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Minor flying to Mexico


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jak,

I like luisa's plan.

I waited at the exit of custom's. Our daughter had already studied 2 years of Spanish, her best friend across the street (in the USA) was a Mexicana niña called Kiki, and they spoke Spanish at home, so, our daughter was comfortable with simple conversational Spanish.

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snowyco: did you meet your 7 year old daughter and help her through customs or did she have to negotiate immigration and customs on her own? My daughter will be coming to Guadalajara and I will meet her at the airport - and getting notarized letters will be no problem - but I'm concerned she won't understand how to negotiate customs and immigration on her own (although in my experience, it's the trip back into the US where customs is more annoying).

They do not allow a minor to push the button to see if they get a red or green light so they will ask the child's guardian to come in and do that for the minor. They are very kind to travelling children.

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Please pay for escort services. When your minor is escorted, the escort takes them through immigration, then brings you into the customs area. The escort confirms that you are the person who is designated to meet the minor. You take responsibility over and you and the minor go through customs. I would not send a teenager through unescorted until they were very experienced. Our niece, then 18, was on a flight to Guadalajara that was diverted to Leon. She was then put in a van and driven to Guadalajara. She was dropped off at the domestic end of the terminal. Fortunately she had flown in, escorted, many times, and she knew to go to the other end of the terminal where we had been waiting, very worried, for hours. We were not able to get any information from the airline, United, and we had no idea where she was. No one could tell us where the plane landed, just that it landed. I really wished she had been young enough to be escorted.

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My son has been flying unaccompanied for about 5 years now. when he was 12 and his brother was 10, they allowed the two of them to fly AirTran without having to pay the unaccompanied minor fee (meaning they were not chaperoned). They had a 6 hour layover in Atlanta and did just fine. My son has a cell phone and has been taking Spanish in High School. He's very much capable of doing it on his own. Now, if he was a few years younger and flying internationally, I'd pay for the services. He flies Springfield, Missouri to Dallas, and then Dallas to Guadalajara. I've put him on a morning flight out of Dallas so that they have all day for plane screwups and delays.

Also, since he is still a minor, if the plane were diverted, they would tell me where it went, etc. since I will be in the passenger flight notes. That is where it is important that the adult dropping them off at the airport makes sure that they get the information correct as to who is picking them up at the airport so that you can have access to that info. 18 years and older, they won't do that. They are adults.

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  • 1 month later...

Wanted to give you guys an update - for those in a similar situation of are having grand kids fly down alone this summer.

My son flew American Airlines, but I understand the rules are pretty much the same across the board. If the child is under 18 and flying without one or both parents/ legal guardians you need a notarized letter in BOTH English and Spanish from either the absent parent or both parents.

If the child is flying using the airlines unaccompanied minor service, someone from the airline will walk your child out of customs to find you to come back with them to sign their landing card and watch them push the button

If your child is flying alone and not using the unaccompanied minor service, they will walk out by themselves (looking a bit dazed and confused) and find you and you will need to accompany them back into the customs area via an entrance off to the left. Once inside you will sign the landing card and watch the child push the button and if they get green you guys can go, if red they check the bags.

My son doesn't speak very much Spanish but he was able to find one customs agent that spoke enough English to help him figure out what he was supposed to do.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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