Travel ID Question for my Niece

[Kanga1]

My 12 year-old niece will be flying down to Disney with her uncle and her grandmother. She has a different last name. What kind of documentation (if any) is needed for her to fly with them? Since she's a minor, I doubt she has a photo ID of any kind. Suggestions?

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

They should carry a copy of her birth certificate, a copy of any insurance card she might have, a letter from her parents allowing the uncle and grandmother to travel with her and a letter from the parents allowing the uncle and grandmother to authorize any needed medical treatment for the minor child. Contact numbers for the parents should be included in the letters. If the neice has a school ID (my 12 yo does) she should bring that as well, it is not a legal ID but could be useful to prove she is the child in the letters.


btw: these suggestions are based on my parents traveling with my children, not any official information. They were required to have the letter to transport the boys into Canada, they would have been turned back at the border without it (agent at border told them that.)

 

[dudspizza]

They should carry a copy of her birth certificate, a copy of any insurance card she might have, a letter from her parents allowing the uncle and grandmother to travel with her and a letter from the parents allowing the uncle and grandmother to authorize any needed medical treatment for the minor child. Contact numbers for the parents should be included in the letters. If the neice has a school ID (my 12 yo does) she should bring that as well, it is not a legal ID but could be useful to prove she is the child in the letters.


btw: these suggestions are based on my parents traveling with my children, not any official information. They were required to have the letter to transport the boys into Canada, they would have been turned back at the border without it (agent at border told them that.)

I don't believe they will need anything, as long as they are staying in the states. If they are going out of the US, all of that stuff is needed.

My opinion is that they should bring all of that just in case.

Duds

 

[MrsToad]

We've traveled a couple of times with our niece and nephew within the US when they were between 8 and 12 years old. My sister took the kids to the local motor vehicle department with their birth certificates and got them official state non-drivers ID cards. They were about $10 each. That way, we had a valid picture ID with us if we ever needed to prove identity without having to carrying their notarized birth certificates.

As the earlier poster suggested, we created "authorization to travel" and "authorization for medical treatment" letters and had them notarized for free at my sister's local bank. We used Quicken's Willmaker Plus software to prepare the letters as they prompt you for all the information the forms should contain.

Though these steps may not technically be necessary, they are inexpensive and certainly added to our level of comfort in traveling with children who were not our own.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

Definitely send the authorization for medical treatment, even if you are told they don't need anything else. My sister is 8 years older than me, and when I was 10 and she was 18, she was babysitting and I managed to get a HUGE sliver of wood from the floor in our house embedded in my foot. We went to the er, and even though I was in excruciating pain, they would not do anything without my parents consent.

She now works in a pediatric er and they cannot do anything, unless it is lifesaving for a minor without consent. While that seems ok, in a life or death situation, they would act......think about the fact that if she broke her ankle and was screaming in pain.....because it is not life threatening, they cannot do anything until they reach you.

My kids do things with their noncustodial father, his parents, and my family. Anytime it is for more than a couple of hours, I sign papers saying they can authorize treatment in my absence. Just gives me piece of mind knowing the kids can at least have pain meds til the hospital reaches me.