Question:
I have a question - My son, US citizen,
has a valid passport with his picture
taken at the age of 8 months. Now
he is 3 yrs old. His looks have
changed a little bit and may invite
questions. We plan to gravel to
Asian countries including Nepal
and India. Do you recommend we get
another passport, even if current
passport is valid for another 2
years? Browsing through state dept
website does not talk about situation
like that and there is no official
person who will answer this question
because you can not talk to anyone.
Post office people do not have the
information either. I am esp interested
in hearing about real experience
from people.
Answer:
Contact the state department for
an authoritative answer. You can
check their web site, which is at
http://travel.state.gov/ to see
if any info there is helpful. Our
kid has a passport photo taken when
he was two, now he's almost seven.
No problems crossing European borders.
He also had no problems when he
was listed in Dad's passport with
*no* photo (not recommended).
I think that
other countries should be okay with
it as long as it is considered a
valid passport by the USofA. If
both parents are travelling, should
be no problems IMHO. Of course this
is just an opinion- that and three
bucks will get you a nice cappuccino.
why would it invite questions? They
look at the date and notice that
2 years have passed and voila the
kid is two years older. US passports
are only good for 5 years at a time
for kids for this reason. I wouldn't
bother On the other hand, if you
have the time now before going on
the trip, why not just spend the
few dollars necessary to renew the
passport?
The cost isn't
that high and the peace of mind
might be worth it. I don't have
a reference to a specific page about
this sort of 's not really relevant
here.) The Canadian immigration
officer who screened us upon our
arrival at the airport in Toronto
gave us a hard time because our
daughter (3 years old at the time)
had a US passport with a photo taken
when she was only a few months old.
The immigration official seemed
concerned that there was no real
way to prove that the girl with
us really was our daughter (as opposed
to some random kid involved in an
international child abduction scheme).
The Canadian
official finally let us in, but
she very strongly recommended that
we get our daughter a new passport
ASAP so she would have a current
photo in her travel document. When
I went to the US consulate in Toronto
to apply for a new passport for
our daughter, they made me write
a statement (on a separate sheet
of paper) explaining why I wanted
to get her a new passport when her
current passport wasn't due to expire
for another year and a half. I recounted
the aforementioned incident at the
Toronto airport and wrote that I
was concerned about the same sort
of thing happening again.
They accepted
the passport application (along
with the supple- mentary statement)
and issued a new passport for our
daughter without any further hassle.
So I would imagine that
(1) probably
ought to get a new passport for
his son with an up-to-date photo,
and
(2) probably
shouldn't have too much trouble
doing this if he includes, along
with the passport application, a
signed statement on a separate sheet
expressing his concern that his
son no longer looks like the baby
picture in his current passport,
and that he wants to avert the possibility
of problems during the upcoming
trip.
I really
can't imagine either that US passport
officials would object to issuing
a new passport under such circumstances,
or that post office officials would
refuse to accept a passport application
of this type.
