So it’s official. My 7-month-old son recently received an American passport in the mail that I did not consent to or sign for. Whoever signed the application was not me, so either the biological father forged my signature or had someone else sign my name for him. I signed him up for the Child Passport Issuance Alert Program (CPIAP), but the passport has already been issued and arrived. What do I do now? Can I destroy the US passport? Give it to someone for safekeeping and wait until it expires? Try to return it? We (my son & I) are Canadian citizens and do not live in the US. The closest embassy is a 2 hr/$300 flight away. And seeing as I am not American, I can’t really access their services anyways. Is my son’s biological father going to be charged with passport fraud if I say anything to the US gov’t?
Do I understand this correctly? You submitted the paperwork to have your son recognized as a US citizen, even though you live in Canada?
It’s a legal document, so you may get in trouble for destroying it. It doesn’t appear he was sneaking if it was mailed to your home.
When my husband and I got a passport for our son, we both had to show up with ID. How did he get the passport without your consent?
Requirements are still the same. If one parent cannot be there, they must provide a notarized form giving permission. Who did he present for the appointment?
Even if you hold on to it, he can get a replacement. I would file that they do not have your legal signature or permission.
Yes, I am aware of all the paperwork he and I had to submit. The interview was just a clerk at a wall desk asking me questions.
You need a better attorney. If the child is close to leaving the US without a custody order, this is considered family kidnapping.
Yeah, except we went through almost this exact situation. Our attorney took it to a family court, but they said it was a Federal issue.
I explicitly told bio father I would not consent or sign an application for a US passport, and yet here it is.
Do not destroy the passport. You need to figure out how this was done and fight it through legal channels.
If bio dad is a US citizen and registered the baby with the US consulate, the government responds by sending a passport.
You can also put a notice with passport control that the child cannot go out of the country without the custodial parent’s permission.