Crossing a Border with a Child or Pet – Documents You Need

Children’s documents, the other parent’s consent, pet passports for dogs and cats, rabies vaccination and antibody tests – what you need at the border.

As of: 28 September 2026

Every child needs their own document

At the border, every person, regardless of age, must have a document proving their identity and citizenship. This includes babies – a child can no longer be added to a parent’s passport. For travel within the European Union, a child’s ID card or passport is enough. Travel outside the EU usually requires a passport, although some countries – such as Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina – also admit Polish citizens on an ID card. Ukraine and Belarus can be entered only on a passport.

A document in the Polish mObywatel app does not entitle you to cross the border – neither for adults nor for children. The Straż Graniczna (Polish Border Guard) has been reminding travellers of this during the temporary checks at the German and Lithuanian borders.

Before you go, check the expiry dates of your children’s documents. Documents for the youngest children are issued for a shorter period than adults’, and it’s easy to miss that a child’s ID card expires during the holidays. Some countries also require the document to remain valid for a set time after departure – 90 days for Serbia, while for Turkey a passport must be valid for at least 150 days from entry.

The other parent’s consent

Under Polish law, parents decide together on important matters concerning their child, and travelling abroad is one of them. If only one parent is travelling with the child, it’s advisable to have the other parent’s written consent with a notarised signature. When a child travels with grandparents, an aunt or on an organised trip, consent from both parents is needed. Consent to the issue of a passport is not the same as consent to travel.

There are no uniform rules on this in the European Union – each country decides for itself whether to require written consent for a minor. Even if your destination doesn’t require it, a transit country may ask for it. Requirements of selected countries according to the Polish foreign ministry:

Belarus: a child travelling with a third party must have written consent from the parents, translated by a sworn translator into Belarusian or Russian.
Montenegro: a child travelling without parents or with only one of them must show written consent from the other parent with a notarised signature.
North Macedonia and Albania: when travelling with a third party, parental consent is required in the form of a notarial deed in English.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: the person accompanying the child needs an authorisation from the parents signed before a notary, stating the purpose and length of stay.
Serbia: consent is not formally required, but the Polish foreign ministry recommends a notarised consent from the other parent in English.
Turkey: officials may ask about the right of custody over the child; it’s worth carrying a multilingual copy of the birth certificate (especially if the parents’ and child’s surnames differ) and, when travelling with a third party, a notarised parental consent with a translation into Turkish or English.

A good consent form includes the details of both parents and the child, document numbers, the purpose and duration of the trip, the destination countries and the details of the person the child is travelling with. A sworn translation into the language of the destination country or into English saves having to translate at the border.

Non-EU children and the EES

If children without EU citizenship are travelling in the car, they will be registered in the EES system when entering the Schengen area. Children under 12 don’t give fingerprints, but their facial image is taken and their document data recorded. We go into detail in our guide to the EES system.

Dogs, cats, ferrets – travelling within the European Union

When travelling between EU countries, dogs, cats and ferrets need:

a European pet passport issued by an authorised vet,
a microchip (or a legible tattoo if it was applied before 3 July 2011),
a valid rabies vaccination.

The first vaccination can be given to an animal at least 12 weeks old, and travel is allowed only once at least 21 days have passed since that vaccination. Booster vaccinations must be given before the previous one expires – otherwise the 21-day wait applies again. On a non-commercial trip you may take a maximum of five animals.

Finland, Ireland, Malta, Norway and Northern Ireland also require dogs to be treated against tapeworm 1–5 days before entry – this doesn’t affect the countries on the route south, but it’s worth remembering for other trips.

Leaving the EU and returning with a pet

Most problems arise on the way back into the EU. From countries not on the EU list – the Polish General Veterinary Inspectorate names Ukraine and Turkey among them – a dog, cat or ferret may enter the EU only if the effectiveness of the vaccination is confirmed by a rabies antibody titre test in an approved laboratory. Blood can be taken no earlier than 30 days after vaccination, and if the test is done outside the EU, you must wait 3 months from the date the sample was taken before entering.

The solution for people setting off from Poland: have the antibody test done before you leave, in an approved laboratory, and ask your vet to enter the result in the pet passport. An animal with an EU passport in which a valid test result was entered before departure, and whose vaccinations have been kept up without a gap, can return without the three-month wait and without an EU health certificate. Animals entering the EU are checked at designated travellers’ points of entry – the list for Poland is set out in a regulation of the Polish agriculture minister.

Non-EU countries have their own requirements. Turkey accepts up to two dogs, cats or birds in total on a non-commercial trip, requires a microchip, a health certificate and a vaccination record with the chip number, and animals that don’t meet the requirements may be sent back or quarantined at the owner’s expense. Montenegro allows up to five animals with a chip, passport and rabies vaccination. Before travelling to Ukraine, check the rules of the Ukrainian customs and veterinary services.

Pre-departure checklist

A valid ID card or passport for every child, checked against the destination country’s requirements.
Notarised consent from the other parent or both parents if the child isn’t travelling with both, ideally with a translation.
Pet passport, microchip, up-to-date rabies vaccination (at least 21 days after the first vaccination).
For travel outside the EU – the antibody test result entered in the passport before you leave.
Water, shade and breaks – waiting in a hot car at a border with a long queue is especially tiring for children and animals; check current waiting times and pick a time with a shorter queue.