[hollybrian]

Hi,

We are traveling on a cruise to Canada and will be using DD's Russian passport to travel. I was wondering if anyone has done the same and what type of documents they needed. I will be bringing her certificate of citizenship and a color copy of her birth certificate and adoption decree with the translations. We didn't really want to travel with her originals of the last two items as they would be more difficult to replace. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Holly

[kretzklan]

From what I've always understood, the only time a child should travel with their Russian passport is when entering Russia (as they can't be issued a visa). If you have a US passport - I would use that for sure...much less chance of problems I would think!

[ddahl]

We were told by the US embassy not to travel with DS Russian Passport as in the event of an emergency DS would be left behind as he would be considered a Russian citizen having entered the country we were going to on a Russian Passsport. We did an expedited US passport as I clearly would not be leaving anyone behind... LOL!

[MominPA]

If you are going on a cruise prior to June 2009 and you leave depart and arrive from a US port a passport is not required. For example you leave from NYC to arrive back to NYC.

Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative

However if you are flying to Canada and leaving on the cruise from Canada a passport will be required.

Also look at this website:

DHS | Crossing U.S. Borders


Land/Sea Travel

Beginning January 31, 2008, the United States will end the practice of accepting oral declarations of citizenship at the border.

• U.S. citizens ages 19 and older must present documentation that proves both identity and citizenship. Identification documents must include a photo, name and date of birth. View the complete list of acceptable documents at CBP.gov for land travel and sea travel.
• Children ages 18 and under will only be required to present proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate

[Bcelli]

If you are a traveling family - in general - I would definitely acquire a U.S. passport for your daughter. So much international upheaval right now could cause any number of difficulties with differing citizenship documents. A passport is simple and to the point. When we went on a Carribbean cruise in 2006, DS2 did not yet have his passport and we were required to have either that or his ORIGINAL birth certificate or COC. We took the COC and the lady at the check-in desk almost folded it in half. I thought I was going to faint. A passport is just easier and easier to replace if something happens to it. Good luck. Have a great trip. :-)

[momofMikhail]

We just brought our son home April 08, but our agancy made sure that we knew not to have any layovers in Canada with our son. We were told Canada does not accept Russian citizens and our son would be deported back to Russia if we landed on Canadian soil. Our travel agent (that specialized in Russian adoptions, adopted herself from Russia) said the same thing. I would check into this before using your childs Russian passport.

[Ktates]

I checked into this last year when I "misplaced" dd's american passport the day we were supposed to travel to Ireland. Immigration told me I would have major problems coming back into the states on her Russian passport and they couldn't guarantee anything. (fortunately I found her passport).

I think you really need to get an American passport for dd.
Have a great trip!

[Drazil]

We travel alot (internationally as well as domestic) and our son has been home for 4 years from Russia. The ONLY country you can use your childs Russian passport in would be Russia. The easiest thing for you to do would be to obtain an American passport for your child. It eliminates the need to bring those very important papers with you when travelling as you do not want to misplace any of them! Good Luck!

[cathvash]

The easiest thing would be to just pay expedited charges to get a US passport quickly...

You MAY be able to get a travel visa from Canada for a Russian citizen. I do not know what their regulations/process are regarding entering Canada with a visa approval on a Russian passport, but if similar to the U.S., Russians may be able to enter for recreational travel with a pre-arranged visa. -Don't know what timeframe you are traveling, but the US has a process for getting an expedited visa, and Canada may also have a way to get a visa for a Russian passport on short timeframe for a bit of extra money...

I also know little about this, but another possibility is that in some countries you can arrange "transit" visas right at the airport or port. This is tricky, because sometimes they will do it for US citizens, but not for Russian citizens. When we traveled through Korea after completing Trip 2, we wanted to visit the city and eat out since we had an overnight layover. They would have allowed us to get a transit visas good for a day, but would NOT allow my newly adopted son since he was traveling on a Russian passport.

I hope you beat the deadlines and don't have to mess with getting a visa! I recommend that you contact the Canadian consulate with this issue...

[cindyc]

I would get a US passport. We just went on a cruise which included a couple of excursions to Canada. It sure made things easy to hold up that blue US passport and be waved through at checkpoints.

If we had travelled on the red passport, we would have held up a whole busload of people at one checkpoint. As it was, since everybody was US, the whole bus simply got waved through without a check.