diverdec

Ok thanks for that sounds positive.

BritInParis

British by descent only becomes an issue if she has her children outside the UK. Any children born in the UK will be British.

diverdec

Ok thats good to know thanks

Paul7878

Hi

We applied for our son's first passport in August 2014. Father British (not by descent), Mother from Philippines. We are married and he was born in 2007 in Philippines.

After about a week they asked for a cenomar and we sent that off without delay. I was very detailed about all the documents they requested and all originals sent.

I started emailing them for updates about once a month from December 2014 and they always reply same day with the standard message (cannot give time scale and undergoing verification checks etc)

I asked them in email last week why it's taking so long and what exactly are they doing and if they cannot provide some feedback soon I will ask my MP back home to escalate it.

They have not responded to my email and I followed up again 2 days ago, no response.

I see others are saying it can take 9 to 12 months! Does anyone know why it takes so long and who is involved in checking it?

If I at least could know what the process is on their side it would help me understand.

I wondering if they have sent all our docs back to Philippines for checking - but hang on did they not centralize the processing in the UK to be more efficient!!

Paul

McFly1

On the surface your application sounds very simple. I'm curious why they wanted a cenomar if you are married? Were you perhaps not married at the date of birth?

There seems no explanation for the huge range in processing times. However as with the move of the consular birth registration, the reasons appear to be linked to cost saving and deterring people from applying.

There is deep suspicion in the UK now for anyone born abroad. The country has become increasingly insular in the past 5 - 7 years and xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric is now widespread and acceptable.

The lack of any ability to get an update on such a simple but lengthy process simply confirms that no one cares enough to improve the system.

I have this nightmare to come and I'm dreading it.

Paul7878

Within days of me sending all the documents they requested a cenomar/crs5 - it shows all previous marriages for my wife. Of course there is only our marriage on it. So this request was quick and suggests they have all the documents they need.

I am wondering if they send some documents back to a third party agency in Philippines for checking, then they send back to Liverpool then to me (eventually) (28,000 mile trip).

If not, I cannot comprehend why it takes so long.

Hoping to visit UK in July...

diverdec

It takes so long cause PHilippines is well known for fraud so all documents need to be confirmed as correct by UK,so they got to rely on the Filipino govnt workers to kick it up a gear,and we all know that wont happen.Im sure it takes so long due to painfully slowness of the Filipno govnt workers who r far to busy texting then to actually do any work.My daughters birth certificate is 90percent unreadable,but of coarse to complain bout it would fall on death ears.

scot47

Get a British birth certificate. It will make life a lot easier in years to come. I write as the father of two dual-national daughters who have both recently faced the need of getting copies of their birth certificates.

Another point is that after getting a British passport, do not let it expire. Make sure it is valid. Renewing one after valid date is difficult.

Paul7878

deverdec and scott47 many thanks for your responses!

BritInParis

The cenomar is required because the Philippines is the only country in the world other than the Vatican that doesn't allow divorce. This means it can be easy to pass off a child from another relationship as your own or means a child may not legitimate which raises the possibility of fraud or ineligibility. Likewise the documents have to be checked locally to make sure none are fraudulent. The long processing times are to ensure that only those entitled to British passports receive them. It's not because the UK has suddenly acquired an xenophobic dislike of Filipinos since the financial crisis.

Viazofia

Hello just want to share as I'm curious too,
My partner is British and I give birth to our daughter last April 15,2015 here in the Philippines. I'm on process of my fiance visa at the moment and for my baby as we inquire my partner can apply a British passport for my daughter ( his in England now) all he need from me is the original birth certificate of our baby and a passport size photos so I send it via dhl, he will take care the signing of form, and he send it already to HER majesty passport office 3 days ago, but I'm still not comfortable or curious is it really possible ,tho he said to me I just believe him. He inquire first from the office in England before we make actions. Crossed fingers it will be granted so we can be a complete family soon. 😍😍😍

Paul7878

Best of luck.

Almost same situation to me (husband from UK in Philippines and wife and son both in Philippines). But the list of documents we needed to supply was much longer!

As mentioned above we still waiting. I think in a couple of weeks it will be one year since we applied!

I email my contact in the passport office in Liverpool every month and every time its basically the same answer (undergoing document verification checks overseas) So sounds like they sent all the Philippine official docs to Philippines to have them checked that they are not fake and still waiting for a response.

We were planning to visit UK in July 2015 and now that is impossible.

When we finally get the passport I will update on here. We all very disappointed it's taking so long!

Stokkevn

Any sort of document verification in the Philippines is extraordinarily long process. The main problem is that they either have no data base with the information and have to trace the 'signed in triplicate' documents through piles of paper stored in cupboards or if they do have a data base it is not working or has serious glitches and end up having to trace the 'signed in triplicate' documents through piles of paper stored in cupboards. I asked the DFA a question 5 years ago, occasional reminders get the same reply 'still tracing the information', 6 requests for a piece of information from the PRA has had no reply at all, the non reply has cost 4 locals their jobs.

Paul7878

Yes I kind of getting that impression.

Mind you with our marriage certificate when we got "version 1" it had errors, my wife has no gender and a place of birth was entered incorrectly.

The pain to get this corrected was amazing needing more forms to apply for the correction. Eventually "version 2" arrived and that then had new errors that were not in "version 1" but the original errors were fixed ... then repeat the whole painful process again and finally we got "version 3" which was finally correct!!!

For my son's passport application I think I will suggest a DNA test as it might bypass the ye olde paper validation that is now approaching year 2.

Stokkevn

A friend had to have a DNA test ( not too sure what for & I never asked ) for something in the UK, he was told DNA tests from the Philippines would not be excepted, he eventually went to Singapore and had the DNA tests done there, everything went OK.