sm16

Has anyone here gone back to the UK to apply for their child's passport. I am looking into it but am getting conflicting reports from the passport advice people.

My questions are:

1) does my daughter need a British birth certificate (I heard from a friend she does)?

2) Can we do fast-track? one passport advisor said yes, the other no!

3) Do i need to stay in the UK until I receive it or can it be sent to my parents' address?

I have all the documents ready here in Russia (translated etc.) and am waiting for the application form to be sent to a UK address so I can fill it in.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Missblissbear

I'm in Australia and I just applied for my kids first british passports.... Over the Internet. You fill it in, print it out and add documentation and send originals. Hubby is UK born, I'm Australian. Our kids only had Aussie birth certificates, but we're able to get UK passport because of their Dad. It said 3 weeks for delivery.... Took closer to 2 months. I think I remember reading somewhere fast tracking.... There was a phone number online that you could ring and ask.... I'll try and find it.

Missblissbear

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-child-passport

BritInParis

The experience from BE posters is that first time applications for children born in Russia are currently taking several months to process.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz.../#post11431669

The Fast Track (one week) service is available for first time child applicants but I presume that is based on the assumption that the child is born in the UK. It's not surprising that you are getting mixed messages from HMPO. It's unlikely that someone has ever asked that question before.

You may be well advised to first apply for a consular birth certificate and use that rather than the Russian originals when making the application.

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

You don't pay for your Fast Track service until after you have lodged the application so if you are going to be in the UK anyway then it may be worth trying.

sm16

Thanks Missblissbear - I can't apply online from Russia unfortunately so trying to get hard copy to fill in and send.

sm16

They certainly like giving mixed messages but I would be surprised if I was the first one to think about this as a solution

I waited for 4 months for my sons passport a couple of years ago and know the waiting time has increased since so a 3 week wait plus flight would be great.

Missblissbear

What a pain.... Sorry I couldnt help.

Lorna at Vicenza

Hi there, my daughter was born in Italy and she doesn't have a UK certificate so there was no way I could send one anyway. I used an international version of her Italian birth certificate from my local, Italian town hall. I used my own UK birth certificate to prove her British descendence. I was in the UK at the time so filled out the paper forms given out at the post office and paid the post office the extra £8 something for their check service. I was told that the post office approved forms go through the system a bit faster than others. Can't say if this is true or not. It was July at the time and we were on holiday in the UK. The passport arrived at my dad's address when we were already back in Italy and he kept it there for us until we went back for Christmas. I read and read and read all the forms and instructions and although it said that somebody must be at home to sign for the passport delivery, it didn't say that the person had to be the same as the applicant.

sm16

Thanks Lorna, I was wondering about the post office check service as well. Were they the only docs you needed? I have got everything ready for the 'apply from overseas' form and I have about 12 different docs (proof of address, mother's birth cert, marriage cert, photos of the happy family etc. etc. etc.)

Can I ask when you applied? I wonder if the rules have changed recently.

Thanks

Lorna at Vicenza

I think I had:

the application form - signed by me and the same person that signed the photos
child's Italian birth certificate - international version written in Italian French English and possibly German - can't remember. They were only interested in the English bit anyway.
Child's photos, countersigned.
My UK birth certificate - long version.
lots of money

I deliberately applied from the UK though using the Child's First Passport application form from the Post Office and not anything about overseas. Coming from overseas would have meant a whole lot more hassle, more documents, father's papers and God knows what. When I was reading and reading and reading all the forms and instructions it said something like "if you are going to be in the UK for any length of time you can apply within the UK" It never specified exactly what length of time so I took advantage of that wording and I used my dad's address where we were staying. Not sure if I was risking anything doing it this way. Only I knew we were in the UK for just 3 weeks. Nobody asked me if I live in the UK or Italy. Nobody asked for any bills. Nobody asked for the child's exact residence. Nobody asked me anything really. I was slightly worried which is why I paid the extra for the post office check service. We got the passport anyway.

This was in Summer 2013 and we have used the passport since then. Only comment ever was passport control guy in the UK this summer and he said,
"how come your daughter has a UK passport but your son is travelling with you using an Italian Identity Card." I told him that son was getting a UK passport too but it was probably better to wait until all the bad press about the passport office had settled down and the backlog was getting sorted. He laughed and said "probably best love" and told us to have fun in the UK.

Lorna at Vicenza

The internet pages and websites have all changed since I was doing my research - but you can still apply from in the UK so I don't think I was wrong with the way I did it last year.



https://www.gov.uk/passport-applicat...le-visiting-uk

sm16

Thanks, will book flights and cross my fingers!

sm16

UPDATE

Apparently I can't apply for my daughters passport without her being in the UK, she can't go to the UK because she is 2 months old and has no British passport and visas are not usually issued to people who are entitled to a British passport.

So flights to the UK wasted and I will have to wait the 6-9 months for a passport here.

Great!

BritInParis

To play devil's advocate, how does HMPO know that your daughter isn't in the UK? It didn't appear to be a problem for Lorna at Vicenza. I would add the caveat that the application might take just as long if made in the UK as from Russia if the same security procedures will be followed as your daughter was born in Russia.

Lorna at Vicenza

My daughter was actually with me in the UK at the time, she travelled in on her Italian ID card, but nobody asked me if she was there or not. The lady at the post office passport check never saw her as I went in on my own.