It’s spring break and you are taking your children to Mexico to visit the Aztec Ruins in Mexico City. Dad is at work in his office, as usual. You and the kids wait an hour to get through customs at the airport only to be told you can’t enter Mexico. You didn’t bring the necessary documents.

What should have you brought with you:
• Passport for yourself. If no passport, then a current driver’s license and certified copy of your birth certificate.
• Passports for your kids if they have them. If not, then state-issued identification cards or driver’s licenses. Additionally, certified copies of their birth certificates to show nationality.
• A letter written by your husband telling border control that you have his permission to take the children out of the county without him. This letter must be notarized.

These documents will be necessary to get back into the US as well.

These rules apply to grandparents and friends of children, too. Grandparents would have to get a notarized letter signed by both parents. If you take someone else’s child along with your children, you just get a notarized letter signed by both of the child’s parents. If the parents are divorced, the non-accompanying legal parent or guardian must sign.

For example: Underage daughter lives with Mom who has divorced the child’s father. mom and daughter want to go to Mexico with Mom’s new husband. The original father did not sign away parental rights to the new husband nor did the new husband legally adopt the child. Mom’s ex-husband would have to provide a notarized letter of permission for his daughter to leave the US without him.

You can get a certified copy of your child’s birth certificate by calling the courthouse of your birth county. They will direct you to the proper office. The courthouse fee is usually just twenty dollars or so.

To find a mobile notary in you area, do an internet search with the words “mobile notary services” and the names of your city and state.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Matt Miller, owner of Matt Miller Mobile Notary
(415) 448-7343 or matt@mmmobilenotary.net
Or visit www.mmmobilenotary.net