Expedite Your Child's Passport
It all began when a British woman, Annika Peers was on vacation with her partner Jonathan Sears in Surinam’s remote tropical rainforest. You probably never even heard of Surinam or know where it is! Surinam is a beautiful country bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, French Guiana and Brazil that is often overlooked. It is an amazing travel destination full of tropical forests, exceptional wildlife and an intriguing culture. This is what likely drew the British couple to Surinam in the first place.
All was going well until Ms. Peers almost had a miscarriage. Doctors told the 38 year old woman that is was too too risky to fly back home to the UK. So, she gave birth to her baby, Lily, in a hospital in Surinam. The couple was thrilled and couldn’t wait to return home to show their new bundle of joy off to their family in the UK. However, the couple was told that they could not bring their her daughter back to Britain because the child had no passport.
Not a problem, they would just take Lily to the British embassy and get her a passport. Sounds simple enough, but Surinam happens to be one of the few countries in the world where there is no British embassy. Attempts to contact the honorary consulate turned up fruitless. Ms. Peers even contacted the consulate in Washington, DC to no avail.
After nearly 7 months tacked onto their original vacation highlighted by failed efforts to bring Lily home to the UK, the couple, now in financial distress, had to do something. Ms. Peers did something drastic, she flew back home to Southport, leaving her daughter with the baby’s father in Surinam. Once back in England, she was able to get the passport documents from the passport issuing department in Washington DC. However, Lily and her dad missed their pre-booked flight home due to slow passport processing. You would’ve thought that Ms. Peers would have used a passport expediting service to obtain her child’s passport.
In the end, Mr. Sears received Lily’s passport and boarded a flight home with her. What would you have done? Maybe you’re thinking that they should’ve sent Mr. Sears to pick up the documents so that mom and daughter could stay together. Good idea, but due to the fact that the couple was not married, they probably figured that daddy might have run into trouble trying to get the passport. At any rate, the family is home and doing well and baby Lily may just be one of the youngest people around with a Surinam stamp in her passport.
According to US passport regulations:
When applying for a child’s passport, if both parents names are on the birth certificate, the child together with both parents must be present to execute the application. If for some reason one parent cannot be present, that parent can fill out a Parent Consent Form DS3053. It is vital the parents signatures match the signature on the identification they provide. The date that you signed is the same date the notary signed and dated it. The date must appear in U.S. style, month/day/year. If document is notarized in the same state as applicant then the DS3053 must be an original. If document is from a distant state or over seas, a scanned or faxed copy will be accepted.