captainflack

I have recently become a dad for the first time, and am in the process of trying to get my daughter a passport and visa - I live in Dubai.

I am following the procedures on a paper the hospital gave me. All looks ok up to getting the birth certificate.

Then I need to get the baby a passport. The paper (which seems to be generic, not specifically for Brits) says 7 days or so for a passport. And it suggests that I have to have everything sorted and have the kid a passport with residence visa in it within 30 days of the birth.

But apparently they don't issue passports in Dubai. So I will have to send all my docs (originals - including me and the wife's passports) over to Dusseldorf and wait for several weeks.

It's a non starter, aside from anything else i am moving my business between free zones and will need my passport to complete all of that process.

The mrs is brazilian, so we might look at the option of getting the brazil passport sorted first. But not sure if other problems there.

Has anyone had a baby and hit the same problem? Is the 30 day limit something to worry about or does it even exist (i read somewhere about 4 months)? Can the British embassy really not issue some kind of temp travel doc to allow my daughter to get a visa?

Having dealt with the British embassy and visa people here in Dubai before, I found them rude, unhelpful, lazy jobsworths (apologies if anyone here is connected, but that's how it was for me). I am just hoping my chances don't rest on dealing with this bunch or I am screwed. I'd personally rather deal with brazilians but would like my kid to have a british passport or she's gonna end up supporting Brazil in the footie and cheering for Rubens Barrichello, and I cannot have that.

So what is the score regarding getting babies registered here?

Brains1983

I'm clueless to what you need to do, but please post how you resolved, I have the same issue coming when the wife squeezes our sprogs out.

co durham boy

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Giving...FIRST_PASSPORT

Roadking

Can't help but just wanted to say congratulations. Hope mum and baby are well.

Hello.Kitty

congratulations!

I think you can pay your way out of the 30 day rule... just a bit more bureaucratic faff, I'm afraid. Sorry to not be able to help more - we were in the UK for the birth.

hnd

As far as I was aware it's a Consulate in DXB. Perhaps try phoning the Embassy in AUD? If, as others have said, you hit them during the 10 second or so time frame they actually answer the phone.

http://ukinuae.fco.gov.uk/en/

Seems to me Embassy/Consulate is more about business opportunities these days than looking after/providing services or information to their country's expats.

Anyway, congratulations on the newest addition to your family and hope you can get all this cr@p sorted asap.

flares

or send a PM to the embassy guy/gal who occasionally posts on here

lionheart

For what it's worth, we had no problems getting a British passport for our little girl (whose mother is Kenyan) but that was in Jeddah several years ago. If you go to the British Consulate and explain your predicament in person, they will probably help you out.

Bungdit Din

if that's true then it's a recent rule change... last time we looked you still had 120 days from the birth to get a residence visa before you'd get fined...

Try calling the immigration helpline (800 5111) and asking them to confirm what the rule is now. They are actually very helpful!

Norm_uk

My son was born here eight years ago before the UK insisted we send our passports to Germany (how ridiculous) so I'm not sure how you can best go about this.

My instinct tells me to try and get a Brazillian passport if they allow it and then apply for a British birth Cert as soon as you are able. The birth cert is citizenship and you can then apply for a passport anytime you like.

N.

busybee2

Having dealt with the British embassy and visa people here in Dubai before, I found them rude, unhelpful, lazy jobsworths (apologies if anyone here is connected, but that's how it was for me). I am just hoping my chances don't rest on dealing with this bunch or I am screwed. I'd personally rather deal with brazilians but would like my kid to have a british passport or she's gonna end up supporting Brazil in the footie and cheering for Rubens Barrichello, and I cannot have that.


they are lovely in auh. sunita who is on the desk usually in the visa section has been here years so she is very knowledgable, so she would be able to tell you what needs to be done. its a problem now that the embassy do not issues passports you have to send them away, but i know that a friend of mine just did child's renewals and it was sent to germany and it only took 7 days from start to finish.

Ethos83

You do know that because your babby was born outside the UK, whilst a UK citizen cannot pass on automatic rights to an UK citizenship to any future granbabbies you may have?

Of course this is a moot point if the said babby settles down permanently in the UK and has children in the UK.

But I do wonder - with more and more families having babbies in the UAE and those babbies growing up to settle permanently in the UAE/Gulf, that somewhere down the line a couple kids are going to be royally ****ed up.

captainflack

Ok update on state of play....

I talked to a colleague who is filipino and had a daughter a year ago and he reckons it's 90 days. Someone else told me 4 months (which I see was also mentioned above). But the paper I was given from Welcare Hospital which details the procedures, and has been pretty accurate regarding birth cert procedures, says (and I quote directly):

"Once the passport is received and within 30 days of the birth, you are required to apply for a Residence Visa through the department of Naturalization and Immigration"

Mrs Flack has contacted the nice people at the Brazilian embassy in AD, and they said we can courier the docs to them and then go to AD after about 7 days and receive the passport. So it looks like we'll do that, and worry about the British one later.

captainflack

Yes, I was aware of this. Mrs F is Brazilian, and I suspect our long term plans would be to end up in Portugal for a few years and then Brazil. Could not face the miserable weather in blighty for 5 years to get the mrs a British Passport. Aside from the fact that the assholes at immigration always make life difficult for her (while happily letting in suicide bombers and albanian shoplifters). I am pretty sure that despite having a British husband and baby, they'll still act like assholes because they can.

Of course, once we're living in portugal, we'll be exercising our European treaty rights, and then the UK immigration people have no power to prevent her coming and going if she's travelling with me

For all its faults, gotta love the EU.

captainflack

For what it's worth, I updated the wiki regarding registering the birth in Dubai.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Giving...RING_THE_BIRTH

I did this while it was fresh in my mind and tried to be as specific as possible about all the separate steps as it's very confusing and involves a lot of running around within the hospital.

Good luck!