Your Worldschooling Journey: Travel Documents

Planning a long-term trip with your family brings a lot of excitement—choosing destinations, mapping routes, and planning adventures. But before you get too swept up in the fun part, it’s important to tackle one of the less glamorous but absolutely essential pieces: getting your travel paperwork in order. In this post, we’ll walk you through the essentials, offer tips from experienced worldschooling families, and help you feel confident that your documents are ready.

Passports

To travel internationally, you must bring the right documents, including up-to-date passports. Without them, you could be denied boarding, or even worse, entry into the country you’re intending to visit. Make sure you allow plenty of time in your planning phase to get all family members a valid passport.

Passport rules vary by country and change often, so research them thoroughly for each destination you plan to visit—before you leave home. Some countries require that your passport be valid for six months after your departure date. For US residents, passport initial application and renewal instructions can be found on the USPS website.

Some additional tips:

If you or a family member needs a passport, you should start the application process at least three to four months before your initial departure.
If you need a passport sooner than the lead times quoted by your passport service office, you can pay additional fees for an expedited passport.
If you need a renewal while abroad, you can visit the local embassy. It may be able to offer a faster turnaround time. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to cross any borders until you receive your renewed passport.
There are many third-party companies that will help you navigate the passport application process and obtain any visas you require (for a fee).
Make sure the names you use to book travel match exactly the names on your passports. If you’ve recently gotten married or divorced or changed your name for any other reason, ensure the name on your passport is how it appears on your travel documents.
Travelers can select male (M), female (F), or another gender identity (X) as their gender marker on passports; this identifier does not need to match the gender shown on supporting documentation like birth certificates, state IDs, or previous passports. No medical documentation is required to change the gender marker on passports.
Put a unique sticker on the cover of each family member’s passport—this is a great way to identify quickly whom each passport belongs to, without having to flip through to find the ID page.
Make a photocopy of each family member’s passport and other key documents to keep in a separate place while traveling in case the original is lost, stolen, or damaged. Put a scanned digital copy on your laptop or in cloud storage. While these can’t be used in place of the original, copies can give you a head start in replacing a passport.

In addition to passports, a limited number of countries require that parents present an unabridged birth certificate for each of their children up to age eighteen to gain entry or secure a visa. Concerns about child abductions have made government officials around the world wary when only one parent is traveling with a child, and sometimes even when both parents are present. If traveling as a single parent, in addition to your passports and your child’s birth certificate, you should bring written, notarized consent for travel signed by all living parents or legal guardians. Check destination-country rules online. Customs and border agents take these rules very seriously, and we’ve personally witnessed families getting turned away at international borders.

Visas

You’ll be able to enter some countries without a visa or obtain one upon arrival. For others, you’ll need to obtain a visa ahead of time so that you have it in hand when you arrive. Embassies and consulates will have the most current information for each country; for US-issued passport holders, this information can be found at the Department of State’s website. A couple of other recommendations:

Make sure you bring additional passport-sized photos with you. Many countries require one or two for entry visas and/or trekking permits. Trust us, you don’t want to get stuck using the grossly overpriced (and often painfully slow) airport photo booths, or worse, be turned around at a border due to not having a photo.
For each country in your itinerary, research visa and immigration “insider tips” online before you go. These will often provide info about how to navigate the process, whether you need to pay in cash (and whether they prefer US dollars or local currency), and how to avoid scams at the border.

Visa applications typically require information on your planned length of stay and departure date, and they often require documentation showing your plan for exiting the country (such as proof of a purchased plane or train ticket for onward travel). If you plan to stay in a country for an extended period, a tourist visa might not be possible. You should always check visa rules if you’ll be spending more than three months in one location.

Special note: The Schengen Area is a European zone of countries that have abolished internal borders, allowing its citizens to travel from one country to another within the region as if it is a single country. In general, the residents of non-Schengen countries need to obtain a visa to visit. Websites are available to help travelers track their lengths of stay and visa rules within the Schengen Area.

International Driving Permit

If you plan to drive in a foreign country, you’ll likely need an International Driving Permit (IDP), often and incorrectly referred to as an International Driver’s License. An IDP is a document you use along with your valid home driver’s license that allows you to legally operate a motor vehicle while abroad. You can get an IDP at most AAA offices, and it is typically valid for one year after issue.

Make sure you understand the local rules of the road for all countries you’ll be visiting. Also, research whether your credit card provider and/or insurance company covers car rentals overseas, particularly if you’ve made changes to your policy prior to travel. Annika’s auto insurance company wouldn’t cover a camper van in New Zealand, so her family had to buy local insurance for that portion of their trip.

Notes on Currency

These days, it’s typically easiest to simply pull money from ATMs once you’ve arrived at a foreign destination. Watch out for foreign transaction fees, which are often imposed by both the ATM owner and your own bank. Check for debit cards that bypass some or all of the home-bank expenses, and do some homework to know the best places to retrieve money locally in the country you plan to visit. Load your bank info and credit cards into your digital wallet to make things even easier.

There will be times when you need funds and won’t have them. Your credit card won’t work, or a vendor will only take cash or digital-wallet transactions (and transaction vendors, such as Venmo in the US, vary widely by location). A good tip is to carry along a bit of US cash from home. A US\$20 bill goes a long way in many countries when local currency isn’t readily available.

Navigating Airport Security

If you are considering worldschooling, you may have already navigated through airport security with your kids. Here’s some good news: if your Wonder Year includes air travel, your kids will probably get very good at it. Here are a few ideas to help make the process easier on everyone:

Practice your security-line process. Even young kids can know which items they’ll need to remove from bags and backpacks and how to pack them in a way that makes doing so quick and easy.
Be prepared to encounter long lines or make last-minute security checks. Sometimes you’ll be selected for secondary screening when traveling with your children. Be sure to remain calm and polite throughout the process.
Bring snacks, entertainment, and a plan for bathroom breaks. Your kids will appreciate it if you’ve considered these things ahead of time, especially on long-haul flights.
Be patient. Security procedures can seem long and tedious, but with enough preparation, you and your kids will be able to handle them with ease.

While preparing travel documents may not be the most glamorous part of worldschooling, it’s an essential step in the process. Taking the time to ensure everything is ready can save your family time, stress, and even money along the way. Think of it as building a strong foundation beneath your travels: once it’s in place, you’re more free to explore the world with confidence.