Has anyone traveled to Canadia from the US with an infant lately? My wife and I have passports (my wife also has an expired Canadian passport!) but we won’t be able to get our little Olive a passport in time for the trip. Will a regular birth certificate suffice?
(I know the answer is somewhere out there on the internets, but they change the rules so often that I would rather hear it from someone who crossed the border recently).
Thanks!
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-securite/admiss-eng.html
http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatravelplanner/qt/kids_passport.htm
You don’t even need a passport yourself to drive in here, eh? Just to get back into the USA. Seriously, the only issue is to be sure your passports BOTH match what’s on the child’s birth certificate. (And note the suggestion to all be in the same vehicle.) Otherwise, you’ll get hassles both ways.
Whereas this suggests you need a secure ID for your child to get back into the USA - http://gomontreal.about.com/od/montrealtravelplanner/a/cdnborder09.htm
http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatravelplanner/qt/drive_border.htm
This says that you can use a birth certificate to re-enter the USA but it has to be an official one from Vital Statistics, not a hospital form (sorry, Obama): https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/268/~/traveling-with-children---child-traveling-with-one-parent-or-someone-who-is-not
Read further down for the “even with both parents, any child under 16”
We’ve done it recently. Passports for my wife and I, birth certificates for the babbies.
Did you need “certified” birth certificates, “vital check” birth certs or were the regular ones good enough?
You’ll need the certified ones. “Vital Check” ones are the “hospital” ones, which for many official, legal reasons aren’t valid. You’ll need one from the good ole’ government.
I’m interested to know what happens if you don’t have a birth cert (or one of the vital check ones). Do they confiscate the kid?
Yea, have the birth certificate. I went through the Canadian border with a child before the passport crackdown. I got pulled over and they were trying to wake the kid up to ask him if I was his father.
Apparently, the problem is custody battles and the immigration officials are on to it. If you and the mother are traveling together with legitimate passports and you have the kid’s birth certificate you will probably be OK. Just understand why the border patrol is checking. They are doing their job.
They can turn you back. They don’t want to take on the headache.
Canadia?
It’s a cold, wet place with white, cottony yeast growths.
… but that’s not important right now.
I should have added that it really is the best of all possible countries/yeast growths.
The people there cultivate their own gardens.
So to be clear, the birth certificate that I received in the mail from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene with the fancy colors and barcodes will not fly with the border people? Seriously?!
Yep. You United States of Amechees have some crazy, fucked up border requirements.
You should probably call the NYC Dept. of Health and ask if what you received from them is their certified form. Sounds like it is (but I’m not the one who is risking having to leave my baby at a Canadiaian orphanage if I’m wrong). What some people are describing as not good enough is a form that you get directly from the hospital, presumably when you’re discharged, that has no government certification.