Whose idea was it to stop allowing children to be put onto their parents’ passports? Certainly not someone with an ounce of commonsense. The only advantage I can see is that there is a photo … which is hardly an advantage for the border guard who has to decide whether the two month old baby in the passport photo could have turned into the four year old in front of him! But of course you have to play by the rules, and since we want to take Simon to the UK in April, we had the choice of getting him a British passport, a French passport or a French ID card. We settled on the ID card in the end, as it is free and should take less time to process.
So yesterday I took Simon to the photo booth to try to get photos taken. I would not recommend this to anyone else who is thinking of getting passport photos done for a baby. Despite Simon being very good, it was impossible to get a photo done which complied with the regulations … in the final result – which you can see below – all the conditions are fulfilled … except that you can see me. And even if I’m not recognisable, we decided not to risk sending it off just to have it sent back and our application slowed down.
Today I went to a professional photographer and again had to hold Simon, but at least this time a real person was taking the photo so I didn’t have to worry about getting his head in a red circle on a screen! And the photographer can zoom in so that his head is the right size to comply with the regulations. This time I think Simon was even looking straight at the camera (I get them back tomorrow).
On the website with information about British passport photos, they do make some concessions for children under five – they don’t have to have a neutral expression, they don’t have to be looking directly at the camera, their heads can be smaller than an adult head (phew!) – and babies under one don’t even have to have their eyes open. But they don’t say anything about those concessions on the equivalent French site, so I don’t want to take any chances!!
I have heard that occasionally French people flying back to France have a hard time if they just have an ID card not a passport, but apparently on the ferries there is never any problem. I hope not, as I’m not leaving Simon in the UK when we come back! (Even though his family over there probably wouldn’t mind!)
So yesterday I took Simon to the photo booth to try to get photos taken. I would not recommend this to anyone else who is thinking of getting passport photos done for a baby. Despite Simon being very good, it was impossible to get a photo done which complied with the regulations … in the final result – which you can see below – all the conditions are fulfilled … except that you can see me. And even if I’m not recognisable, we decided not to risk sending it off just to have it sent back and our application slowed down.
Today I went to a professional photographer and again had to hold Simon, but at least this time a real person was taking the photo so I didn’t have to worry about getting his head in a red circle on a screen! And the photographer can zoom in so that his head is the right size to comply with the regulations. This time I think Simon was even looking straight at the camera (I get them back tomorrow).
On the website with information about British passport photos, they do make some concessions for children under five – they don’t have to have a neutral expression, they don’t have to be looking directly at the camera, their heads can be smaller than an adult head (phew!) – and babies under one don’t even have to have their eyes open. But they don’t say anything about those concessions on the equivalent French site, so I don’t want to take any chances!!
I have heard that occasionally French people flying back to France have a hard time if they just have an ID card not a passport, but apparently on the ferries there is never any problem. I hope not, as I’m not leaving Simon in the UK when we come back! (Even though his family over there probably wouldn’t mind!)
3 comments:
Hi Hil! I'll be happy to give you some comments. Simon is getting so big, and so adorable! I don't envy you the task of trying to take those photos. Always a challenge with a little one. I'm glad to have this way of keeping up with you. Blogs are great. You can check mine out sometime, though I don't imagine Moms (sorry, Mummies?) have much free time on their hands!
Oh, by the way, my website is www.xanga.com/ky_stacifer
"I have heard that occasionally French people flying back to France have a hard time if they just have an ID card not a passport, "
I've never had any problems flying / sailing / driving / swimming back from the UK with an ID card only. I've never had a passport anyway :)
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