UKC

Afternoon. My son (10) and I are travelling to New York next Saturday for a holiday. He’s had one COVID vaccination, three weeks ago. My wife - his mum - isn’t coming.

I don’t understand the rules are: as he’s under 18 he doesn’t need to be fully vaxed (ie two doses), won’t be asked to self by isolate but must get a test after 3-5 days.

I’ve arranged tests 24 hours before we leave.

As his mum won’t be with us I understand need a notarised letter given her permission for our son to travel with me.

Has anyone got any recent experience of this they can share with me?

Would getting my solicitor colleague to witness a letter from my wife meet the notarisation requirement? What if the test we get in NYC is positive, do we have to self isolate in a hotel or fly home (in fact we plan to go to Hudson valley on day four and stay in Poughkeepsie for a couple of days so isolation would be a major hassle)? Does anyone check? Should I have just taken him camping in snowdonia?

Thanks, any experience or tips gratefully received.

Dan

I don't know about the vaccination side of things, our son had two jags and that should be fine for going abroad.

However, I have had some unpleasant occurrences at border control in the past few years. So, I would recommend having a notarised letter for your son from your wife, his passport of course plus birth certificate  and also a document that shows the relationship between you and your wife (i.e marriage certificate e.g). Sounds overkill, but it might ease your travels hopefully.

Off topic, but wouldn't it be sensible to have the legal guardians named on the passport of under 18s?

Is his name John Prescott?

?? Sorry, don't get it...

John Prescott, deputy PM in Tony Blair's gouvernment, was often known as 'Two Jags' Prescott.

Ah of course, I remember, it's just a  wee bit of topic...

And latterly two jabs after the egging incident.

We went to San Francisco over Easter.  Had to tick some boxes on Verifly to say we would do a test for the kids 3-5 days after arrival.  We took some NHS tests for this and did them, no one checked, or asked, or prompted us to do so.  Thankfully they were negative so we just got on with our lives.  A positive result would be an absolute pooper.  No you shouldn't have just gone to Snowdonia, you are going to have a fantastic time but I'm afraid this bit is a bit stressful.  It will be worth it!

You must be new here. Welcome to UKC 

You'd have to be aware that south of the border Jags have 4 wheels whilst Jabs are the sharp pointy things.