traveling with stepchildren

[jman247]

My wife and I are planning to travel to Mexico with our children from Sept 3 thru sept 10. We both had children prior to our marriage, but we were not married before. I have my son(her stepson) and she has a daughter(my stepdaughter) and we have a daughter together. The birth parents have not been seen or heard from in over 8 years. We have had no luck in finding them or have anyway of getting them to sign a consent form. All the children were born in the united states. Is there anything we can do or should we cancel our trip. Thank you for any information or help you can provide.
Jeremy

[RVGRINGO]

You will want to be shure that each child has a passport. Then, inquire with the airline before purchasing tickets, if you are flying. Good luck.

[jman247]

Do you know anyone we could contact? I talked with the airline and they said passports and birth certificates are all thats needed. But then I said that they are stepchildren and they said wait let me check and said the same thing again, but then the travel agancy said that we would need them. And the website for Mexico says any children not with both parents need one...but no one says anything about if parnets cannot be found or are unavailable...Airline says money non refunable if we are denied at the gate...so cant take that kind of chance as we having been saving for this trip for years....

[RVGRINGO]

I have heard that such permission is needed and I know a man who was turned back at the border when he tried to drive into Mexico with his teenage daughter; the mother was unable to be contacted.

However, I have also heard that kids with passports and at least one parent have not had a problem.

The difficulty, now, may be with the airlines more than with the Mexican government, which doesn't keep its websites updated very often.

I think I would go to the nearest Mexican Consulate and apply for visas there, before you buy tickets; hopefully, with passports, you can get them. Then inform the airline that you already have visas and have them deduct the FMT tourist visa price from your ticket; it is included.

If that doesn't work, and you want a tropical vacation where Spanish is spoken, try Puerto Rico......Ugh!

[Heydude]

You NEED to get in touch with your airline. This is a very serious situation to them and the airlines are really touching about transporting minors out of the country.

Dude

[RVGRINGO]

Talk to the airline again; asking if it is their POLICY, or is it Mexican Immigration rules.
You may have another option if it is airline policy only:
Fly to a border city in the USA, then take a bus to a larger Mexican city and fly from there to your destination on one of the economical, short haul airlines. Check their websites:
www.aazteca.com.mx
www.aviacsa.com.mx
www.click.com.mx
www.interjet.com.mx
www.volaris.com.mx
www.avolar.com.mx

[wstut]

There is a good website that has as far as I know all the national airlines listed.

Website is Mexican airlines

Wouter

[Jennasmom]

My husband and I have a "his, mine, and ours" and when we travel outside of Canada we have to have a notarized letter from my daughters father (she has his last name). As for my stepdaughter, seeing as she has the same last name as her father and my self - they don't even question it as long as we have her ID's. I would check with the airlines definitely before buying your tickets.

Best of Luck,

Wendi

Whenever traveling with children a notarized letter from the other parent is a good idea and is sometimes required (depending upon circumstances)

A good friend of mine is divorced and always has to have a notorized letter from his ex to take the children out of the country. This may be an airline requirement or a government one I am not sure which applies here.

An option could be for you to adopt each others children.

hope this helps
diosa