You might be a knowledgeable person when it comes to awareness regarding attaining a passport. But when it comes to securing a passport for your child, there are certain regulations awareness regarding which might prove to be vital especially for the parents of the new born babies or for that matter the parents who are travelling for the first time with their children. This has roots to the fact that the process of obtaining a passport for a minor, i.e. a person below the age of 16 is very much different from getting a passport as an adult. A minor needs a legal guardian in person to even apply for a passport. Then their passport lasts for only 5 years whereas the passport of an adult lasts for 10 long years. The process we would be discussing for the later part of this discourse will help you gain knowledge regarding how to get a passport for a minor. The same would apply for an expired passport as well because the passports of minor cannot be renewed as per regulations.
- Documentation is important: – Make sure that your documents are taken care of in a proper manner in order to avoid hazards. Primarily the documents regarding the citizenship of the child needs to be submitted followed by the documents which are the proof of the legal guardianship. Remember that even the parents need to show their own copies of identification to complete the process.
- Passport photo: – Your kid’s passport photo is another essential aspect which needs to be kept in mind. There are two options in this regard. Either you can do it by yourself and submit it in person. Remember that all the specifications needs to be perfect. Like the needs to be printed in a 2 inch by 2 inch film. The other option is an easier one. All you need to do is to type passport photo followed by your zip code in Google to take your photo and print in one go.
- Decide upon who will accompany your child to the passport office: – It is always safe when both parents accompany the kid to the passport office. But in case either of the two has any urgent work, any one has to go definitely. If both cannot accompany the child, they obviously need to fill in the consent form and provide the documents regarding the evidence of custody.
- Fill up the application form: – Last but not the least, the application needs to be filled up in proper manner. You will get a lot of agencies offering help in this issue. But the safest thing to do in this case is to fill up the form yourself and then accompany you’re your child to the passport office yourself in order to get things less critical and done by your own hand. If you have any issues regarding time, you can obviously opt for the online agencies which are safe, secure as well as fast.
As such, obtaining a passport for your child is not as critical as you might have thought earlier. If you know the rules and regulations properly, there are not many processes as easy as this. But make sure that you have done the right things in the right time.