Why could I not get my son his passport today?

It’s up to the individual clerk, as far as I know.
Maybe AstroChuck would have some insight on this, as he works in the Postal Service.

link

I don’t know why, but it’s says both parents/guardians.

I’d image the rule is in place to prevent one parent from taking the child and avoiding custody agreements by leaving the country.

UGH – so sorry you’re caught in this. My family is heading to Mexico on Sunday for a holiday cruise and my brother and his ex-wife share custody. He never could get the kids a passport because he couldn’t get his ex-wife to cooperate. There is a document that she could’ve signed and he could’ve brought in with him in lieu of her being present. Good luck – hope this helps.

Thanks baseballnut. I’ll keep that one in mind. I don’t think his dad will be an issue though.

That’s good – much easier. My brother’s kids are young enough to go with a state-issued ID card, at least this year.

I was thinking about getting a passport for my son and I, so since this was the first time either of us would ever have one, I did some research first. I found that due to the increase of child kidnapping and child trafficking in other parts of the world, it is now mandatory that both parents consent to the passport. You can also find this info on government websites.

Everyone above is correct; they are worried (especially at young ages) that one parent is going to take the child abroad and just never come back without the consent of the other parent. My ex boyfriend actually had this problem when trying to go to Mexico; his father was not just not present, he was deceased, and his mother had to secure his birth certificate and the record of his father’s death in order for him to be able to leave the country. It’s all a big, big mess.

My sister and I had the same problem when I was one and she was three. My mom was taking us to Canada to meet our father there. Getting the passports wasn’t an issue, but getting across the border was. They took my sister to ask her questions about, basically, why mommy was stealing her out of the country. She, um, more or less told them off. (She said something about how mad daddy was going to be if we were late because he only had certain times for breaks and blah blah blah and that their questions were really annoying her.)

ha way to go little sister. Well I have papers saying I have main custodial rights and whatnot. I choose where my son lives whether or not his dad likes it. Does that count for anything? I guess it’s not an issue though, his dad already agreed to go with me to get the passport. Just a question.

I am assuming you are American. I am Australian and you don’t have to have both parents present to get a passport, either in Australia or abroad (even though I have a different problem obtaining one for my daughter, which is what led me to this site in the first place).

However, as far as I know, different countries have different rules, and there are sometimes even different rules depending on where you get it from. The reason is generally to prevent a parent who has joint custody (ie what is normally the case) of unilaterally removing a child from the country of domicile. In this case they want to prevent you from leaving the country without the father knowing. At least if he were informed about the passport, then he’d suspect something was wrong.

The above does not apply in cases where only one parent has custody. But you must prove that the other one doesn’t (ie court decision etc) otherwise the office assumes it’s a case of joint custody.

From what I understand you have joint custody but you have “parental responsibility”, which in plain English is like you said, “main custodial rights and whatnot”. But this “whatnot” still means you have to inform the father if you move more than a certain distance (usually something like 20miles) and that you cannot leave the country without his consent.

oh, one more word from my legalese dictionary: “parental abduction”. It is what we’re talking about here. It’s called kidnapping if you have no custody rights (ie a child that is either not your own, not officially recognised as your own, or that you have lost the custody rights to)