Niagara Falls Travel Answers

From the Government of Canada web site Children under the age of 18 should have valid identification with them. If you are travelling with a child and you are not the child’s parent or guardian, you should have a letter from the child’s parent or guardian authorizing entry into Canada. If you are the child’s only guardian, you should have documents to show there is no other guardian. For example, a birth certificate that does not identify the father would be suitable. To re-nter the USA, from the DHS web site U.S. citizens entering the United States at sea or land ports of entry are required to have documents that comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), most commonly a U.S. passport, a passport card, a trusted traveler card such as NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST, or an enhanced driver's license. See the complete list of WHTI-compliant documents.

Good advice above: it is critical that, if the parents of the grandchildren are not traveling with you, that you have the proper documentation. According to the U.S. State Department website, a certified birth certificate for each child, in addition to the documents noted above, is sufficient for U.S./Canadian land/sea border crossing but only for U.S. children younger than 16. getyouhome.gov/html/lang_eng... "Children: Beginning June 1, 2009, U.S. and Canadian citizen children under age 16 arriving by land or sea from contiguous territory may also present an original or copy of his or her birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, a Naturalization Certificate, or a Canadian Citizenship Card." If that grandchild is age 16 or 17, it looks as if they need a passport - mostly to be able to re-enter the U.S. : travel.state.gov/passport/ge... And to support the advice from the poster above, this from the CBSA: cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyag... "If you are travelling with minors, you must carry proper identification for each child such as a birth certificate, passport, citizenship card, permanent resident card or Certificate of Indian Status. If you are not the parent or guardian of the children, you should also have written permission from the parent/guardian authorizing the trip. The letter should include addresses and telephone numbers where the parents or guardian can be reached." Along with this info, have the parents include permission for you to make medical decisions for the children if necessary, and have the document NOTARIZED so there's no question. Also bring along insurance cards for whatever plan the children are covered under.

We carried the kids birth certificates when we made a visit to Toronto a number of years ago. Br prepared for a simple question as to your relationship to the child, etc. the border guards main concern a lot of times is to make sure you are not taking the kids across the border to get away from a spouse, etc.

Going the other way (into the US from Canada) people will often get notarized letters from the childrens parents (or spouse in the case where the children are travelling with one parent) giving permission to cross the border The passport information is correct; getting into Canada for Americans is easy and does not technically require a passport or equivilent document, but given that you can't get back to the US without one, the point is rather academic...