Child Travel Consent Letter Authentication for United Arab Emirates

When a child travels to the UAE with one parent or a relative, airlines and immigration may ask for the other parent's consent. A notarized consent letter from Florida usually serves the trip without attestation. Attestation matters when the letter is filed with a UAE authority, for example to sponsor the child's residence or enroll the child in school without the other parent present. Include passport numbers, dates and the accompanying adult's details.

A specific letter naming the child, the consenting parent or parents, the accompanying adult, the destination and the travel dates, signed before a Florida notary with a complete notarial certificate (venue, presence or online box, date, ID type, seal). Names must match each passport exactly, and the dates must cover the actual trip.

Draft the letter yourself (Florida law prescribes no form), then sign before any Florida notary or through our online notarization add-on, where each parent can sign separately from wherever they are: $40 for the first document ($10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee) and $20 for each additional document. Notarization is not included in our $220. Many trips need only a notarized letter, so confirm the apostille is actually required.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the child travel consent letter page.

After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it must be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State; the UAE Embassy states that personal and educational documents need that attestation before submission. Next comes attestation by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., through the processing center it designates. Finally, the document is attested in the UAE by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its website or app. We don't handle, arrange or refer anyone for those steps.

We don't handle or arrange the U.S. Department of State or embassy steps. See how non-Hague authentication works.

Inside the UAE, attested documents are used by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which performs the final attestation), immigration and residency authorities for family sponsorship, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and professional regulators for employment and licensing, free-zone authorities and economic departments for company setup, and the courts and land departments for estates and property. In the U.S., attestation is done by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., which accepts submissions through an outside processing center it designates.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it accepts documents in English or Arabic, or an official translation. Courts, land departments and some ministries may still ask for a legal Arabic translation, often made in the UAE by a legal translator. Ask the receiving office before you translate anything in Florida; if it accepts a Florida translation, it should be certified by the translator, notarized by a different notary and authenticated in Florida.

We found no single published UAE rule on document age. Employers and authorities may want recently issued vital records or background checks, so ask your sponsor or the receiving authority how recent each document must be before you start the chain.

Consular office serving Florida: Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington, D.C.

$220 per document, $380 for two and $160 each for three or more — the state fee, request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee and FedEx shipping inside the U.S. are included. Shipping the finished authentication to United Arab Emirates is a flat $100 per order.

Not included: whatever the issuing office charges for the certified copy or certificate, and notarization (online notarization is $40 for the first document — $10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee — and $20 for each additional one).