Traveling internationally with grandchildren

In the UK and, I believe, in many European countries, a non-parent needs to have a letter from the parents confirming that they have permission to be travelling with the child.
In fact, UK rules are that even if a child is travelling with just one parent, there needs to be a letter from the other parent.

When I've traveled with my daughter without my husband I have 2 witnesses sign that he's given his signed consent and have our passport numbers and dates and addresses of travel etc.

We’ve flown internationally with our then minor grandchildren on more than one occasion. Each time we took a signed, notarized letter from their parents giving us permission to travel outside of the US. We took a separate signed, notorized letter saying we could obtain medical care for them. There were 2 granddaughters and one set of married parents and we took 1 letter for immigration and 1 letter for medical. I’ll see if I can find a link online for creating these form letters. Our son took care of this for us the 2 times we’ve needed this documentation.

One example: https://www.sampletemplates.com/sample-forms/child-travel-consent-form.html

Thanks so much for the quick replies. Very helpful. I have sent the information on to my son.

Some airlines offer guidance on this topic (try searching for "XYZ airline child travel with guardian" - here's the one for Delta airlines https://www.delta.com/us/en/children-infant-travel/country-specific-regulations). The US State Department also covers this topic. The Google says you need documents translated to Spanish.

I have no experience with Mexico however when taking my nieces to the US from the UK I needed a notarised letter confirming that I had their parent's permission to take them to the US. No-one actually asked to see it when we reached immigration but the requirement is there and I'd rather have it and not need it.

Obviously the US isn't unique in this requirement so I would safely assume that the majority of countries have a similar requirement.

Hi Katiecem, as you know I took my grandkids to Paris and London early in 2025 and I brought along a document that I had both parents sign. If you want to PM me, I would be happy to send you a copy of it. Obviously I will redact my personal information but it's in Google Docs and you can change it around to suit your needs. I'm a retired attorney so I drafted it myself but you're welcome to use it.

That will be a wonderful trip for your granddaughter, I'm sure!

ETA: I went ahead and PM'd you and am asking you to email me as I think that will be easier. Anyway check your PM's and get back with me.

For what it's worth I never had to show it to anyone but I'd rather have it with me and not need it than not have it and need it. 😊

We’ve flown internationally with our then minor grandchildren on more than one occasion. Each time we took a signed, notarized letter from their parents giving us permission to travel outside of the US. We took a separate signed, notorized letter saying we could obtain medical care for them.

Mona, just an FYI, you do not need two separate documents with permission to travel and authority for medical care. Both permissions can go in the same doc. It's okay if you do it that way but I think it's simpler and probably a little bit more secure to put everything in one document.

When our granddaughter was 8 and traveling to the UK with us when we approached the immigration officer he started to ask her questions, the first one being, do you know these people. I started fishing for the papers I’d brought with me. Before I’d gotten them out she and the officer were remarking about our visit doing a house exchange with a bedroom for her that had stuffies in her bedroom. He just waved us on after stamping passports. She’s quite an enthusiastic traveler.

Mona,

We were going through immigration at the Canada border once when our daughter was about 13. They stuck their head in the car and ask her "who are these people?" She answered in typical surly teenage fashion, "They're my parents, duh!" They didn't ask us for any proof either.

Mardee,

Thanks, Emailed you.