Hawkini

Hey all - I've searched the forums blah blah... but can't find the exact answer to my question...

basically my daughter was born in the US in Feb, and we pretty much immediately got her a passport (US).

However, we haven't registered her birth, and wasn't going to bother getting her a passport.

Now, I haven't registered her birth with the UK consulate because - the UK govt website says we don't have to...

I know that she is UK by birth (both myself and wife are UK citizens) - so if we ever moved back to the UK for good, I think I am right in saying she can enter the UK on her US passport, and then we deal with the whole "right to be in the UK" while we're there - because:

a) it's a SHED load cheaper (have you seen how much it costs to register a birth at the consulate??? + passports??)
b) it's cheaper

worth mentioning twice because of the ridiculous cost. Also, both myself and my wife NEVER ever had a FULL birth certificate! Which is a requirement of registering her birth... I think...

Jerseygirl

There are several threads on the subject of returning to the UK without a UK PP...one very current one. I'll try and locate it.

RICH

No idea how much it costs, but, I would venture, it will not ever get cheaper.

sir_eccles

You do have a full birth certificate, what you might not have is a certified copy. Go to gro.gov.uk and order one.

Incidentally many people just register the birth and don't order the certificate saving about $100 then get a cheap certified copy from GRO at a later date.

Personally I just received my young un's consular birth certificate (at great cost) and was rather underwhelmed. But it's done and I feel I can rest assured there will be no difficulties as a later date.

Bob

There are so many threads covering all your questions...just look down a few threads...

You can enter the UK on a US passport for holidays no problem.

Moving to the UK without a UK passport can be done if you have proof of UK citizenship but it's not recommended because it's a hassle and there's no guarantee the airline would let you on the plane with right of adobe proof.

Registering birth with consulate is a good idea, you don't need to get the actual certificate, nor do you need to get the passport, you can get those while in the UK on holiday.

The benefit comes in the future, when you're dead and the kid has to prove, from scratch their right to UK citizenship by getting your birth certs, passport info and the rest of it if you never registered their birth.

MarylandNed

This can only be done "from the September of the year after registration". So if you register any time in 2012, the earliest you can get a certified copy from the GRO is September 2013.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-...tering-a-birth

MarylandNed

One of the parents will need to provide a full (long form) UK birth cert anyway if the child applies for a UK passport without a UK consular/GRO birth cert. To do consular birth registration, both parents need to provide full (long form) UK birth certs (assuming both are UK citizens). So since you have to have at least one full parental UK birth cert whichever route you go, you probably should consider ordering both full parental UK birth certs at the same time. You should probably order multiple copies of your birth certs and marriage cert so that your daughter has copies should she ever need them in the future. This is why many people chose to do consular birth registration instead. However, as you say it's not strictly necessary - as long as you have all the other documentation (birth certs etc.) in order. In fact, consular birth registration isn't even available to people born in certain countries e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa.

Some advice - make sure you obtain multiple full (long form) US birth certs (the type with full details of both parents) for your daughter as soon as possible after her birth. The UK authorities are suspicious of US birth certs issued more than 3 months after birth. This is because the parental details can be changed after adoptions and so it's not obvious if the biological parents are named on the birth cert. This is another reason some people opt for consular birth registration for kids born in the US.

Entering the UK on a US passport for the purposes of visiting is perfectly fine. I and my family members have done that many times. Moving back to the UK for good (repatriating) is a different matter. Your daughter would have to prove "right of abode" if repatriating to the UK. The easiest way to do this is with a UK passport. If she doesn't have a UK passport, then her US passport along with her full (long form) US birth cert will probably work as long as she is accompanied by at least one of the parents (and that parent can prove UK citizenship). If she tries this in later life on her own (i.e. with a US passport and isn't accompanied by one of the parents), then I'm not sure how successful that would be (it would certainly help to have a consular or GRO birth cert in this case). Obtaining a UK passport prior to repatriating to the UK certainly makes all of these issues go away. If she successfully repatriates to the UK without a UK passport, she should obtain a UK passport asap once in the UK.

Hawkini

So all the "there are plenty of threads etc" is noted, but none specifically about the full birth certificate for the parents (i.e. me and my wife) - we just have the short versions, the originals which are very old and handwritten - I don't even think my mum and dad ever got a full version... I didn't even know it was available back in the day - my mum didn't either!

We have two copies of *a* birth certificate from North Carolina - specifically mentioning my name and my wifes name, but not occupation (as per a UK full certificate) - is that just what is needed - our names? If so then we're OK there.

And yes, I know just visiting the UK is fine blah blah, and I realise that if we moved back to the UK for good we'd need to get moving on documents etc - my original question was basically:

We don't HAVE to register, but I think common sense (and Bob) says that just registering, but not getting the certificate is a good idea for future proofing claims to citizenship - especially if something should happen to us parents... I don't think we can do this anytime soon because of the need for full birth certificates for me and my wife - has anyone else had to order these certificates from the UK?

sir_eccles

See my post #4. Before I started this immigration thing I too only had a short form birth certificate as you describe, old handwritten thing. I went to the GRO website and ordered my long form one. Lo and behold it is essentially a photocopy of the original long form written in the same handwriting as my short form one. Even though I had never seen it before there it was. Trust me, just because you've not seen it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

Full birth certificate just means it has both parents names, occupation is not required.

It's really easy and quite cheap www.gro.gov.uk

Hawkini

Oops - sorry - my fault for skim reading - I thought you meant something else before I posted - thanks for the info!