Emergency Child Passport - Any Other Advice?

Voyager2002

zagfles wrote: »

Which airline is it? Most airlines will let a 12 year old travel unaccompanied, so would this be a possibility? Would someone else be able to look after him/take him to the airport etc? Would he be confident doing this? Most airlines offer a service to look after unaccompanied children if you need this.

The airline is Emirates. Actually, no airline would allow a child this young to fly unaccompanied, but many (including Emirates) offer a child-minding service for an additional fee.

zagfles

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The airline is Emirates. Actually, no airline would allow a child this young to fly unaccompanied, but many (including Emirates) offer a child-minding service for an additional fee.

Rubbish. Most airlines would take a 12 year old unaccompanied, including Emirates. They don't even have to have the Unaccompanied Minors service, it's optional for 12-15 year olds.

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/plan_book/essential_information/unaccompanied_minors.aspx

The same applies to most other scheduled airlines, eg:

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/special-assistance/children-travelling-alone

http://www.thaiairways.com.au/thai_faqs.asp

peachyprice

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The airline is Emirates. Actually, no airline would allow a child this young to fly unaccompanied, but many (including Emirates) offer a child-minding service for an additional fee.

12 is the age most airlines allow children to travel unaccompanied, before that they must have a chaperone, but not once they are 12.

OP, I would be wary taking the advice of Emirates here in the UK. There is no 6 month validity requirement to enter Dubai (assuming you're connecting there) so yes, they may well let him board here, but he may not then be allowed to board the connecting flight from DXB to BKK/HKT.

shebanjoed

All helpful. I can see the point regarding the Emirates advice in writing to get him to Thailand. She has printed a copy from the web saying UK nationals must hold passports valid for period of stay however I pointed out it also states the passport should have 6 months validity on it.

She's decided against renewing the passport and having to wait out the 7 days - due to there being no holiday time left when he would arrive.

She received an email from Thai Immigration this morning saying "it is best to renew the passport" so she is clinging on to "it is best" rather than reading "no, he won't get in".

InsideInsurance

shebanjoed wrote: »

All helpful. I can see the point regarding the Emirates advice in writing to get him to Thailand. She has printed a copy from the web saying UK nationals must hold passports valid for period of stay however I pointed out it also states the passport should have 6 months validity on it.

She's decided against renewing the passport and having to wait out the 7 days - due to there being no holiday time left when he would arrive.

She received an email from Thai Immigration this morning saying "it is best to renew the passport" so she is clinging on to "it is best" rather than reading "no, he won't get in".

If UK immigration is anything to go by its totally down to the luck of the person you get to see. The Mrs' right to come into the UK on her non-british passport effectively ended the day she became British (which we didnt realise at the time) but there wasnt time to get her a british passport before we were travelling.

Called head of immigration at the airport here who said (a) he'd never heard that her type was cancelled by becoming british (b) he didnt think his system would even show that (c) she's british so of cause she should be allowed in and said he'd note it on the system and for her to bring her naturalisation certificate just in case. In the end they didnt even blink when they looked at her non-british passport and its stamp

zagfles

Many years ago I entered Thailand with a passport with 5 months validity remaining. I was told about the rule but was allowed to board - they said the Thais weren't strict about it, had it been Indonesia it would have been a different story...

But that was several years ago and I had 5 months left not 1...

zerog

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If UK immigration is anything to go by its totally down to the luck of the person you get to see. The Mrs' right to come into the UK on her non-british passport effectively ended the day she became British (which we didnt realise at the time) but there wasnt time to get her a british passport before we were travelling.

Called head of immigration at the airport here who said (a) he'd never heard that her type was cancelled by becoming british (b) he didnt think his system would even show that (c) she's british so of cause she should be allowed in and said he'd note it on the system and for her to bring her naturalisation certificate just in case. In the end they didnt even blink when they looked at her non-british passport and its stamp

The UK only requires documentation to be suitable for the purpose of travel.

CoEs are cancelled by getting a British passport, not becoming British; ILE/ILR + foreign passport can still be used after becoming British.

zerog

peachyprice wrote: »

OP, I would be wary taking the advice of Emirates here in the UK. There is no 6 month validity requirement to enter Dubai (assuming you're connecting there) so yes, they may well let him board here, but he may not then be allowed to board the connecting flight from DXB to BKK/HKT.

Transit passengers are not required to enter the UAE

Boarding should be denied on the first segment if requirements are not sufficient to enter the final destination

peachyprice

zerog wrote: »

Boarding should be denied on the first segment if requirements are not sufficient to enter the final destination

Being the operative word.

InsideInsurance

zerog wrote: »

The UK only requires documentation to be suitable for the purpose of travel.

CoEs are cancelled by getting a British passport, not becoming British; ILE/ILR + foreign passport can still be used after becoming British.

Which a naturalisation certificate isnt, she'd have needed a visa to enter into the UK as she had a non-machine readable passport.

Her passport stamp was retained rights PR as a non-EU citizen and not ILR or CoE which we were informed is lost under EU law as soon as you become a national of the host country