DottM

Hi All,

I am the very recent (2 weeks ago) proud father of my dual citizen daughter . I was born in the UK and her Mum is a US citizen. I am presently on a GC (currently in the process of completing my removal of restrictions) and plan to apply for US citizenship next year.

I have been doing some research on applying to have her birth registered and obtaining her a UK passport. We are also in the process of obtaining her a US passport as she will be flying to the UK at Christmas to meet the crazy half of the family.

So far I have completed the form (a word document!!) to register her birth with the UK. I know this isn't required but is advised. I feel it makes a lot of sense to prevent trouble down the line.

I would also like to apply for a UK passport and had a couple of questions:

1. It asks to send a copy of any passports she presently holds. At the moment she holds none but should have a US passport soon. Should I wait for that to come through first?
2. Does anyone have any recommendations on where I can get UK spec passport photos taken? I have read walgreens but my local one just looked at me funny when I asked.
3. What courier service have others used? I checked FedEx and UPS that come in at nearly $100 for each envelope (One for the birth registration and one for the passport registration) which seems very expensive. USPS seems to come in at around $30 but I just don't trust them with such important documents. Another thought I had was putting them all in one envelope and then sending them to family in the UK and having them mail them special delivery to the relevant processing centers. Is this possible?
4. Another option I thought about is waiting until we are over in December and making a same day appointment at the passport office. Is this possible for an overseas birth?

Any advice/past experience shared would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Scott

BritInParis

No, you can send it as is.

I don't have first-hand experience but the forum consensus is you just need to find a Walgreens with someone who knows what they're doing.

You could do but by the time they're spent out on two Royal Mail Special Delivery envelopes as well you probably won't be saving much money.

There is no same day appointment service available for a first time child applicant. The fastest service available would take three weeks.

petitefrancaise

Congratulations!

Go to another walgreens and take the dimensions with you, they have this setting in their software but may not be aware that it's for the UK...

I would not use USPS to send this type of stuff. Tracking is hit and miss once it gets into the hands of the Royal Mail. Flat rate envelopes from UPS will cost you about $60 a time for 3-5 day service. I sent both mine and my daughter's application forms and old passports in one envelope and it was just under the 0.5lb for the cheapest envelope. For some reason UPS don't list this lower weight on the website, you need to go to the office for it.
They get sent back DHL from the passport office.

Have you thought about getting a UK birth certificate? I didn't register my daughter's birth with the UK when we were in France, but I have got a birth certificate for her (this is also expensive) Not sure you would need both but maybe someone will enlighten me if I'm wrong?

DottM

Thank you for the response! I have seen others like petitefrancaise mention getting a flat rate envelope in store for $60 which would be much more worthwhile than special delivery.

Thanks! I will print out the dimensions and go in and ask. I did ask at my local one which is a little out in the middle of nowhere so I will maybe take a drive to downtown Austin and see if I have better luck there.

I have the application ready to go to register her birth and purchase one certificate. They are much more expensive at 50GBP each at the time of the application but they say from November each year you can then get one from the registry office. So I plan to just collect a few more when I visit at Christmas. I figured for a few hundred it was worth registering it so she always had the paperwork incase anything ever changed or happened to me.

Thanks for the tip on UPS I will go visit them today and see what they can do for shipping it.

DottM

One more question. for the countersignatory it states that if we are applying out with the UK that the countersignatory needs to provide a color photocopy of their passport. I had planned to have a doctor or something similar sign the form but I can't imagine them being happy providing a copy of their passport to me. How have others achieved this?

Pulaski

Not all Walgreens do! You have been told this before!

I visited two different Walgreens and went through all menus with the staff, and it is not there, and other people have confirmed this independently, including IIRC Lansbury (3,000 miles across the country from me), whose local Walgreens used to have the British setting (so he knows what he is looking for), but the machine was replaced and the British setting has gone.

jkeller

I used UPS worldwide express saver. 2 day service from Texas to Durham, fully trackable the entire way. It was $65-70 if I'm remembering correctly.
https://www.ups.com/ca/en/shipping/i...ess-saver.page

Mailed it from one of those UPS stores.

petitefrancaise

oh, this is what you were talking about! Don't get crappy with me!!

Can't you take a photo with your phone and upload it now? someone on BE mentioned this the other day.

There are also online places that will print out passport photos that you take at home using their software and if you're really stuck then you could try costco.

Jerseygirl

DottM...i have moved your thread over to our UK Immigration forum.

If you have any questions about US citizenship/passports please post them in the following forum...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/us-im.../#post12327834

Jerseygirl

My husband always takes and prints our photos...he has done this for US citizenship, US and UK passports.

petitefrancaise

I think someone did this from the USA - in the last week?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/c...ation-roll-out

Pulaski

Why do you think you deserve special treatment?

DottM

Thanks everyone, I found an app called "my photo lite" that allowed me to take a pic then save it on a 6x4" template and print it at CVS for 30cents. The biggest challenge was getting a 3 week old to pose for the picture. We applied in the office for a US passport and it was accepted. The lady even commented we had done "so well" with the pictures.

I printed some U.K. Spec photos and sent off all the paperwork. I guess I'll find out within a couple of weeks if they are accepted.

holly_1948

The solution is simple.
Do go to Walgreens or wherever but ask the clerk not to cut the prints down to size but to simply give you the uncut prints.
The UK passport people will cut them down to the correct UK size for you.

Pulaski

Which is pretty much what I did - I took "raw" US PP photos and, after checking the dimensions of my head in the photos, cut the print to UK PP size. My new passport was returned on the eighth day after I mailed it (it was sent and received in the UK).