Booked a Family Vacation After Separation? Travel Consents, Explained

The vacation is booked — now check the legal layer

For separated and divorced parents, a trip with the kids has a legal checklist attached. Border officers on both sides of any crossing are trained to watch for children travelling without one parent, and the difference between a smooth departure and a missed flight is usually one document: the other parent's written consent.

Read your order or agreement first

Most modern parenting plans and orders contain travel clauses: notice periods for out-of-province or international trips, itinerary-sharing requirements, sometimes consent that cannot be unreasonably withheld. Follow yours to the letter — a parent who travels in breach of an order invites exactly the kind of motion that ruins the next three vacations.

No agreement yet? That is worth fixing generally, and travel is often the nudge that gets a parenting plan finished.

The consent letter — and why we notarize it

Global Affairs Canada recommends that children travelling abroad without both parents carry a consent letter signed by the non-travelling parent, and recommends signing it before a notary or commissioner so its authenticity is hard to question at a border. The letter covers the children's details, destinations, dates, and the travelling adult's information.

Our office notarizes travel consent letters on a walk-in basis — weekdays until 7:00 PM — and can prepare the letter itself where the wording needs care because relations are tense.

Passports and the harder cases

Children's passports generally engage both parents where both hold decision-making responsibility — factor application timelines into the trip. And where the other parent refuses consent unreasonably, or where you fear a trip is actually a relocation in disguise, both problems have court routes: an order permitting travel in the first case, non-removal terms in the second. Ask before the deposit becomes non-refundable.