How to apply for a passport for a child

Consent is required from each person with parental responsibility for the child. In practice that means every parent named on the child's full birth certificate, plus any person given parental responsibility by an Australian court order — a step-parent, grandparent or guardian named in a parenting order, for example.

It does not depend on the relationship between the parents. Parents who never married, who separated before the child was born, who have not spoken in a decade, or who live in another country all retain parental responsibility unless a court has removed it. Living arrangements do not change this. A parent the child has never met still has to consent if they are on the birth certificate.

A parenting order that gives one parent sole parental responsibility can remove the requirement for the other to consent, but only if the order says so clearly and is produced with the application. An order about who the child lives with, or about time spent, is not the same thing. Read the order carefully or get advice on it, because parents frequently believe an order gives them more than it does.

Where a parent has died, a full death certificate is produced instead of their consent. Where a parent's whereabouts are genuinely unknown, or where obtaining consent is not possible or not appropriate, there is a specific process rather than a dead end.

The consent is given on the application itself. Each consenting person signs the relevant part of the form, and each must have their identity verified. They do not all have to attend the same appointment, and the Passport Office can advise on how a parent overseas provides consent through an Australian embassy, high commission or consulate.

Forging or falsely giving a consent is a serious offence under the Australian Passports Act, as is providing false information in a passport application generally. The Passport Office investigates and prosecutes passport fraud, and this is not an area where a shortcut is worth considering.

A child aged 16 or 17 may in limited circumstances apply without parental consent, and the Passport Office sets out when. Below that age, consent is not optional.

There are two routes, and they are not alternatives — you use the one that fits the situation.

The first is the special circumstances process, in which an Approved Senior Officer in the Australian Passport Office can decide to issue a passport without the missing consent. This exists for situations including a parent whose whereabouts are unknown after genuine efforts to find them, a parent unable to consent through incapacity, a child at risk of family violence, and cases where the child would suffer if the passport were not issued. You apply in writing with evidence, and the officer decides.

Evidence matters more than argument here. Records of attempts to contact the missing parent, correspondence, statements from third parties, police or court documents in a family violence situation, and medical evidence of incapacity are the sorts of material that decide these applications. Vague assertions that the other parent is unreasonable do not.

The second route is a court order from the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia authorising the passport to be issued, or granting sole parental responsibility including for travel. This is the route where the other parent is contactable and simply objects. Family dispute resolution is normally required before applying to court unless an exemption applies.

Both routes take time. Neither is a same-week process, and priority processing does not compress them, because the delay is in the decision rather than in printing the passport. If a trip is booked and consent is uncertain, start the process as soon as the disagreement is apparent rather than after tickets are paid for.

Separately, if you are concerned that a child may be taken out of Australia without your consent, the Family Law Watchlist is the mechanism that can prevent departure. The Australian Federal Police maintain it, and a child is placed on it by court order. This is the correct step where the risk is removal rather than a disputed application, and it works only if the order is obtained before the child leaves.

Withdrawing consent is possible before the passport is issued. Once issued, the passport exists and the watchlist is the relevant tool.

Start the application online through the Australian Passport Office. The system generates a form to print and sign, and tells you which documents to bring. Applying online first is now the normal route and reduces errors at the counter.

Get the child's full birth certificate, not an extract, a commemorative certificate or a hospital notice. The full certificate shows the parents, which is what establishes who must consent. If you do not have it, order it from the registry of births, deaths and marriages in the state where the child was born, and allow time — this alone can take weeks.

Establish Australian citizenship. For a child born in Australia to an Australian citizen or permanent resident parent, the birth certificate plus the parent's evidence generally does it. For a child born overseas to an Australian parent, you will usually need a certificate of Australian citizenship by descent, which is a separate application to the Department of Home Affairs and takes months. This is the single biggest timing trap for families who have moved to Australia or had a child abroad.

Get passport photos taken by someone who does them regularly. The rules cover size, background, expression, lighting, shadows, glasses and head position, and they are applied strictly. For babies, the photo must show the child alone with eyes open, no dummy, no hands supporting the head and no toys — which is why photos are the most common reason a child application is rejected at the counter.

Find a guarantor who meets the current requirements and has known the child or the family for the required period, and who can confirm the child's identity. The Passport Office publishes who is eligible and it is narrower than people assume.

Book an interview at a participating Australia Post outlet or an Australian Passport Office. The child must attend. Bring the printed application, all original documents, the photos and the identity documents of the person lodging.

Pay the fee. Child passport fees are lower than adult fees, and priority processing is an additional fee for faster printing and delivery. Fees are set annually, so check the current amount rather than budgeting from an old figure.

Track the application through the Passport Office's status tracker, and do not book non-refundable travel until the passport is physically in your hand.

Standard processing takes several weeks in normal conditions and longer during peak periods, particularly before school holidays. Priority processing shortens the printing and delivery time for an extra fee, but does nothing about the assessment of a complicated application.

A child passport is issued for a shorter period than an adult passport, because children's appearance changes. There is no renewal in the simplified sense available to adults — each application is treated as a new one with fresh consent, fresh photos and a fresh interview.

A child who turns 16 does not automatically move to the adult process for validity, and a passport issued while they were a child continues until it expires. From 18, the adult passport applies.

Many countries require at least six months of validity remaining on entry, and airlines enforce this at check-in. A passport that is technically valid for the trip can still result in a refused boarding. Check the entry requirements for every country in the itinerary, including transit points, on Smartraveller.

If the child's name changes — through a change of name registration, an adoption or a court order — the passport must be reissued in the new name, and the evidence of the change is required.

A lost or stolen child passport must be reported immediately. Once reported it is cancelled permanently and cannot be reinstated even if it turns up, so do not report a passport you have merely misplaced at home.

If the family lives outside Australia, applications are lodged at an Australian embassy, high commission or consulate, with different lodgement arrangements and longer timeframes. Consent requirements are identical.

A passport does not authorise travel. If a parenting order restricts taking the child out of Australia, or if proceedings are on foot, removing the child can be a serious offence even when the passport is validly held.

Carry evidence of your relationship to the child. Border officials in Australia and overseas may ask a parent travelling alone with a child to demonstrate consent from the other parent, and airlines increasingly ask at check-in. A full birth certificate plus a signed and dated letter of consent from the non-travelling parent, ideally with a copy of their identity document, resolves this in seconds.

Where surnames differ between parent and child, carry the birth certificate. This is the single most common reason a family is delayed at a border, and it is entirely avoidable.

Register the trip and check advisories on Smartraveller before departure, and take out travel insurance that covers the child. Consular assistance is not a substitute for insurance and the Australian Government does not pay medical or repatriation costs.

Check visa requirements for children separately. Some countries require a visa for a child even where the accompanying adult does not need one, and some require additional documentation for minors.

Make copies. Photograph the passport, the birth certificate and the consent letter, and store the images somewhere accessible from another device. Replacing a lost child passport overseas is far quicker when the details are to hand.

If a passport is lost overseas, contact the nearest Australian embassy, high commission or consulate. Emergency passports can be issued for immediate travel, and consent requirements still apply.