There was a time in the United States when a baby or a small child could travel on the passport of one of their parents, usually the mother. Nowadays, however, even a newborn infant must have a passport of their own. When travel is urgent or imminent, an expedited American pasport for newborn may be obtained. Parents may go through the procedure themselves or they may avail themselves of the services of a specialized agent.

Requirements

There is a lot more involved in obtaining an infant passport than for an adult. Some requirements include a birth certificate or other proof of American citizenship, parental consent, parental identification, parental Social Security Number and proof of intent to travel. Then you must fill in a form, pay the fee and send a couple of photographs. The reality is somewhat more complicated. It gets worse if one of the parents is absent or uncooperative. There are five child passport levels. These are Expedited, Rush, Priority, Next Day and 24-Hour. The expedited passport takes up to two weeks to process and the passport is mailed directly to that parent(s).

DS-11

The application form is called a DS-11 (Application for a US passport renewal). This may be obtained from a passport agency or an acceptance facility. It may be filled in online and then printed or it may be printed out first and then filled in by hand. It is essential that the form not be signed until instructed to.

Submission

An infant passport is valid for five years and cannot be renewed. The application cannot be submitted in the mail, it must be in person. The baby must be present at the time of submission of the application.

Photos

There are very stringent specifications for the child’s photographs. The baby must be looking directly at the camera against a white or an off-white background. Their head size must be no smaller than one inch and no larger than 1-3/8 inches. The photograph must be less than six months old when the application is submitted.

Photo Requirements

The expression on the baby’s face must be ‘natural’. This means they cannot be smiling, crying, laughing or screaming. They have to keep their mouth closed and must not be sucking on a pacifier. Only the baby can be visible in the photo and there must be no parental face, hands or arms. There must not even be a car seat. It may be quicker to engage the services of a commercial photographer with experience in taking passport photos for infants.

Citizenship

The infant’s parents must provide proof of their own American citizenship. This can be a naturalization certificate, a valid passport, a Consular Report of Birth, a certificate of citizenship or a certified birth certificate.