International family trip pack: three documents, one set of answers

Who this pack is for, and what each document does

It is for a trip where a child travels from the United States to another country with an adult who is not a parent, such as a grandparent, an aunt or a chaperone. If a parent goes along, you probably need less than this.

The travel authorization is the one with the strongest backing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection strongly recommends that a child traveling with an adult who is not a parent carry a letter authorizing the trip, with the custody adults’ names and contact details, and it highly advises notarizing it, although no regulation requires that. ^[1] USA.gov says that for a child traveling with a guardian or alone, both parents should sign, and it advises asking the destination’s embassy or consulate for its own requirements. ^[2]

The medical authorization is for the moments between an emergency and a routine appointment. The CDC advises families to plan where they will get health care at the destination, to buy travel insurance and to pack a travel health kit. ^[3] The authorization lets the parents name who may consent to care, choose emergency care only or routine care as well, and put allergies, medicines and insurance on a signed page. Who may legally consent when no parent is present depends on the country, and we read no foreign rule, so we cannot say what any clinic abroad will accept.

The contact sheet is a reference page that nobody signs. It puts the contacts at home, the adult traveling with the child, where the family stays, the child’s allergies and medicines and the insurance on one page that can be handed to a hotel, a school group leader or a clinic. CBP’s guidance lists the custody adults’ contact details among what a travel letter should give, and the sheet keeps them in one place. ^[1] It is not a consent letter and it authorizes nothing.

No source we read says which country will ask for which paper, and none establishes that any airline, border officer or clinic accepts these documents. Countries set their own entry and exit rules for children. ^[2] Check with the destination’s embassy and your airline, and use this pack as the parents’ side of the paperwork.

What you get

• Document 1: child travel authorization for any destination, signed by one or both parents, naming the adult who travels with the child
• Document 2: medical authorization for this trip only, with the scope you choose (emergency, or emergency and routine) and a plain statement of what it does not cover
• Document 3: a one-page travel contact sheet (nobody signs it) with the contacts at home, the traveling adult, where the family stays, allergies, medicines and insurance
• One shared set of questions: parents, the traveling adult, the children and the trip are entered once and used in all three
• Extra questions only where they are needed: health details for the medical document and the contact sheet, and where the family stays for the contact sheet
• Three separate PDFs, so the two signed documents can be notarized and carried on their own and the sheet kept handy
• English and Spanish side by side on every page, on U.S. Letter paper
• The same PDFs you would get buying each document alone, at one price

How it works

1. Answer the questions below once. Pick domestic or international for the trip and add the second parent if both have parental authority.
2. Look through the free, watermarked preview of all three documents. Nothing is stored to make it.
3. Pay once ($21, no subscription) and download the three PDFs.
4. Print them. The parents sign the first two in front of a notary public with photo ID. Nobody signs the contact sheet.
5. Give the originals to the traveling adult with the child’s passport, keep copies, and ask the destination’s embassy and your airline what else they want to see. ^[2]

Is there a free official form?

The United States does not publish a model for the travel letter; CBP lists what to include, and this pack prints those items. ^[1] We found no standard federal form for the medical authorization or the contact sheet either.

If your airline, school or camp asks for its own form, ask whether it also takes a different letter.

Frequently asked questions