Going abroad with your child is very interesting and informative. There will be enough impressions for all family members. However, it is important to properly prepare for the trip, otherwise it may not take place, break down, and the long-awaited vacation will be hopelessly ruined. Today we will talk about visas for children.
What is it and why is it needed
This is a permit document that allows you to cross the border with a particular country.... If Russia has a visa-free regime with the country where you decided to spend your vacation, consider yourself lucky. A visa is not required in this case. This applies to travel to Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, the Maldives and other exotic countries.
In all other cases, a visa is required. Moreover, not only when entering the country, but sometimes also when leaving (the so-called "exit visa"). The most time-consuming to obtain is the Schengen visa.
Depending on the purpose of the trip, the child can be issued a transit visa (if he crosses the borders of several countries), tourist (you are going on vacation), student (the child entered to study at a foreign educational institution).
A correctly issued visa is a guarantee that the border control will not "wrap you up" at the airport and your vacation by the sea under the palm trees or in Europe will take place as planned.
The rules for applying for a Schengen visa for a child can be viewed in the following video.
General rules for all child visas
The main rule is to have an identity card, which is prescribed by law due to age.
If the child is under 14 years old, he can be entered in the passport of the mother or father. Naturally, provided that they have old passports, since children are not entered into new biometric documents at all, there is no space for these purposes.
For this reason, even a traveler under 2 years old will have his own passport.
Children from 14 years old must have their own passport... Children with their own passport sign all documents for obtaining a visa with their own hands. Children up to 14 years old cannot travel on their own, they definitely need a company of adults.
You will have to pay a consular fee for obtaining a child visa. In the diplomatic missions of different countries, it is different (on average about 35 euros). Children under 6 years old do not have to pay for Schengen, since since 2010 the European Agreement on the abolition of certain categories of visa fees has been in force. Thus, a preschooler who does not have his own passport will get a permit for free.
The set of documents for applying for visas to different countries may differ, before collecting papers it is better to call the embassy of the country where you want to go and clarify the current list.
Schengen for a child
This is the most demanded, but the most "troublesome" visa. It will have to be drawn up if you are going to one of the countries that are united by Schengen legislation. The advantage is that a permit, obtained once, will enable you to move freely between the countries that are part of the agreement (there are 26 of them) during the validity period. By the way, according to statistics, trips to Italy, France, Poland, Malta and Spain are most often in demand among Russians with children. Great Britain is also a popular destination, but a Schengen visa is not required for it, since this country does not participate in the agreement.
The documents are accepted and examined by the embassy. It has the right to reject your application without explaining the reasons for the rejection.
Acceptance of documents can also have its own characteristics, somewhere they take copies, and somewhere only originals. Example: a Polish visa can be obtained only if you sent documents in the online application on the website of the diplomatic mission, and you can never get to France if you do not provide the originals.
In Latvia, Lithuania, the consular fee is not taken from children if they are entered in the parent's passport, and a Finnish visa is issued under the same conditions.
For how long a child Schengen will be issued depends on the purpose of the trip and many other factors. This is usually three months. However, different countries have a different approach to resolving the issue: for example, a child can receive an entry permit for six months to England, and an English visa is not too demanding for the purposes of travel - it is the same for both education and tourism.
A package of documents for registration
As mentioned above, the list of documents may change, you can find the exact one on the website of the embassy of the selected country. Usually, it includes the parents' passports, the child's passport, his birth certificate. If the child is not traveling with his parents, with someone from relatives or friends, with a teacher or coach, you will need a notarized consent from each parent for such a trip.
It is imperative to fill out the application form and application correctly. To avoid mistakes, a sample application is always presented on the official website of the diplomatic mission. If the child is studying, then you must attach a certificate from the school or gymnasium.
Since a child who travels without a mom and dad does not earn money on his own, a sponsorship letter from a parent or other relative will be required, he will have to provide a certificate of his income and funds in the bank account.
How to correctly fill out a visa application form can be seen in the following video.
If the child is the owner of his own foreign passport, then the child's signature is put under all documents on his visa. A minor who is inscribed in the parents' documents does not need to sign anything.
What to do if only one parent is traveling
In this case, the consent from the second parent, drawn up and certified by a notary, is mandatory for passing the border control. If mom and dad divorced, consent must be taken. Such a document is not required in exceptional cases: if one of the parents has died, it will be enough to present a death certificate. If the parents are deprived of their rights, you will need a court decision on this and a certificate from the guardianship authorities, if one of the parents is missing, it will be enough to take a certificate of this from the police.
Visas for children to other countries
IN USA
A special American visa is required to travel to America. The United States is very serious about allowing entry for minors. The visa is valid for 3 years. She allows her to study, visit relatives, and make tourist trips. You can stay in the country each time for no more than 180 days. You can get a document according to the standard scheme (with a mandatory interview), or you can use a simplified one (in absentia). The decision is made by the visa officer.
