Taking someone else's children abroad?

wolfwanderer

My children have asked if they can take their two friends on holiday with us. We are travelling by ferry to France.

I am concerned about customs - do we need to provide some evidence from their parents that gives us permission to take them out of the country?

Any advice gratefully received.

richardw

Perhaps first consider if you and your other half, actually want them on holiday, what if they were disruptive or became ill, it could ruin your holiday, do you want to risk that.

franklally

wolfwanderer wrote: »

My children have asked if they can take their two friends on holiday with us. We are travelling by ferry to France.

I am concerned about customs - do we need to provide some evidence from their parents that gives us permission to take them out of the country?

Any advice gratefully received.

I've taken children's friends to Spain twice and have been questioned on the way back each time - they tell me I should have had a notarised letter from a solicitor to allow us to travel abroad with non-related children.

Leaving Orlando with my 9 year old nephew last year I (and he) were also given the third degree - although the BA worker was on a bit of a power trip with us I think he did have a point with the fact that if any life-threatening situation were to take place without written authorisation that you are the guardian for the trip you would be in a very sticky situation so far from home.

For this reason I am very interested to see what other people think on this matter.

zenmaster

We have taken friends on holiday for a number of years without any problems.

I have alway found it a blessing as it keeps the kids occupied, and the friends have been no trouble at all. Quite delightful in fact.

The last post has got me a bit worried now though, as we are off to Spain tomorrow under similar circumstances. Maybe they are a bit hotter on the subject than other countries?

We will find out soon enough, I suppose.

If you do decide to take the friends I will (once again) recommend http://www.travel-insurance.net for travel insurance as they are quite reasonably priced and include friends in their family policy.

KILL_BILL

check with the airline beforehand and they should be able to give you further information especialy with the rule of pasports etc

BernadetteN

It is advisable to have :

- letter from parents with their contact details, who is going on the holiday, how you are connected and holiday details (notarised is even better)
- copies of parents passports attached and even full length birth certificates if no names are shared between parents and child
- copies of any relevant papers when it comes to custody of the child
- anything else you can think of that could be relevant
- red book for the child, any other medical notes (nothing to do with immigration procedures, just thinking of fact it's not your child and you might find this stuff useful if you need medical help)
I have 13 years of experience of this so I am not blagging. Have a nice holiday.

monkeyspanner

We have done this twice:
Once to turkey with my partners neice.
The other to Italy with my daughters friend.
Both with different surnames, but other than the usual questions they ask kids these days to verify they match their passports it was not queried.

Both times we took consent letters from their parents refering to us by name and detailing our passport numbers.

I take Richardw's point about illness but this could equally be a problem with your own kids if you are a man and not married to your partner/childs mother. Many people do not realise that this officially excludes the man from making decisions about the child e.g. medical, schooling etc. in the UK unless both parents have signed a parental responsibility agreement and had it notarised. So I could equally have problems taking decisions about my own daughters welfare both travelling and at home. In practice of course this would not become a problem unless the functionaries of our nanny state wished to get involved e.g. Social Services

yellowboy

Legally, I suspect, you need ideally to be in a a position where you can be recognized as being the 'parent' of the child in the absence of its actual parents eg you might have to authorize medical treatment; and, ideally, you could produce documentation which would support your status as being in 'loco parentis'.

Beyond the obvious like passports, insurance, this is where I would welcome suggestions.

Bob_the_Saver

Wouldn't take mine let alone anyone elses.