Your papers, please.

[pne]

For our trip to Switzerland next week, Stella remembered yesterday that maybe we should look into what kind of travel documents we need—since her passport expired just over a year ago.

Turned out that German citizens can enter using their identity card (phew!) but that children need an identity document as well if they're not entered in a parent's passport.

I phoned up the local council office and they said that Amy would need a children's passport, but that that'd only cost €13 and they could issue one while we wait, which was good. So we got some passport photos, went over there, filled out a form saying that both of us parents were fine with the child's receiving a passport (presumably that form was there to prevent child abductions where one of the parents takes off into another country with the kid), the lady printed the information onto special paper and stuck it into a blank children's passport, which she then handed over to us. The thing is valid until Amy is 10, though if she changes enough not to be recognisable any more, we ought to get a new one.

Comments

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert, but I would expect that most children would change to be unrecognisable in the space of 8 years or so!:D

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose so :)

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

So, what travel documents do you as a UK citizen need?

[pne.livejournal.com]

My passport. (Not sure whether an identity card would work for UK citizens as well, but since the UK doesn't have one [yet], the issue is moot.)

Which is, fortunately, current; I try to keep track of when it expires and renew it beforehand, even if I'm not planning any trips in the near future, mostly because it's my only form of photo ID that proves my citizenship.

(I was going to say "my only form of government-issued photo ID", but I suppose my German driver's licence also fits that description.)