some sort of letter

[lashelle1]

my mother is taking my daughter on a vacation next month and i am told that i need to write a letter so that she can take along with her. i am a bit confused on how this works. what must the letter include? and is both parents needed to write this letter, even if we are not together? pls explain to me how this works and what is to be written in the letter. thanks!

[jno]

I suppose it would be a letter authorising her to take your child with her, since she isn't the girl's mother herself - this might be to avoid any suggestion that she's kidnapping or involved in a custody dispute. I'm just guessing. Who asked for the letter?

[auntiebertie]

Guess it will be the same requirements as you need to go on a cruise with a child that it not your own:

Adults who are not the parent or Legal Guardian of any minor child traveling with them are required to present the child's valid Passport and Visa (or certified copy of the child's Birth Certificate) and an original notarized letter signed by a tleast one of the child's parents. The notarized letter from the child's parents must authorize the traveling adult to take the child on the specific cruise and must authorize the traveling adult to supervise the child and permit any emergency medical treatment that must be administered to the child.
Note: This also applies to children traveling with relatives or friends.
(In order for a non-parent to be recognized as a Legal Guardian, the adult must present a certified certificate of
Guardianship with respect to the child.)

[maxine55]

yes i took my grandson for his injections his mum was at work and they refused to allow him to have them with out a letter, so my daughter just wrotethat she gave permission for me to take him for his injections and any other medical help that was required, in case he had an accident whilst i was looking after him and had to take him to casulty as i would have the same problem there apparentley my nurse told me. so i keep the letter in his bag and if ever i need it its there.

[Narolines]

The key word that jumped out at me in auntiebertie's answer is "notarized" (or, preferably, "notarised", but that's another issue!) - in other words, legally witnessed, which will cost you a couple of quid but will put the weight of the law behind you and should avoid any query as to the authenticity of the letter by any authorities. I'm not sure that, in extremis, a letter that carries no official guarantee of authenticity would necessarily be of any value.

[jno]

Narolines, the spelling throughout auntiebertie's post suggests it's American. This may or may not be appropriate to lashelle1 - though of course I don't know where she's writing from either.

[auntiebertie]

My answer was copied straight from the Royal Caribbean Cruise web site - hence the American spellings. It still gets the message across though of what is generally needed [despite the fact they can't spell!!].

[dzug]

Notarising in the UK will cost far more than a couple of quid - not much change out of �50. It has a far more specialised meaning here than in the US where a notary is really just a junior lawyer. Here notaries are highly skilled experts in something or other (not exactly sure what...) and charge accordingly.

But you don't need things like this notarised in the UK - witnessed by a solicitor or JP at the most.

[Narolines]

Yes, I was using "a couple of quid" in a figurative way! I also probably didn;t make it sufficiently clear that I was making pretty much the same point as dzug - ie, that it probably needs to be, as I said, legally witnessed in some fashion; I would think in much the same way as I had to swear an affidavit when I was executor of my mother's will; my solicitor sent me round the corner to another practice, where I spent about 4 minutes and about �12 (if I remember rightly) and the job was done - all arranged by phone on the spot and I was back in my own solicitor's office in under 15 minutes.