Travel with Katie Butler: New US entry travel rules for under-18s

If a child is traveling to US with only one of their custodial parents, they must have written consent from the other parent.

Katie Butler writes: We spend a lot of our time checking and keeping an eye on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advice to ensure we are up to speed with what is going on around the world, particularly in our most popular customer hotspots.

Throughout Covid we were logged in to the website continuously, more recently we have alerts that come through to us via email.

The FCDO advise us on entry requirements to destinations in addition to any current weather occurrences and political unrest etc.

Last week we had an important update for travel to the USA relating to children travelling aged 17 and under.

The new rules for children under this age bracket means that now if a child (17 and under) is travelling with only one parent or someone who is not a parent or legal guardian, they will be asked on arrival to provide written consent to the US Customs and Border Protection from both parents, or the parent who is not accompanying the child.

The US authorities can stop any person from entering the USA if they have safeguarding concerns and so it is really important for example; if you are taking your child’s friend away with you or travelling as a single parent that you obtain this written consent before you travel to avoid complications at Border Force.

If you are taking the grand kids – this applies to you too.

Finally, the Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to make it clear as to the entry rules for travelling to the States if you have previously travelled to Cuba.

It seems after months of unclarity, the US have confirmed the entry rule to the FCDO.

On January 1, 2021, the then US president Donald Trump announced that foreigners who had visited Cuba would no longer be allowed to enter the US under its visa waiver scheme.

This meant that instead of being able to apply for an ESTA online, passengers who had previously travelled to Cuba would have to obtain a visa from the embassy in London.

It was initially unclear whether the rule only applied to tourists who had travelled to Cuba after January 2021, or if those who had travelled to Cuba in the prior years also needed to obtain a visa.

Thankfully this has now been confirmed.

This will certainly not help the tourist industry in Cuba, as of course, those that aim to travel to the States in the future are now avoiding travel to the Caribbean destination.

Last week it was all about Europe and the Med with 94 per cent of our new bookings to travel 'local'.

Undeniably, we are in late deal season with a whopping 40 per cent of our bookings made to travel within the next 12 weeks, pre-dominantly to Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.