Not married

I ran into this issue last Spring when I was planning to send my son off to visit his father abroad and the travel agent told me that I had to get a parental consent letter from his father. I had never had to do this with my older two children who traveled solo, without incident, for years. So I did a bit of research and discovered that this requirement for an affidavit is due to the enhanced awareness of children's rights raised by the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. As of July 2011, this treaty created to deter international child abductions is in force between the United States and 82 other countries. Some countries (e.g., Canada) are very strict on enforcing this. In the end though, although my son carried the affidavit with him on his travels through 4 countries over the summer, no one asked for it. However, I will, as a rule, always have it to hand in order to avoid having a problem. You never know when a particular country is going to start asking for it.

I have always been asked for an attested letter of consent from DH when entering Canada with the kids.

have never had an issue coming from NZ or Europe, have heard of this happening in the US though for sure.

I worked briefly for an airline in the Uk and I thought there would be some measure in place at the airports/airlines but there is nothing in the UK as far as the airlines are concerned, maybe something at passport control

No issues going in or out of Australia with just one parent. I've done it many many times.

This isn't just a US thing. It's very strictly enforced in El Salvador that there must be a notorized affadavit from both parents allowing anyone under 18 to travel with only one parent or with a different relative. And there it has to be a recent document- like within 6 months or something, so if your child travels a lot with one parent, you have to do a new letter all the time. It's a pain in the neck - but it is aimed to prevent child trafficking. My friend from Canada used to have to do something similar as well... I think it's pretty common in the world now...

Wow I certainly got that one wrong!!! :\: I suppose it wouldn't hurt to leave the post up anyway, as maybe the info would be useful to someone even if it didn't help you! Welcome in advance!

It's fine from the Qatar side, but (and get ready - this is kind of long) there are potential issues with the US side. US Border control has gotten stricter about letting kids travel with one parent (or unaccompanied) presumably over issues of child abduction. My son was traveling there and back on his own this past summer and I was advised by a few friends (two of whom are lawyers, one of whom is an immigration lawyer) that we should provide him with a notarized affidavit of parental consent, signed by both parents. Your sister might want to look into this just as a precaution. And if she has sole custody probably worthwhile to have a copy of the documentation that verifies this as well. In the end no one asked my son for anything, but then later I heard from 2 friends who were each traveling on their own with their kids they they were stopped and practically interrogated regarding where was the father and did he know they were traveling and did he give his approval, etc. And in one of these cases the kids were separated from the mom during this questioning. This happened at US points of entry (one in Alaska disembarking from a cruise, and one at an airport, forget which one). I since learned that it's a really grey area legally - the affidavit of consent isn't legally required when both parents aren't traveling with the child, but at the same time the border folks have the right to ask for it and can deny entry/exit if they aren't convinced. It presumably works both ways (either father OR mother traveling with child but w/out the other parent, or a child traveling without either parent). Again, this is more for the issue of leaving and re-entering the US, and not from the Qatari side. My whole ramble is presuming that you are American - hope I'm recalling correctlly (AmCham, right?). Don't mean to freak you out. When I did this I just googled "afadavit of parental consent for US travel" or something like that and I got samples of the letter, which was then easily personalized, printed off, signed and notarized. For what it's worth I hope this helps.

Yes of course !