ldollard

Well I'm please to say both my American Born girls are now fully fledged British citizens. With British and American passports to their name.

It took way longer than anticipated to get those passports as well almost 8 weeks from Los Angeles.

Now just got to process the spouse visa now. Hopefully that'll go off without a hitch.

Fingers crossed.

robin1234

Good luck! I'll be following your progress with interest, hope we'll be making a move to the UK sometime in the next eighteen months or so..

larrabee

Congratulations on getting the passports sorted and seriously good luck with the spouse visa application!

ldollard

Thanks guys, i'm off to florida for a week, when i get back the spouse visa will be sent off, then we'll see what we'll see.

WEBlue

Wow, that's coming right up! Good on you for getting the childrens' passports sorted. And best of luck with the spouse visa application!

Vexcore

Nice,

but may i ask why would it take soooo long for a simple passport application ?

i plan to do this for my son/daughter when they are born apply within 6 months shouldn't have any issues right?

BritInParis

For various reasons, Washington was never the most efficient of the RPPCs. You'll most likely be applying directly to the UK by the time your child is born which is an unknown quantity at the moment. As such a consular birth certificate might be worth considering.

Vexcore

I will apply consular birth certificate, maybe a month later? if that's ok? then apply passport via the embassy.

BritInParis

The passport section at the embassy in Washington DC is closing in a few months, so you'll be making your application directly to a Passport Office in the UK from then onwards. As this will be a new process having a consular birth certificate should smooth things along and also prevent you from having to send valuable original documents overseas.

ldollard

Its pointless to get a birth cert from the embassy, just apply for the passport.

It took me so long because if your child is born before 2007 you need to fill in a form that they dont tell you about until after you send your passport off.

Then they lied that they "called, emailed, and posted the form twice". I didn't get anything or hear from anyone until I called the UK call center ($20 charge) then they emailed the passport official in Washington DC who then calls me back a few days later.

That ****ing idiot calls me at 6:30am in the morning in Los Angeles so i missed the call, so I call the call center back again ($15 charge) and I then get a call back the next day from a women called Rebecca who is apparently my passport checker (awful lying woman).

She had no idea that one of the passports for one of my children had even been sent, as she said nothing was being sent until i filled this phantom form in, that she couldn't even describe to me. I got my youngest child's passport the next day.

So 2 weeks after this phone call i get the form and it's a marriage declaration form. I fill it in, overnight it to Washington DC, they sit on the damn form for almost a week, so I called the customer service again ($15) and get my oldest child's passport a week later.

To top it off, this offish idiot woman at the consulate (rebecca) sends my supporting docs to the wrong address(4 passports (not the new ones), 2x marriage certs, 4 birth certs, and 2 divorce certs)), luckily I knew the people and DHL told me the address it went to. Un-****ing_believable.

So there you have it, you better ****ing hope you send your application to the UK. Hopefully they might have a god damn clue.

The whole process is idiotic and full or utterly unnecessary bureaucracy.

robin1234

My hair turned white. It happened reading this post.

Vexcore

Christ man.... i hope i don't end up like that...

so could i travel to UK with my new born son without a passport?

then apply it when im in UK.

BritInParis

Your son would have to travel on a passport to the UK, be it American, British or otherwise. You can't do the one day service for first timers, so there really wouldn't be much difference between applying from the US once the service moves to HMPO in the UK.

ldollard, I think your situation neatly illustrates why getting a consular birth certificate is a good idea!

Vexcore

Thank's,


i always assumed i can add my child to my passport if he's under 16? they changed that rule a while ago?


and yes i will get the consular birth certificate for 'EASE' .....

rebs

1998 was when they changed the rules that allowed children to be included on parent's passports.