How to Get an Infant Passport

Traveling with a child can always be a challenge especially if you have got an infant. Here’s some easy tips and helpful information about how to get an infant passport.

Everyone traveling abroad needs a passport, even babies. The state department issued 6.7 million passports during 1999.

So apply for your infant’s passport as soon as you begin to make plans for your trip. You can apply for a passport in many federal and state courts, post offices, some libraries, and the number of county and municipal offices right in your hometown.

Apply early and include your date of travel on your application. Routine processing takes about six weeks, if you need the passport earlier, you usually can pay an expedite fee to ensure that it’s completed in a faster amount of time.

Here is what you need to apply.

Keep in mind this changes from town to town. You need to complete the application form, DSP 11, you need an application fee plus the expedite fee if you want to get it faster. You need two professional passport photos, size two inches by two inches. Some passport photo centers are not equipped to take photos of a newborn. Be sure to ask your photo center in advance so they can make special arrangements. You need two forms of identity and proof citizenship. For babies, a certified copy of their birth certificate, a naturalization certificate or a certificate of citizenship, and a person who can batch with them such as a parent with two forms of valid ID.

Your child does not need to appear in person. You as parent or legal guardian can apply for your child. When you receive the passport, it must be signed in the space provided for the signature. A parent must print the child’s name and then sign their own name. then in parenthesis by the parents name, write the word mother or father.

Your newborns passport will be valid for five years, but may be renewed as needed. Many countries do not require a tourist visas if entering from the United States. Some only require a tourist card that maybe obtained on the plane prior to landing. Check with your travel agent or airline when making reservations or visit the state departments website to see if the country you’re visiting requires one and how to apply. Good luck and have a great trip.


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