How is a child's passport different?
Parents planning a first international family trip often assume a child's passport works much like their own. It does not. A passport for a minor follows a distinct set of rules, and knowing them in advance saves a frustrating trip to an acceptance facility with the wrong paperwork.
The headline differences are these. A child's passport — for applicants under 16 — is valid for five years, not the ten years an adult passport carries. There is no renewing a child's passport by mail the way many adults can; each new passport for a minor is an in-person application. And the application requires more than the child: it involves the parents, with rules about consent that are central enough to deserve their own section below.
None of this is difficult. It is simply different, and the differences are exactly the things that catch unprepared parents off guard. A first family trip abroad has enough moving parts; the child's passport should not be a surprise among them. Treat it as its own task, with its own checklist, started early.
The two-parent rule, and why it exists
The rule that surprises parents most often is the consent requirement. For a child under 16, U.S. passport rules generally require that both parents or guardians consent to the passport being issued.
In the most straightforward case, that means both parents appear in person together with the child at the acceptance facility, with the child present. The application also asks for evidence of the child's U.S. citizenship and of the parental relationship — documents such as the child's certified birth certificate, which typically also shows who the parents are — along with the parents' own identification.
When both parents cannot appear together, there are established alternatives — a notarized statement of consent from the absent parent, and specific procedures for sole-custody situations or when one parent cannot be located. These paths exist and are well defined, but they require the correct documentation prepared in advance, so a parent in that situation should look up the current requirements early rather than discovering them at the counter.
The reason for all of this is straightforward: the consent rule is a child-safety protection, designed to ensure both parents are aware that a minor is being issued a travel document. It is worth a little extra paperwork.
Planning around the five-year clock
The five-year validity is the other thing to plan around, because it has a quiet consequence: children's passports fall out of sync with their parents'.
An adult renews every ten years; a child every five. In a family that travels, that means a child's passport will expire — and need an entirely new in-person application — twice as often as each parent's. The passport that comfortably covered last year's trip may not cover next year's, and because there is no quick mail renewal, each replacement takes real lead time.
Two habits keep this manageable. First, put every passport in the household on one list with its expiration date, and check that list before booking any international trip — children's passports especially, because they are the ones that lapse unnoticed. Second, apply the six-month rule to the children too: most destinations want validity well beyond the entry date, and a child's shorter five-year passport reaches that six-month window sooner than you would expect.
A first trip abroad with your children is a wonderful thing, and the passport is just the gate in front of it. Start the child's application early, gather the citizenship and consent documents before you go, and build in time for the in-person step. If the requirements — especially around consent — leave you unsure, call APVI at (800) 766-0452. We have helped families prepare children's passports since 2003, and we will make sure you arrive at the counter with exactly what a minor's application needs.