Another of our visa victories: we submitted documents on September 18, returned the passport exactly a month later - on October 18. In the summer it was much longer!
What was the difficulty of this particular case? The child flies to London without parents. But he will not be left unattended! How it turned out to apply for such a visa, we tell in this article.
Is it possible for a child to travel abroad on his own?
Let's start with the basics. Formally, yes, it can, but with certain conditions: you must convince the visa authorities that the child has a guaranteed place to live and that there will be a person in England who will take care of him. Options that are favorably considered for such child visas:
- The child goes to a kid's camp on a full-board basis, the same camp organizes a meeting, seeing off at the airport and transfer.
- The child goes to visit relatives, among whom at least one adult (18+ years old) is ready to look after and take care of him.
- The child is going on a tourist trip without parents, but someone else will be with him - other relatives / friends over 18 years old.
A big advantage of a child tourist visa is that its duration makes it possible to attend short-term studying courses. For example, with our help, you can easily get a visa for 6 months even on the first try, and most shifts in summer camps and language centers are designed for 1-3 weeks. Such trips on the basis of a tourist visa are not prohibited by UK law.
Rules for minors traveling abroad
Parents (even one of them), adoptive parents, guardians or trustees can act as a legal representative. Important: grandparents, aunts/uncles and other relatives are not considered legal representatives of the child by default!
As for the transportation of minors:
- Under 2 years old – unaccompanied is not allowed,
- 2-12 years old: can be under the supervision of the carrier, if there are regulations for this (for example, accompanied by an airline employee), or accompanied by an adult citizen of native country; in this case, a notarized consent is drawn up,
- Over 12 years old - can be unaccompanied (if consent is issued).
Please note that even one legal representative can issue a consent to leave (it does not have to be a "dad + mom" pair). But to enter another country, the requirements may vary: somewhere the consent of both parents is required. It is better to discuss such details specifically with your manager.
What you need to obtain a notarized consent:
- Child's birth certificate,
- Parent's passport (foreign or domestic) OR passport of the guardian/trustee along with a document confirming his/her guardianship/trusteeship,
- Information about the person with whom the child travels as an accompanying person (if the child is accompanied by third parties).
What kind of child visas does the UK issue?
There are two types of such visas:
- Child accompanied: the child leaves the country with an accompanying person (his passport number is fixed in the visa).
- Child unaccompanied: the child leaves the country alone and is met upon arrival in the UK.
In our case, a Child unaccompanied visa was issued: the child went to London without his parents, but his relatives, specifically his aunt, took care of him.
Why didn't we make a Child accompanied, fixing the aunt's passport number in the child's visa? Because then, with the existing visa (and it is, we recall, for as many as 6 months) he would be able to enter the UK only with his aunt as an accompanying person (immediately, on the trip). And in the case that we chose, he will be able to go now with a relative, and in the future, for example, go to a language camp - unaccompanied from native country, but with a meeting at the London airport.
To apply for this visa, we have fulfilled three important conditions:
- Proved that the child will be supervised, that his aunt agrees to accompany him and be responsible for his safety,
- We clarified that we want to apply for a visa without being tied to a specific adult (Child unaccompanied), because we are planning another trip in the future, but to a children's camp (for this, the parents wrote a cover letter, which we attached to the application),
- We issued a notarized consent from both parents for the departure of the child unaccompanied.
The collected package of documents turned out to be enough, and now the desired visa is already in the hands of our satisfied customers!
