know 🤷‍♀️

Mn posts not men posts

Also never been asked with my 13 year old who has a different surname from me. Sometimes border patrol will ask my son who I am to him and when he says “ehh my mum? 🤨” they seem happy enough

A woman with a UK passport is very unlikely to be stopped with a baby when entering an EU country. The immigration people are not in the business of looking for people who might be kidnapping a baby when tens of thousands are not — they will only be vigilant if there is a report, say because someone in the UK has gone off with a baby and is known to have contacts in X country. The different surname won't matter either as in many European countries it's the norm for women to keep their surnames after marriage.

The most likely place to be asked questions is at the UK border on your return, and even then their main concern will be that you might be smuggling a baby in for adoption. As long as you can convince them that it's actually your baby you will be fine. They will be looking for people who are nervous, so they may ask you a couple of banal questions like where you've come from and how long you've been away while they look at how you interact with them (and with the baby), but they would need quite some level of suspicion to start pulling you over for questioning in the office.