Letter of authorisation for children under 18
A child travelling to Nigeria without both parents needs written consent, and the consulate is specific about what that consent has to look like. The requirement shows up in two places: on the letter of authorisation itself and inside the Emergency Travel Certificate process for minors.
The signatures on the consent letters have to match the signatures on the parents' passports, and the parents' names have to match those on the child's birth certificate.What that condition means in practice
It sounds like a formality and it is the thing that fails. A parent who has signed differently for years, or whose married name appears on one document and not the other, has a mismatch to resolve before posting anything.
- Letter addressed to the Consul General of the office that covers your state
- Signed by both parents, unless custody says otherwise
- Copies of both parents’ Nigerian passport data pages
- Copy of the child’s birth certificate
- Details of who the child is travelling with and the itinerary
When only one parent signs
- Check the child’s own passport validity, not just the consent letter
- Carry the original letter, not a scan, and a copy of each parent’s passport
- Airlines have their own unaccompanied minor rules on top of this
None of this replaces the child's travel document. A minor still needs a valid Nigerian passport, and a child's booklet runs five years whichever option you pay for.
Why the signature rule exists
The condition looks bureaucratic and it is a child protection measure. A consent letter is only worth what the verification behind it is worth, and the only signature a consulate can verify is the one on a passport it can see.
That is why a notarised letter with a signature that does not resemble the passport is worse than useless: the notary confirmed who signed, not that the signature matches the record the consulate holds.
Names that stopped matching
The other half of the rule catches families more often. The consulate compares the parents' names on the consent letter with the names on the child's birth certificate, and a married name adopted after the birth breaks that link.
The fix is to produce the marriage certificate alongside, which bridges the two names in the same way it does for any other Nigerian document. Sending the consent letter without it invites a query and a delay.
What to carry on the day
Consulates issue the authorisation; airlines and immigration officers are the ones who ask to see it. Carry the original letter rather than a scan, a copy of each parent's passport data page, and the child's birth certificate.
Airlines add their own unaccompanied minor procedures on top, with their own forms and their own age thresholds. Those are booked with the carrier and have nothing to do with the consulate, which is a distinction worth making before assuming one covers the other.