Foster Children/Passports?

[cwor0306]

Hello Rfamily staff,

This summer will be our 5th cruise with you and we hope to be there. However, I know you can not board the ship without a passport so is there anything we can do for our foster children in this situation? We can not get a passport for them because they are legally the state's but we are their legal guardians. The state will not issue a passport due to the possibilty of kidnapping them. We really want them to go with us because they are a part of our family and we are in the process of adopting them both. However, the adoptions will not fe final before the trip. Please let us know if there is anything we can do.

Thanks,
Chris/Dave
Colby, Robert, John, Rachel, Angel, and Antonio

[Crazy aka Cheryl]

Hello Rfamily staff,

This summer will be our 5th cruise with you and we hope to be there. However, I know you can not board the ship without a passport so is there anything we can do for our foster children in this situation? We can not get a passport for them because they are legally the state's but we are their legal guardians. The state will not issue a passport due to the possibilty of kidnapping them. We really want them to go with us because they are a part of our family and we are in the process of adopting them both. However, the adoptions will not fe final before the trip. Please let us know if there is anything we can do.

Thanks,
Chris/Dave
Colby, Robert, John, Rachel, Angel, and Antonio
Where do you live? Which Cruise are you talking abut Mexico or July?
Do not need passports to travel by sea and land yet for Mexico or Canada.
Birth Certificates are Ok accompanied by Noterized letters from Legal Guardian which in foster care is usually Court of Youth services. You should be able to go.
If you give me some details like the state you are in I might have a contact for you.
Cheryl
Each state and agency has differernt rules. you can ask for permission from the Agency or the Family Court judge that placed the children with you.If bio parents are still in picture they might hve to sign off on it.All depends on where you live!

[cwor0306]

Thanks for answering my post. We live in VA and were wanting to go on the July cruise to Canada. However, for some reason I thought you needed passports. On past crusies I have just taken the birth certificate and my letter stating I am the guardian. So this is all I need for this summer's cruise to Canada?

Chris

[Crazy aka Cheryl]

Thanks for answering my post. We live in VA and were wanting to go on the July cruise to Canada. However, for some reason I thought you needed passports. On past crusies I have just taken the birth certificate and my letter stating I am the guardian. So this is all I need for this summer's cruise to Canada?

Chris
You should check with agency who placed children with you. In most states you must have permission to take the children out of state.To be on the safe side I would speak to the caseworker that handles your children.It is my understanding that good old W pushed the Passport ruling back another year to allow entrance to US by ground for Mexico and Canada.There is a post here about it.You can also go to Homeland Security web site and
check the actual regulation.
Hope that helps.Look forward to seeing you on the BOAT.
Cheryl

[amyteriali]

If you have foster children in your care, contact your social worker to find out what can be done to allow the children to accompany you. It will depend on what state you live in. whether you can do it. In California, you would need to have your social worker seek a court order authorizing you to take the children on the trip. If necessary, that court order could include authorization for the social worker to obtain passports for the children. You would then carry both the passports and a copy of the court order with you to avoid any troubles.

[2mamasfor5]

Ditto. We actually are unable to get our foster children before a judge in time for them to go on the cruise. In WA you must have a court order. They are the court's until they are legally adopted. Must cross all ts and dot all Is. The good news is that you can get the state to pay for the passport.

[cebii]

In Texas you also need a court order to travel out of the country, but we've never had trouble getting one. Our case workers ask the judge and we've never had one refused. Even if we don't need passports for this trip, we are getting them.

Our foster kids are teens and we think it will be a good thing to have once they age out. In Texas, the case worker has to turn in the passport application along with the appropriate documentation of identification and that the child is in the state's care, since he/she is the agent of the state. Our caseworkers have been cool with it, especially since we did all the paperwork. The hardest thing was the fee, which had to come from a specific account that had to be approved by a specific person and for some reason it was a big deal. They wouldn't even let us pay for them.