Children travelling abroad without parents need special form

Any child under 18 leaving France alone – such as to visit relatives – needs an autorisation de sortie de territoire (permission to leave the country) form signed by their parent or guardian.

Oliver Rowland
Published Last updated

This measure, which was brought in from January this year, was largely intended to stop young people leaving France for Syria. It is required whenever the child is not accompanied by at least one parent or guardian.

The child also needs to be carrying – as well as their passport or ID card – a photocopy of an identity document for the adult who signed their permission form.

You can download a copy of the relevant form (No. 15646*01) at: www.tinyurl.com/sortie-info

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Note that if you use a married name, you need to put your birth surname under nom and the married one under nom d’usage.

You are also asked to insert a validity expiry date for the form, which cannot be more than a year after the date when you sign it off (eg. if you sign on June 15, the last possible date is June 14, 2018).

You also have to cross a box to say what kind of ID document copy you are giving the child and the issue date of the original document.

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