It’s great to take a holiday with your child but if you’re a single parent you may need to get special permission from the other parent to travel with him or her. Depending on how you set up your parenting plan and child custody agreement, traveling with your child can be easy or potentially difficult, so it’s important to do it right.
The best way to address travel in your parenting plan is with the following parenting provisions. You may want to adjust these provisions and/or add some additional ones depending on your situation:
Traveling inside the country
The following parenting provisions apply to travel that you might do with your child inside the country:
- The parents must provide one another with travel details at least a week before taking a trip. These details should include the complete itinerary, copies of the round-trip plane tickets and contact information for how to reach the child at all times.
- The parents must obtain written permission from the other parent before taking the child out of state.
- The parents must stay within the bounds of the United States while traveling. If out of state travel is required, the parent will give the other parent at least one week of written notice unless the issue is an emergency.
Traveling outside the country
Parents may want to include the following provisions regarding out-of-country travel:
- The parents can travel out of the country with the child but must provide two weeks of prior notice with the complete itinerary and contact information to reach the child at all times. The parents agree to share travel documents like passports so the child can travel out of country.
- The parents will not apply for passports for the child without obtaining the other parent’s permission.
- The child’s passport shall be kept in a safety deposit box under the seal of the court.
Are you concerned about traveling with your child?
Whether you want to travel with your child or the other parent wants to travel with your child, you may have questions about what the law says and what your parenting plan allows. Be sure to fully understand the parameters of your child custody orders to ensure that you follow the law whenever traveling with your children as a single co-parent.