The easiest way to apply for an American visa for a child under 14 is if he is traveling with relatives who already have a valid permit to enter the United States. In this case, the procedure will be in absentia and fast.
In all cases, a notarized consent of the parents (or one parent), documents on the financial well-being of the family, a sponsorship letter, and a certificate from the child's place of study are required to apply for a visa to America.
A video lesson on how not to receive a visa refusal in the United States can be viewed in the following video.
To European countries outside the Schengen area
In this case, we are talking about the states that entered the European Union, but did not support the Schengen legislation. These are Romania, Croatia, Great Britain and Bulgaria. If you are traveling through the UK in transit, then you do not need to issue anything at all - you can stay in the country for 24 hours without a visa. To do this, it is enough to present a plane ticket, which will confirm that you are temporarily in the country.
It is not necessary to apply for a visa to Bulgaria only if the child has a Schengen visa. All others should contact the consulate with a corresponding statement. The peculiarity of the departure of children to this country is that in order to obtain a visa, it is necessary to prove the relationship of children and parents, even if their names are the same. Therefore, a birth certificate is required.
Another nuance - for a positive decision on the issue of permission to enter Bulgaria, parents will have to attach to the package of documents a medical certificate form 086-U, which will contain information about the health of their son or daughter.
A visa to Romania can be obtained in accordance with all applicable rules. There are not so many peculiarities in issuing a document to this particular country: you need to get medical insurance for the child, which will cover the entire period of the child's stay in the country, as well as the transit time. In addition, the application for obtaining an entry permit should be issued for the child separately, even if it is entered in the parents' passport.
Until 2013, Russians did not need a visa to enter Croatia, but the country joined the EU, and now the visa-free regime is a thing of the past. You can enter the country with both a Croatian visa and a valid Schengen visa.
To Asia
Asian countries are divided into those that do not require a visa or put it on arrival, and those in which it is imperative to issue an entry document in advance. If you are going to travel to Vietnam for 15 days (no more!), Then you do not need a visa at all, the same rule applies to the travel of a child to Laos, Hong Kong and Indonesia. In Malaysia, the Maldives and Macau, you can stay for a month without a visa. The Thai authorities give the same period for tourists. You can go to South Korea for two months without a visa.
If you are going from Myanmar or Nepal, then you will have to apply for a visa, but upon arrival at your destination. Nepalese visa for children under 10 years old is completely free.
In some Asian countries, you can stay for a short time by obtaining a short-term transit visa right at the airport. For example, in Brunei - 72 hours. In China, depending on the airport, you can stay from 24 to 72 hours without a visa.
Recently, Asian countries are increasingly expressing a desire to create their own equivalent of the Schengen visa - a visa that will allow its holder to travel to Asian regions with a single permit.
Provisions
Provision is not a type of visa, it is just a document that indicates prior permission to stay in the country... This information is relevant for those who are going to visit Cyprus with a child. In general, Russia and Cyprus have a visa regime, but the provision makes it much easier to enter this country.
It can be issued via the Internet, you do not need to go anywhere, as well as there will be no long epic with the collection of documents. It is issued free of charge. The stamp itself in the passport will be affixed upon arrival in Cyprus.
Registration of provisions takes about an hour, it does not require mandatory confirmation of the length of stay, you do not need to present the purchased round-trip tickets. After you have sent the application, a document will be sent to your e-mail, which will be enough to print and take with you or give to the child if he is traveling without parents.
A visa to Cyprus is valid not from the moment of receipt, but from the moment of entry into the republic... You will have 90 days for rest and other purposes. Then Cyprus will have to leave and it will be possible to return to it only after six months, having again received provisions.
Having a visa from one state may result in a refusal to enter another state.
If you travel with your child frequently or plan to do so as often as possible, you should remember that in some countries you may be denied entry if you have visas from a number of other countries. So, if you are going to Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and several other Arab countries and you have an Israeli visa in your passport, then you will not only be banned from entering, but may also cancel your national entry visa. Those who have visited the countries bordering on the Promised Land - Jordan and Egypt will also fall under the "hot hand".
On the Georgian border, a previously issued visa will be canceled for those who have visited Abkhazia and South Ossetia. If travel to these countries was made from Russia, then there is nothing to worry about, since our country has a visa-free regime with these countries.
The cost
The cost of a visa, as mentioned above, is different in each country. Most countries completely exempt children under 6 from consular fees. Germany, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands and a number of other states do not take money from children under 12 years old. Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Portugal, France, Spain and the Czech Republic charge consular fees for children between 6 and 12 years old. It is 35-40 euros.
The price of visas to countries with a special visa regime, which are affixed upon arrival, usually range from 15 to 35 euros.
