When we had a child with us with a different surname, the immigration officer made us fill in a seperate customs form as she lives at a different address, even though I was responsible for her and what she was bringing in to the country. Everyone needs their own immigration form.
If they are all your own kids and live with you some of the time, I would just say they live with you and do one form
Shirley
ooh never thought of this....
we're going in Sept and my partner never married although her kids have their fathers surname, and our 2 year old has my surname.
So we'll have 3 surnames albeit we all live under one roof. Should be fun
The customs form states at the top "Only ONE written declaration per family is required"
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Jill
The customs form states at the top "Only ONE written declaration per family is required"
[/quote]
Thanks Jill, Came back from Belgium through Calais on the Euro Tunnel and had to provide a full family history to the passport guy explaining the various surnames!!
He never asked about the booze and ciggies loading down the boot of the estate car
We have taken foster children in the past and have taken AND BEEN ASKED FOR AT IMMIGRATION proof of our entitlement to travel with them. The customs bit is a red herring -to the original poster-I would definitely have some sort of paper trail with you-it's not worth the risk
We took a letter from my daughters mother just in case, I think it depends on who the imagration officer is and if he's had a bad day.
We've took loads of diffrent family and the kids freinds over and never had a problem.
I will echo Albert The Frog's advice: Take some evidence. We also have taken a fostered child with us twice, last year immigration at Philadelphia picked up on the different surname straight away and scrutinized the paperwork, this year they were much more laid back which made me wonder if it was still on record that the same child entered with us last year. HOWEVER, Manchester immigration were really over the top and wanted to know the full story of why we had a child with a different surname with us, and on both occasions we were grilled whilst they checked every piece of evidence we had with us.
It could be that your friend's step children have a great holiday and then can't get back into the UK !!!
(I've just spotted that the original question was asked last March! However, to anyone in a similar situation reading this, I hope my advice is of use)
Dave.
I just thought I would update this thread with our experience at Heathrow last week. Our middle two children are mine from my previous marriage and have a different surname form the rest of us. Just to be on the safe side I took our marriage certificate with me so that the immigration at FLORIDA could see that the children were mine. We had no problems at all at Miami and were through in 10 minutes.
On our return, I thought there would be no problems so packed the marriage cert in our hold luggage - BIG MISTAKE! At Heathrow we were given the third degree by the Immigration Officer as to why they had a different surname, did I have their father's permission to remove them from the country (which I don't need as I have parental responsibility) and so on and so on. Eventually I managed to pursuade him that I have travelled for 10 years with my kids with a different surname (as I had reverted to my maiden name when I got divorced and kept this until Danny and I got married last year) and had never had any problems in the past. I also told him that the marriage cert was in the hold luggage as I never dreamed that there would be a problem getting back INTO the UK!! He recommended that in future I always bring some sort of evidence with us so that we don't have problems in the future.
I did wonder what would have happened if I had just said, ok then, I'll leave them here.......???[msnsmile2]
Alison and Danny
I'm quite glad that this area is being tightened up and as with the increased security have no problems jumping through this particular hoop.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Albert the Frog
I'm quite glad that this area is being tightened up and as with the increased security have no problems jumping through this particular hoop.
[/quote]
Totally agree, it's a shame that the IO's weren't as diligent when they left the UK.
Dave
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks