What documents do children need?

[MJwritestuff]

Hello all,
Since everyone is so helpful and knowledgable, I figured I'd ask a stupid question: what documents do children need for traveling on the Eastern trip? From what I understand, adults need either a passport or a certified birth certificate and a photo id.
That's easy, but if my kids need a passport, I just called and found out that it costs $70 per (I have three kids!) and takes 6 - 8 weeks to process. I suppose a certified birth certificate would be much easier. Where does one get a certified birth certificate?

BTW, we're traveling on the 11/1 Eastern, if it makes a difference.
Thanks for your help!
-MJ

 

[noseybuddy]

When I went out of the country I used my childrens original birth certificate. That was all I needed for them.

 

[vgaskin]

They say as long as it isn't the one with the footprints(although I have heard of people using them too) and it has a seal, that is the Birth Certificate you need. That is all we needed. We did take an State ID card for my 15 year old that we got from the DMV, it is not a driver's license but official state id. She didn't have to have it but we also went to WDW so I got traveler's checks with her name on them too so if she needed spending money, she could use those and not cash so she needed id for that.

Since I am divorced from my oldest's father, my TA told me I needed to get a letter notarized from her father stating that I could take her out of the country, even though I had custody. I was told when we got there that was not needed. And when we got our docs, there is a form for that but that is mostly if you are taking a child that is not yours or you don't have custody of.

 

[Michelle]

MJ, the certified birth certificate is all you need for children under age 18. You should be able to get one through the county or state where you child was born. You can also order them through:

VitalChek

Good luck!