Travelling with children

By the law of Ukraine, Art. 313 para.3 of the Civil Code, children under 16 can leave the country only with parental (adoptive parents)or guardians consent and accompanied either by people mentioned above or a designated person.

Necessary documents:

Children under 16 can cross Ukrainian border by international passport, travel document or parents’ international passport (with children data included).

State migration service of Ukraine had suspended the production of travel documents for children, as well as practice of pasting their data into parent’s passports. However, travel documents are still valid up to October 1, 2019. Afterwards, international passports will be obligatory for travelling abroad.

• To leave the country with a designated person
  children under 16 must have an attested POA. Name of a person, country of destination and the duration of stay should be included into the document.

• Departure of underage citizens of Ukraine accompanied by one parent
  is possible with a notarized agreement of the other parent, unless he is at the Border Inspection Post. Country of destination and the duration of stay should also be included into the agreement.

Notarized agreement of one parent is not needed in the following cases:

• if the other parent is a foreigner or a stateless person, which is confirmed in the birth certificate of a child;
• if there is a corresponding record for permanent residence outside Ukraine or note on taking a consular registration in the diplomatic mission of Ukraine abroad;
• if there is a certificate of death of the other parent or his whereabouts unknown;
• judicial decision on termination of parental rights;
• judicial decision on recognition of the other parent to lack dispositive legal capacity;
• a child's birth certificate, issued by Civil Status Registration Office, specifying the grounds for entering information about the father in accordance with the first part of Article 135 of the Family Code of Ukraine (at the time of child’s departure abroad, accompanied by a single mother).

When travelling to the Republic of Moldova or Russian Federation (according to the Agreement between the government of Ukraine and the government of the Russian Federation as to the circumstances of mutual trips of citizens) children – citizens of Ukraine under the age of 16 may cross the state border with a birth certificate only.

We also recommend to familiarize oneself with the law № 2475-VIII adopted on July 03, 2018 and enacted on August 28, 2018. It provides that certain changes of children’s terms of travelling abroad are to be set.