Travel with Kid Overseas.

You either need a current (like within 2 months) form notarized saying he approves of the passport application, and a copy of his ID (front and back) or you need to fill out a form stating why the parent isn't with you and you don't have that information. What my DH ended up doing for SD was meeting his ex at a bank for pickup of the child, and getting the form notarized right then. Locally, there are few places who do passports without an appointment, so you will need to also factor in the time for the processing of the passport and getting the appointment. You may have to seek counsel from a lawyer if he refuses to fill out the form in a timely manner. It took several months before my DH got his ex to go to the notary.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passpor...

ETA: While child abductions do unfortunately happen, there are also legit times when a parent is being a jerk and is refusing for other reasons. That would be for the judge to determine. A friend of mine is a ex-pat living in Australia and her DH's ex gave them the run around for a while because she was jealous that they were planning a trip to see my friend's family in the US. There was no kidnapping planned, just a trip for a few weeks over school break. They finally got the passports for the kids when the mother decided she wanted to plan an overseas trip, too. So it was never about them having a passport in general, just not having one the father could use.

Both parents must be present to apply for passports for minors. The only exceptions are if you have a court order granting you sole custody, your child has a birth certificate with no father named, the father has died and you can present his death certificate, or if you have a court order stating that your child is allowed to travel overseas.

If your ex will not cooperate, you will have to get a court order to present to the passport agency. This will take time and money, so the sooner you can get it started, the better. Good luck! I will be going through the same thing soon.

Sorry, I'll be the voice of dissent... WAY too many "parental abductions" occur for me to believe you're going to find a judge to compel your ex to sign off on a passport for HIS child. It's unfortunate for you and your parents, but it's one of many issues that come up with relationships involving children and dif countries... If he is not willing, I think that's his right as parent to his child.

My understanding is that you can get a notarized form with his signature allowing you to get a passport without him there. I think it is on the passport website. My advice is to print it out and present him with it and ask him to sign(maybe have a notary there?) maybe if you stop asking but just try to make it happen he won't say no in the moment. If he says no I would send it via certified letter as well and then hire an attorney - if you have attempted to find a way for your child to see your family and he is blocking it- you may have a pretty good case - unless your custody arrangement forbid travelling out of the country

Do you believe that your husband would just rather not do it and is putting it off hoping the issue will go away? If that is the case, perhaps a notarized signature would work. Or do you believe he would actually fight it in court. The rule is in place so that a parent does not decide to skip the country and take the kids with them (since the kids belong to both parents). If your husband decides to fight in court, I suspect you would lose (you have family elsewhere and he could reasonably say he is scared you would not come back). I assume your child does not know his great grandparents at all and probably does not remember his grandparents. I would personally just go see my family by myself (you do have a babysitter who can't complain about the time you are gone). If you want your child to have a relationship with his grandparents, I would start Skyping with them regularly.