My 16 year old son is going on a caribbean cruise with my brother and his family – lucky kid, huh? Anyway, among other documents, I need to send a notorised (or notorizied? It looks wrong either way!) copy of permission to take him out of the country. I called the cruise line hoping for suggested wording, but they were no help – “Just print out a letter giving permission and have it notorized!,” they chirped. So, I was going to type it as follows:
I, Tamara Buchli, authorize Troy and Mary James to take my son, Nicholas Buchli, to Mexico.
Does that look OK? Or am I leaving something out? Thanks!
IANAL, but I have taken my underage niece out of the country and the letter we carried went something like this…
I (name of parent) give permission for (name of person in charge) to take my son/daughter, (name of child), to Mexico and (person in charge) is hereby given authorization to make any decisions regarding my childs immediate medical needs and is granted full responsibility for my child during the duration of this trip.
I can’t remember the exact wording but I know that we had to make a special mention of “medical needs” in case of an emergency.
I’d be sure to put the full: Who? What? Where? When? How?
Just in case they decide to kidnap your son next year and flee to Mexico by car…
IANAL, but off the top of my head, if my cat went on a trip, I’d write something more along the lines of:
I, Charmian, as the human and legal guardian of FatAss the Cat, hereby grant permission for Mr. John Smith and Mrs. Annabelle Smith, to accompany FatAss, on a vacation cruise to the following destinations:
For the following dates:
With the following travel agencies and services:
You may also wish to include some kind of permission thing so that if anything happens to FatAss (er,… I mean, your son) that they’d have permssion to stick a band-aid on his finger or get a cast put on his leg.
The other option would be to ask your local high school for one of the permission slips they use for major field trips to see what the languages is like.
For some reason, I have the theme to “The Love Boat” running through my head.
I, Tamara Buchli, give permission for Troy and Mary James to take my son, Nicholas Buchli, to Mexico between the dates of November 18, 2002 and November 22, 2002. Troy and Mary James are hereby given authorization to make any decisions regarding Nicholas Buchli’s immediate medical needs and they are granted full responsibility for Nicholas Buchli during the duration of this trip.
Whew! Much better – I’m glad I came here for advice! Thanks again!
The purpose of those letters is to cover everyone’s ass, of course, and being as specific as possible is the way to go. That way the letter can only be used once, for that particular trip. Sounds like you have all of the bases covered - and it’s very important to mention medical treatment, as they might be reluctant to even treat your son without you present.