Apparently in an effort to curtail child trafficking, RSA will be implementing new requirements on the 1st of June this year. It gets slightly complicated if your the sole parent with the child, as will be the case for me. A signed affidavit and notarized, giving mom's permission is essentially what is needed.

These new req'ts were written a couple years ago however. So I was wondering if anyone has run into this or heard of others who have?

I was in the Customs office in Birmingham AL to get a Form 4457 last week. There was a stack of traveler's guides there so I took one.

It says clearly that to travel outside the USA with children under 16 you need a notarized letter from both parents (or the parent not travelling) that authorizes the travel.

Of course, both parents must go to the Post Office when getting the passports for the child (or have a notarized letter).

My understanding is RSA requires an official copy of the child's birth certificate as well.

Thanks, guys. Good to know.

Thanks for the feedback. Notarized letter will be ready to go and I have my son's original birth cert. Also his passport of course.

7 sounds like you got it covered. Have a great hunt.

Returned from RSA yesterday. On entry to the country, no questions asked. When we left, I was asked at Tambo by the passport control officer if I was aware of the new regulations. Before I could answer she asked when we arrived.

I believe that since we arrived prior to the start of the enforcement of the new regs that she would have let us go. I told her when we arrived but she asked again if I knew about the new regs. I answered yes and provided her the notarized copy of my wife giving permission, an original BC for my son as well as copies of my wife's passport and driver's license. The latter to match the signature on the permission affidavit.

Basically I overwhelmed the lady a bit with documentation. She just gave it a cursory glance, smiled and stamped our passports.

Bottom line though is this is indeed being enforced. I even heard about it on the news while over there. So if you're traveling with your kids, make sure you've got your paperwork in order.

Traveling to Joberg today with my fifteen year old son. The new regulation went into effect on June 1st. Have all the docs required including the original birth certificate. There is a suggested form on South African customs website that you can fill in with all the details and signature blocks for traveling with a minor. Will try and post a link to it later.