Jean-Maximilien and I have two children. And as you can imagine… we travel a lot. Whether visiting family in France or traveling the world, our most valuable travel accessory is of course our passport, followed by our Priority Pass membership card!
As we are not yet Canadian citizens (we will be in 2018), we have French passports, along with our permanent resident cards.
On the other hand, our two children being born in Canada, they already have the double nationality: Canadian by the ground and French by the blood! If on paper it is ideal, in reality it can lead to administrative misunderstandings and sometimes just at the airport with the children before taking your flight!
Two countries, two ways of doing things:
Here is the process at the airport with dual nationality children:
Hence the need to have both passports for children, especially if you are traveling to countries other than Canada and France. For example, for our stay in Vietnam, the process is much easier to obtain a visa with a French passport than a Canadian one!
Your spouse stays in the country and you travel alone with your child? You will need a letter of parental consent from your spouse.
It is not mandatory, but highly recommended.
A sample template can be found on this Government of Canada page.
You can either have it certified by an official authorized to administer oaths… or have the letter signed in the presence of a witness.
On her first father-daughter trip, my consent was requested at the airport check-in. Fortunately, I was there to confirm that I was okay with letting them travel!
Are you afraid to wait tens of minutes with small children to check in your luggage? So are we.
Unfortunately, only a few airlines have understood this: for example, Air Transat offers a priority check-in line for families.
So check in online so you only have to drop off your luggage, or use the automated kiosks.
For other companies, you can always ask the staff members usually present at the entrance of the waiting line. If they are understanding, you may be able to transfer to the business class line if it is empty.
Some credit cards allow you to obtain priority check-in if you travel on an Aeroplan Reward(TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite) or Air Canada(AeroplanPlus Platinum Card from American Express & TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Preferred).
In almost all the airports from which we took off, there were priority lines at the security checks reserved for families.
This is the case at Montréal-Trudeau… and it makes all the difference, believe me!
You will have to respect several rules:
If your children’s bottle or food gets into your backpack/handbag, the entire bag will have to be searched.
By separating the liquids, only these will be analyzed: you will save a lot of time!
Airport lounges can help you avoid the hustle and bustle of the airport terminal. However, you should know that the environment of these lounges is rather calm: if your children start to run, scream, cry… it will be rather advised to leave the lounge even if you have to come back later.
To access them, if you are not traveling in business class, it will be useful to have the appropriate credit card: see this article for more information on the different options.
Our favorite cards:
Also consider checking the websites of the airports you will be passing through. In Zurich, for example, there is a fair dedicated to families. Here, your entry pass is your child! 🙂
Having a child/children should not prevent you from traveling, quite the contrary! If you are well prepared, your passages to the airports with the children will be facilitated, all these steps are only formalities! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them on the facebook group!
Savings are here:
