If you haven’t travelled between the U.S. and Canada for a couple of years, you may be surprised to learn that both you and your child now require a passport to travel. There are no exceptions (and claiming new mommy brain, or post-partum sobbing at the security gate won’t work here either). 

It may seem strange that your breast-fed infant, who feels more like one of your own body parts, requires their own individual travel identification, complete with photo. The notion can seem daunting to new parents still trying to carve out more than three hours’ sleep each night, let alone filling out the forms, having the photo taken at a location likely nowhere near the passport office, all coordinated around nap time and diaper changes.

While there is nothing to guarantee smooth sailing when it involves any government procedure, here’s how to make it as painless as possible.

Start Early

Passport applications can take four to six weeks to process, so fill out the passport application form, available from the passport office or online, as early as possible. 

If you know you will be celebrating Great Grandma’s 97th birthday stateside in six months, now’s the time to get the forms filled out. If your baby isn’t born yet, no matter. Fill out what you can, ensure you get proper notarization, and don’t expect the ultrasound images to suffice for a photo.

Say Cheese! (Not)

Speaking of photos, you will require a photo from an outfit that takes official passport photos. Luckily, these places are scattered everywhere (just not right next to the passport office, where you need them). Big box grocery stores are great, because you can do it while you’re picking up groceries. But they must be official passport photos, not just “official-looking.”

Don’t worry about getting your kids wrestled into the Children’s Place outfit that Great Grandma sent, because these are not pictures you’ll want to be showing off to the relatives, anyway.

My youngest had such a hard time NOT smiling because of a case of the giggles with her sister, that I had to resort to telling her to think of something really sad. The passport people won’t accept a photo of a smiling kid.

Not even if it means you have to console them with a whole pack of gum afterwards because they were forced to think about the time when they got lost at a wedding and they were “crying and crying and you didn’t find me for a whole hour, Mama!” (For the record, it was five minutes, and I was crying more than she was).

Don’t Send the Nanny

If you need your passports in a hurry and are applying for passports in person, don’t send the nanny to apply. At least one parent has to be there, and I.D. is required for both parents, if both are in the picture. Take every piece of paper you have to prove this child is yours, and anything to prove custody (critical info when you are travelling as well), as well as adoption, divorce or death of the other parent, etc.

I got so confused with all the identification requirements that I brought along the whole file I keep for each child, complete with vaccination records, height and weight records, and first doodles. It can’t hurt, especially if you want this to be your only trip to the passport office. Oh, and bring the child as well.

In a Rush?

If dear Great Grandma didn’t quite make it to her birthday, and you need to leave town for a funeral instead, you can have a rush placed on your passport application—for a fee. Individual passport offices can tell you how fast they can turn these documents around, but since you’ve had the forms filled out since before they were even born, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Photo #1: Randy A38
Photo #2: HazPhoto