Getting Your Baby a Passport

With all of the craziness going on with passport requirements these days, my advice is this- get your baby a passport as soon as possible. You never know when you will need it and you might as well get the process going. Here is the procedure for those of you from the U.S.-

The first thing you need is a birth certificate and a social security number. Some hospitals are automatically applying for social security numbers. Check with your hospital or plan on a trip to the S.S. office.

Next you will need to get passport photos done. Although many of the U.S. post offices will do this for you these days, I recommend getting passport photos done at a local photo store. Mostly because they are experts at getting a correct photo and they are patient. The employees at the Post office are not prepared to work with you for 45 minutes to get a shot with the baby's eyes open and looking at the camera. Also, get extras- I have found that I need them for other things as well.

Go to the website and fill out the application. Here is the official website and the answers to many of the questions that most people have- http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/minors/minors_834.html

Take the application to your local post office (not all of them are doing passports so check here to see if yours does- http://www.switchboard.com/usps.1355/dir/6_0/index.htm?cid=3034 )
or the local passport office.

If you are in a hurry, you can order a rush passport either thru the official site or using a private expedite service.

Our passport took 3 months to arrive in the mail.

If you have further questions, or comments on getting passports for your baby- send us an email at http://www.blogger.com/babyjetsetter@gmail.com or post a comment here.