Taking my minor niece to London - travel documents to show custody?
Apr 25, 2014, 6:46 am
#17
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The advice I posted above from the Home Office relates to non-British nationals entering the UK.
I'm assuming that you're all British citizens, yes? In which case you shouldn't have any concerns about wife plus baby entering the UK. For a start, consider how many single mothers there are in Britain. The border agency is hardly going to expect them to carry some sort of certification that they are the only legal parent. That could get quite offensive quite quickly.
I also know plenty of mothers that travel with their kids in and out of the UK and I'm not aware that any of them have even considered carrying a letter of authorization from the other parent, nor have I ever heard of them being questioned.
Now were it you travelling solo with a a baby then you that might be a different matter. Then you might find yourself face-to-face with some (well meaning) institutionalized sexism..
I'm assuming that you're all British citizens, yes? In which case you shouldn't have any concerns about wife plus baby entering the UK. For a start, consider how many single mothers there are in Britain. The border agency is hardly going to expect them to carry some sort of certification that they are the only legal parent. That could get quite offensive quite quickly.
I also know plenty of mothers that travel with their kids in and out of the UK and I'm not aware that any of them have even considered carrying a letter of authorization from the other parent, nor have I ever heard of them being questioned.
Now were it you travelling solo with a a baby then you that might be a different matter. Then you might find yourself face-to-face with some (well meaning) institutionalized sexism..
Where the waters get muddied however are as follows:
1) My wife (our son's Mother) is a Canadian citizen with Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. She has retained her maiden name in her passport, since the Canadians make it fairly difficult to change your name on a Canadian passport after marriage.
2) Our son has my surname and both UK and Canadian citizenship. He will obviously travelling into the UK on his British passport.
My wife intends to carry a) an original Birth Certificate showing her as his mother and b) a copy of our Marriage Certificate to show the link between the name on her passport and my/my son's surname.
I expect that there may be questions raised but the Birth Certificate clearly links my wife as his mother and corresponds with details raised in the passport. I expect that this and the fact that mother and son will present documents from different countries may cause issues but nothing that cannot be justified.
Am I overreacting therefore in thinking of obtaining a notarized letter?
Another point - I intend to be in the arrivals hall to collect them before the plane lands - so will be on site at the very time they will be clearing immigration. I guess in a worse case scenario they could contact me? Only reason I worry is my wife gets very flustered sometimes with these things, even more so potentially after an overnight TATL sector with a baby!...
Apr 26, 2014, 8:36 am
#18
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Having the marriage and birth certificates should probably do, and you being available will help as well.
No point in doing any notarizing. It just isn't a thing in the UK.
Your wife should probably use the non-EU lane at immigration though, even though she is accompanying an EU citizen.
No point in doing any notarizing. It just isn't a thing in the UK.
Your wife should probably use the non-EU lane at immigration though, even though she is accompanying an EU citizen.
Apr 26, 2014, 10:28 am
#19
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Apr 27, 2014, 9:17 pm
#20
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And yes they do check. I always carry birth certificate, marriage certificate and letter of consent, and that's for my own children.
War story:
I once witnessed a teenager (about 14 or so) flying into LCY with an older relative (not his parents) on his way to a well-known school for term start. After being an obnoxious brat in the LX C cabin all the way from Zurich, he was first in the passport queue and being questioned by the immigration officer. No documentation other than passports being produced, they very quickly decided to call Newham social services (
of all places... I suppose their "clients" don't usually carry their stuff in a Luis Vuitton) and to detain the boy in the meantime. The relative then started to make some frantic phone calls - I imagine either Mum or Dad would have been on one of the next flights from ZRH to sort things out.
War story:
I once witnessed a teenager (about 14 or so) flying into LCY with an older relative (not his parents) on his way to a well-known school for term start. After being an obnoxious brat in the LX C cabin all the way from Zurich, he was first in the passport queue and being questioned by the immigration officer. No documentation other than passports being produced, they very quickly decided to call Newham social services (
of all places... I suppose their "clients" don't usually carry their stuff in a Luis Vuitton) and to detain the boy in the meantime. The relative then started to make some frantic phone calls - I imagine either Mum or Dad would have been on one of the next flights from ZRH to sort things out.
Apr 28, 2014, 11:58 am
#21
Join Date: Oct 2009
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And yes they do check. I always carry birth certificate, marriage certificate and letter of consent, and that's for my own children.
War story:
I once witnessed a teenager (about 14 or so) flying into LCY with an older relative (not his parents) on his way to a well-known school for term start. After being an obnoxious brat in the LX C cabin all the way from Zurich, he was first in the passport queue and being questioned by the immigration officer. No documentation other than passports being produced, they very quickly decided to call Newham social services ( of all places... I suppose their "clients" don't usually carry their stuff in a Luis Vuitton) and to detain the boy in the meantime. The relative then started to make some frantic phone calls - I imagine either Mum or Dad would have been on one of the next flights from ZRH to sort things out.
War story:
I once witnessed a teenager (about 14 or so) flying into LCY with an older relative (not his parents) on his way to a well-known school for term start. After being an obnoxious brat in the LX C cabin all the way from Zurich, he was first in the passport queue and being questioned by the immigration officer. No documentation other than passports being produced, they very quickly decided to call Newham social services (
of all places... I suppose their "clients" don't usually carry their stuff in a Luis Vuitton) and to detain the boy in the meantime. The relative then started to make some frantic phone calls - I imagine either Mum or Dad would have been on one of the next flights from ZRH to sort things out.Thanks.
May 5, 2014, 2:41 am
#23
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Jun 27, 2014, 2:07 pm
#24
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Taking my minor niece to London - travel documents to show custody?
Update as my niece and I traveled from Paris (didn't ask for anything) to the UK via Eurostar. The female immigration officer asked my niece questions, asked me for my letter (signed by both parents who are divorced and notarized) stating my dates traveling and countries. She asked me to confirm return date and if I had a ticket. She then asked us "why we were traveling" "why I decided to bring her abroad and a bunch if other questions" -I replied that I had BA miles expiring and used those as I didn't want to lose them and that I worked for a city firm. she laughed at the miles and let us proceed. It was more queries than I expected though.
Jun 28, 2014, 7:06 am
#25
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Interesting. My female, late 50s, cousin reports she gets lots of those sorts of questions when she visits me in the UK. I've always thought it odd as I would not have thought she corresponds to any form of high risk profile. Clearly the Immigration officers are looking for signs of stress under questioning but these are strange cases even to start the questioning.
Jun 28, 2014, 2:48 pm
#26
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Just to fill in on my wife's experience which was... nothing much to report.
Straight through border control with no questions asked...
Think we will always err on side of caution going forward and carry birth/marriage certs... and a letter from other parent in case of one of us being alone with our son. Next time we will be together though...
Guess like anything it boils down to the agent on the day...
Jan 14, 2015, 12:35 pm
#27
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