bumblebee222

hi I hoping someone will be able to help us, we are going to canada in a few months to be with our surrogate who will be giving birth to our twins. We need british passports for both of them to bring them home. My husband is biologically their father and was born in britain and holds a british full passport. I am not biologically their mother but will be applying to be once they are 6 weeks old (surrogacy terms) and i too born in britain and hold a full passport.
Their biological mother is born in canada and lived there all of her life..she holds no passport.

I have tried and tried to find out the process for applying for the two british passports and all i can find out is that they will now have to be sent to Washington DC but i can not find out if i can fast track the passports like u can if u were in britain. No one seems willing to help me with my many questions and id really like to get this sorted.

Also i looked at the C2 form and it says it will need a counter signture of someone who has known us for 2 yrs but thats impossible as no one has known us in canada that long..???

Any help would be great because i really am very confused.

Thank you

Monique_in_Canada

I am wondering if u would be able to get a temp travel document, we have some friends who have 2 children whose passports ran out, they had to fly back to the UK really quickly. so they went up to Toronto to the British Consulate who issued these temp travel documents, so maybe u could contact them and ask if this is an option.

dbd33

Unless you specifically want the children to be Canadian, why not fly the mother to the UK? She can easily obtain a passport.

JAJ

I think the original posters need a lawyer as there is some very specific UK regulation about who are the "parents" in a surrogacy arrangement, for the purpose of the nationality legislation.

Read the document SURROGACY:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si.../nisec2gensec/

If the child does not have a British born (or naturalised) "parent" as defined by the nationality legislation, then the child will not be British at birth. Instead the child will normally only become British if:

- an adoption order is made by a UK court; or
- an application is successfully made to the Home Secretary to register the child as a British citizen under section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act.

Novocastrian

I tried to read that.

I agree the OP needs a lawyer specializing in that (arcane) area.

One does have to wonder why they didn't do the due diligence on these issues before choosing a surrogate in Canada (or anywhere else outside the UK).

One thing I did glean from a speed read is that if the surrogate is married, they're screwed.

Alberta_Rose

I'm not so sure about that ... but they will need parental orders to prove citizenship: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...cy?view=Binary

In any case, I doubt there is a quick way of doing it (getting passports I mean) ... bearing in mind it took 17 months for us to get Canadian citizenship, and we haven't even got around to applying for passports yet ....

Seek legal advice definitely .... this is not the place, unless somebody here has actually been through the same circumstances.... and even then?

Siouxie

http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-fo...dren-under-16/

It states that, providing the surrogate mother is not married, then you will need a letter signed by her stating that she gives consent for a British Passport to be issued. You will also need a copy of the surrogate agreement.

"In surrogacy cases the commissioning parents will be asked to produce extra documentation, including the surrogacy agreement and evidence that the surrogate mother is unmarried. Although these cases are complex, the FCO aim to process these passport applications in the same amount of time as other first time applications. There is no facility to fast track these applications."

There is a good leaflet here which outlines how gaining British Citizenship works for surrogacy. http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/sit...rogacy-leaflet

Here it states that "Where the situation is as described in scenario A, above: i.e. the male of the commissioning couple provides the sperm, (and thus has genetic connection with the child), and the surrogate mother is unmarried, the male who provides the sperm will be considered for immigration and nationality purposes, as the resultant child’s father, so long as he is so identified on official documentation and can prove his connection by way of accredited DNA evidence, (see Appendix 4, below).

He may be able to establish his paternity to the extent that he can pass on British citizenship to the child, (obviously only if he is himself a British citizen), or be able to sponsor the child’s entry to the United Kingdom under the Immigration Rules. (The latter is only possible where the surrogate mother gives up Parental Responsibility for the child.) If the child is brought to the UK and application made to the courts for a Parental Order under Section 30 of the HFE Act within six months of the child’s birth (but excluding the first six weeks of the birth and all the other requirements of the Act are fulfilled), a Parental Order may be made in respect of the commissioning couple thus conferring parental responsibility on them."

and

"If you know that your circumstances equate to Scenario A and route “a”, i.e. that the surrogate mother will be unmarried and that the male of the commissioning couple can provide sperm and you are sure that he can confer British citizenship on any offspring, you will know that you will not have to make any application for entry clearance for the child. Instead you will be able to visit your nearest British Diplomatic Post and make an application for a British citizen passport on behalf of the child, which once issued, can be used by the child to enter the UK freely. Even where this is the case you are strongly advised to make contact with the nearest British Diplomatic Post before the child is born, to make certain that this route will be available to you and maintain other options should automatic transmission of citizenship not be possible."

I suppose your other alternative would be for one of you to return to the UK to get the passports processed once the babies are born, rather than applying through Washington. Either way, it will obviously take a few weeks for them to process it, providing you are able to give them all the documentation required.

It does state to go to your nearest Diplomatic Mission, Ottawa would be able to issue a temporary travel document - perhaps you could contact them?

http://ukincanada.fco.gov.uk/en/help...nals/passports Ottawa

http://centralcontent.fco.gov.uk/res...cas-canada.pdf (form for application of travel document0)

http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-fo...child-passport for Washington