Lagos2014

Hello

My husband and I are British citizens. Our daughter was born 10 weeks ago in Nigeria and we are applying for her UK passport in hope of traveling there this Christmas.

If you've been in a similar situation please can you tell me:

How long it took you to get your child's passport to arrive?
What supporting documents you sent?
How long it took for your supporting documents to be returned to you?
Any alternative routes to gaining entry just in case the timeframe is too short for us to receive her passport for Christmas?

Thank you!

SanDiegogirl

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports/y

Pizzawheel

In 2006 it took over four months for us (I remember cos my mum ended up coming to Lagos to see her first grandchild). I took my daughter into the interview with me as the poor bugger was such a spitting image of me that had to be worth something- I also took pretty much all photo albums with the mum both before and after marriage. After the interview producing the passport was fairly quick but I think they`re produced abroad and sent in since the HC `lost` a box of blank passports a few years back.

My wife was Nigerian so not sure if that might have slowed things.

HKG3

Have you consider consular birth registration for your child?

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth

Can your child get citizenship from another country for example Nigeria?

You can get a certificate of entitlement from the local British consulate using a non British passport. Your child (with the certificate of entitlement) will be treated as a British Citizen at the UK border.

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/overview

Pizzawheel

I'm not sure what the benefit would be of the consular birth registration over just applying for citizenship straight off?

If I recall we got the Nigerian passport through about the same time as the British one, and had to fight for that (under Nigerian custom the child takes the father's nationality only. the law doesn't say this anymore but it did take some legal intervention).

If neither parent is Nigerian the child doesn't qualify anyhow.

scot47

Consular Birth Registration means that in future a copy of the certificate can be accessed through Register House in London.

That could be important. It was certainly useful for my daughter who was born in Jeddah. When she needed a copy of her birth certificate, she was able to phone a UK number and order it !

Lagos2014

Hi all,

Three weeks ago we applied online for the certificate of right to abode and were successful. The process was as follows:

1. Applied for daughters Nigerian passport at Ikoyi passport office

2. Applied online for her certificate of right to abode: https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/home/welcome
It was over $400!

3. Attended Visa Office in Victoria Island with print out of the application form and supporting documentation. They dont tell you which documents to bring so we took everything e.g. entire families birth certificates, UK passports, marriage certificate, parental letter of consent etc They made copies of all our documents and returned most of the originals on the same day EXCEPT for the birth certificates.

4. We tracked our application online and after 3 weeks were told to collect her passport

5. Collected her passport at the Victoria Island Visa Office and our original documents were returned to us with her passport which contained the visa stamp. Voila!

We will apply for her British Passport when we arrive in the UK. Hope this info helps someone. Much quicker than applying for a UK passport from Nigeria as this would involve us sending original passports and other documents to the UK and a timescale of up to 9 months.

Lade

Hi,
We are on the 9th week now and we really hope it comes b4 the scheduled 14 weeks...
Documents
My Nigerian pp
My husband British pp
Proof of address
Pictures of proof of address where the applicant resides
All my antenatal records
I'd cards
Marriage cert
Can't remember all but we did submit alot
Hope this helps

Lagos2014

I'm certain it will come though on time

Lade

I really pray so...feels like forever you know...

Lade

Aaawww lucky u....right now my heads banging....still have my spouse visa application pending....hmmm...ooga ooo

Lade

Hi lagos2014,
Were u called In for an interview?? And if yes please what was it all about ??

Lagos2014

No -we were not interviewed. Both my husband and I are British Nationals so I'm guessing it was considered a straightforward case.

vinkeke

Hi Lagos2014,

Am planing to apply for my sons right of abode in nigeria and wish you could help me with the following:

Did you register with your details (your name) or your childs details (name) at: https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/home/welcome.

And on starting the application did you which option did you choose betwwen the following:

1. Please select Apply For Myself to start your visa application.

2. If you are applying on behalf of some one else please select Apply For Someone Else.

And lastly what documents did you take to the interview.

Thank you.

Lagos2014

Hi,

1. The website you have is correct and I registered using babys name.

2. I chose to 'apply for someone else'

3. I filled in the application using babys name

4. We took the following:
parents and siblings passports
parents and siblings birth certificates
babys state birth certificate
babys confirmation of birth from hospital w
babys Nigerian passport as the certificate of abode goes inside.

They made photocopies of our passports and returned them to us. The rest of the documents were sent off.

Hope this helps and sorry for late reply. This website was down.