I have booked a flight with Swiss Air to travel Alone with my baby. Baby's father will not be joining.
The baby has a passport and carries both of our surnames. I am an EU national.
Apart from the passport do I need a document stating that the baby is allowed to travel alone with me (without his father)? I know that many airlines do not require it but I do not want to risk not being allowed on the plane.
Of course I have contacted Swiss via their online contact form..... they sent me to ask my embassy but this has nothing to do with the embassy since it is airline dependent
Can I please ask your exact nationality and is it the same as your baby's?
I'd definitely have a copy of the birth certificate with you, and it won't do any harm to have the father draft a quick letter, but the only country that has had serious issues with this recently is South Africa.
Definitely take a copy of the birth cert, and enquire about the requirements in the country you will arrive in. On arrival in my home country (EU) I was asked to prove our relationship, and the birth cert was sufficient.
You will have no problems flying to Greece and back alone with your baby. I have done it at least 10 times during the last 2.5 years. I was never asked for additional documents.
If you have any concerns at all, just give your Embassy a call, and you could also call the Greek Embassy in Bern. I was there yesterday and they're lovely people. Basically, you need to put your own mind at rest and there's a lot of conflicting advice online.
My wife and I are UK citizens and hence have UK passports. Our little boy was born here, but is classed as a UK citizen and has a UK passport.
My wife has flown in the past year from CH to the UK, Spain and Portugal on her own with our little boy on average once per month (20+ flights) with Swiss and SleasyJet, with just their passports. No birth cert, no letter and never been asked.
Actually, I doubt that's the entire story behind the recommendation. A big reason to have this letter to travel is to demonstrate that the child is traveling with the knowledge of both parents. A number of children are kidnapped by a noncustodial parent and taken across international borders each year. To try to prevent this kind of child abduction, border patrol sometimes stop and question parents and children traveling alone. A quick letter from the non-traveling spouse goes a long ways towards clearing up any confusion and is recommended, but not required.
Speaking as an American familiar with the US government's love of legalities, I would recommend that the letter be notarized if the accompanying adult is not the legal guardian of the child. For instance, if I were traveling with my niece, I would want a notarized document signed by both parents giving me temporary custody of the child and authorizing me to both cross international borders (if that's where we were headed) and act in case of emergency for the benefit of the child's welfare. And then hope that I never have to use it.
You're absolutely right on the reasoning behind these regulations. I've booked enough flights for families to always be wary when there's a possibility of something going wrong owing to the family names on the passports.
There are many countries where the wife doesn't take the name of her husband upon marriage, though the resulting children do. I have had a client refused boarding because the initial booking was made by the father for business travel. He later got permission for his wife and 3 children to join him on the trip, so they were all on the same flight but on a separate booking to the father. It ended up that the father had to travel out a few days earlier than planned, but didn't mention that his wife and children were on another booking, and they were refused travel when they went to the airport.
Everything got sorted within 12hrs, but you have enough on your hands travelling with kids. Nobody needs that added stress.
Another friend who recently moved back to the UK from South Africa, used to have to carry his late wife's death certificate and his son's birth certificate when the rules changed a couple of years ago.
With an estimated 10,000 children allegedly missing in Europe, I fully expect regulations regarding travelling with children to get tighter.
I was in a similar situation this past August. Asked the airline, they said I could have a document but they didn't say it was mandatory. Asked the embassy and they said it was absolutely mandatory and they made a notarized letter that my husband signed. This was France-Portugal-France.
I was never asked for it upon departure nor arrival.
I do not share my husband's name and our son has one of his names and one of mine.
Sorry I cannot be of much help. It really depends if you prefer to have it just in case. I would follow your embassy's recommendation. Or at least a written letter by the father.
Correct, it was the consulate who wrote the letter (well probably they just filled in the template they already have) and my husband signed. It was notarized there and then by the person who prepared the letter.
I do not have the template however from browsing online I found this one which looks quite like the one I had (mine is in portuguese so it is useless to you I suppose ): http://photos.state.gov/libraries/un..._to_travel.pdf
If you are so far from your own embassy/consulate, just going to a notary with this one maybe would be enough? Someone else here might be more certain than me about that. Good travels!