slummymummy

Ok, so I know this has been done to death already all over the internet. I have googled... But people are just saying that their child looks nothing like their baby passport picture. This must be very common obviously.

But MY child... ... she is about 6 weeks old in her baby pic, with black hair and blue squinty eyes. Now she'll be 3 years old and she has blonde hair and massive non-squinty green eyes. She really looks like a completely different child. The only thing that might look almost the same is her nose.

We are renewing our older daughter's US passport, it's $105. I'd rather not have to pay to do the younger one's too.

Has anyone travelled with a child that has a different hair colour from their passport photo? Were you asked any additional questions or anything?

Mummy in the foothills

We did, Ds first passport was a 4 week old baby picture and he was still all lopsided from the birth, and his hair was so white he looked bald and his eyebrows were invisible, he didn't look fully cooked By 5 he was a red head with masses of hair and some freckles, nothing at all like his picture. No one seemed to take any notice at all.

robin1234

Both my kids too. Both got US passports in England with pictures taken at about a month old. My son was asleep and kind of blowing a bubble at the same time.. They both travelled to the US on them about a dozen times before the age of five, worked out fine..

slummymummy

Ok great! I think I will save the additional $105 for another 2 years...

Unless someone has a different story to tell.

Weeze

Our photo is off a slightly orange tiny baby. Our daughter holding it is a 4 year old who looks nothing like it. Mostly they just make a joke of it.

JAJ

It's understood why babies should have their own passports, however it's not clear why a photograph should be required if a child is under a certain age. Immigration officials can't rely on a newborn photograph as proof of ID.

slummymummy

If you have a passport for your child, you obviously have a child that age. Why would you want to kidnap someone else's child and travel with that child? So the risk of someone not travelling with their own child has gotta be pretty small... If everyone has the same surname and look like a family. That is probably why they don't seem to mind if kids look like their picture or not.

A baby picture is probably still better than no picture, so I don't know if I agree with you JAJ even though I almost do!

jeffreyhy

There are countries from which traveling with someone else's child is a not an uncommon ruse - countries where US tourist visas are hard to get. Pretending to be a family, rather than an individual or a couple, is thought to make it easier to get visas because at times it has worked. The family to which the child belongs is willing to 'rent' their child because they need the money. It can create quite a stir those times when such scams are detected.

Regards, JEff

slummymummy

But how do they get passports with all matching surnames including for the "rented" child? I guess my points was that if you're travelling as a family with all the same surnames, then the "risk" that you're doing something dodgy must be pretty small. Because the only thing you could do would be to swap your own child for someone else's. Unless you have fake passport(s) of course...