Travel Documents for Children

[JNorris]

Hi all,

We are on the Sept 10 Western Magic cruise with our DD7. She has a passport that was issued when she was 2, and which expired in June. At this point, I don't think I have time to get a new one for her, because I am required to have a long-form birth certificate (with both parents' info on it) from the state that will take 4-6 weeks to get. I would also have to have my husband there to apply at the same time, and he works out of state right now. I have her short-form birth certificate, which is just a card that the state issues. It has a seal on it but it is not a raised seal. If I am reading Disney's web site correctly, this should be OK, right?

Should I take along her expired passport, just in case I need it?

Judy

 

[lindakmonty]

I only had to have the birth certificate with the raised seal and that was it. I went to the health dept. in the county he was born and got one right then for about $8 if you aren't close to that location you can order it online but cost like $20-$30? and will take a week or two. hope this helps. or you can call disney and ask them :1.800.511.1333

after Dec 31'st all will require the passport

 

[whetstone]

We used BC's for all 3 of us (me, wife, and son) on the July 14th cruise. My wife's and mine were both the plastic small card BC one with a rasied seal, one without. My sons was the regular paper BC. And we had no problems at all. They only ask that he BCs be state issued (which it sounds like hers is) and not the hospital issued one.

 

[lbgraves]

You will be fine in September. The changes wont go into place until 12/31/05 if they do at all. My BC doesn't have a raised seal either but it does have watermarks & says official document on it. I haven't had problems with it on either DCL cruise.

 

[lbgraves]

We used BC's for all 3 of us (me, wife, and son) on the July 14th cruise. My wife's and mine were both the plastic small card BC one with a rasied seal, one without. My sons was the regular paper BC. And we had no problems at all. They only ask that he BCs be state issued (which it sounds like hers is) and not the hospital issued one.

I wish that I had heard from someone else who has one of the cards before our first cruise. I didn't want to take any chances so I ordered a paper copy.

 

[outahere]

You shouldn't have any problems, but you could always take the BC and the expired passport as "added insurance".

 

[only1mouse]

"At this point, I don't think I have time to get a new one for her, because I am required to have a long-form birth certificate (with both parents' info on it) from the state that will take 4-6 weeks to get. I would also have to have my husband there to apply at the same time, and he works out of state right now. I have her short-form birth certificate, which is just a card that the state issues. It has a seal on it but it is not a raised seal. If I am reading Disney's web site correctly, this should be OK, right? "


We just received our passports in the mail today - I have the card, my son has the paper copy - both went through just fine. Also, because I can't ever get my sons father away from his work, I was able to have him get a notarized document that it was ok for our son to obtain a passport and that worked well and we didn't have any issues at all.

 

[Eeyorefan12]

Hi all,

We are on the Sept 10 Western Magic cruise with our DD7. She has a passport that was issued when she was 2, and which expired in June. At this point, I don't think I have time to get a new one for her, because I am required to have a long-form birth certificate (with both parents' info on it) from the state that will take 4-6 weeks to get. I would also have to have my husband there to apply at the same time, and he works out of state right now. I have her short-form birth certificate, which is just a card that the state issues. It has a seal on it but it is not a raised seal. If I am reading Disney's web site correctly, this should be OK, right?

Should I take along her expired passport, just in case I need it?

Judy

Just wanted to mention that your DH doesn't have to be there for a renewal (or an original issuance) of a passport. There is a form you can download on the gov website which your DH can sign and have notarized so you can go alone. My DH travels a lot, too, and we went this route. He has a notary in his office so all he really had to do was walk down the hall.

OTOH, you're probably okay with that BC. I like the other poster's suggestion that you bring the expired passport, just in case. It's not so much for Disney...I'd look at it as added "insurance" outside the country. In this day and age, you just never know what's going to happen. (Although I suppose that's always been true, we're just more aware of it?)

CB

 

[tvguy]

My advice is check with Disney. They run 8,000 people a week through the ships and will have encountered every possible problem.

Having said that, understand that in strictly legal terms, the only type of birth certificate that has ever been legal for Passports or government benefits is the long form with either a raised seal, or the newer long forms that many states now use that are on official paper with raised ink or a watermark.

Have thousands of people been able to use the short forms for Passports and government benefits, yes, the people who allowed them to do that just didn't know the law, or were too lazy to enforce it. As we learned from September 11-th, the laws only work if they are enforced.

 

[JNorris]

Thanks to all of you that responded. I've gone ahead and ordered a long form birth certificate through VitalChek, I should have it in 2 weeks. When I get it, I'll make the decision whether to go ahead and apply for an expedited passport. If I don't, I'll just take both birth certificates, and her expired passport for extra measure.

Eeyorefan12: Thanks for the info. I have found the form for DH to sign and have notarized. I'll go ahead and do that in case I do decide to apply for the passport.

Judy