MarylandNed

You keep saying that but the registration by itself is useless without the actual certificate.

It costs $161 to register the birth. If you actually want a copy of the certificate (and I can't see why anyone would not if they've gone to the trouble and expense of registering the birth) it will cost an additional $116 (including postage) for a total of $277.

http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-fo...-registration/

Although we welcome applications to register the birth of children born in the USA to British-born parents, you should be aware that this is not obligatory. A registration certificate is a useful document to help establish a child's British nationality, but it is perfectly acceptable to apply directly for a British passport, without first registering the birth. However, we recommend that British parent's, currently working in the USA on UK Government service should register their child's birth using the form on this website.

Consular Birth registration $161
Copy of Registration Certificate $104 (per copy)
Postage $12.00

MarylandNed

Your child is definitely a British citizen. You just need to call the number and find out what procedure they want you to follow. I suspect they want you to check in with them because you are not married to the child's mother and if the birth was prior to 1 July 2006, the entitlement to British citizenship is in doubt. I don't know why they simply can't deal with this scenario on the form though.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br.../bornoverseas/

British citizenship may descend to one generation born abroad. So if you were born outside the United Kingdom or qualifying territory and one of your parents was a British citizen otherwise than by descent, you are a British citizen by descent. If you were born before 1 July 2006 you may not qualify if your parents were not married at the time of your birth.

fatbrit

It means that your child's birth certificate is always available for order at GRO. Just like anyone born on the Sceptered Isle.

IMO, any parent who doesn't register their kid is just a cheapskate.

MarylandNed

Many people don't register because they don't think it's necessary. They can obtain UK passports for their children without consular birth registration or consular birth certificates. Even the official web site states that:

http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-fo...-registration/

Although we welcome applications to register the birth of children born in the USA to British-born parents, you should be aware that this is not obligatory. A registration certificate is a useful document to help establish a child's British nationality, but it is perfectly acceptable to apply directly for a British passport, without first registering the birth.

fatbrit

The more you try to justify your decision to save a couple of hundred bucks, the lamer it sounds.

MarylandNed

What more justification do you need that the official site? Did you read what they said? They said that US born UK citizens don't need consular birth registration - or a consular birth certificate to obtain a UK passport. So why spend money you don't need to spend?

My US born daughter has a UK passport and she obtained it quite easily without a consular birth certificate. She's now in the passport system as being a UK citizen (why do I need her in the consular birth registration system as well). She has access to all the documentation she needs to obtain a UK passport in the future. She'll eventually be able to renew her own passport by using her old one. If she loses that, I have multiple copies of her US birth cert and multiple copies of the UK birth certs of myself and my wife. If somehow we also lose all those, we can obtain more copies.

My two oldest kids were born in Canada and it's not even possible to do consular birth registration for anyone born there (or Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, etc). They also have UK passports.

So it's not a matter of being a "cheapskate" or coming up with "lame" excuses. Parents of US born UK citizen children are free to choose whether to do consular birth registration or not. As the official site says, it's "not obligatory". It also happens to be expensive - certainly when compared to the cost of obtaining regular birth certs. There's no harm in letting people know about that - and the fact that people can still get UK passports without the need for consular birth registration.

You're free to have your opinion, I'm free to have mine and others can decide for themselves too. No need to resort to insults simply because you don't like the facts.

John4301

Thanks for the replies so far, it is much appreciated, everybody please keep calm though!

I shall report back on what comes of calling the supplied phone number.

John

shorrock

But Canada, Australia, NZ, Ireland and South Africa DO NOTallow you to change the birth parents on a birth certificate.

In the USA you can change the parents on a birth certificate after the fact. Therefore it will be difficult to tell if the childs parents are really there birth parents or not.

MarylandNed

I understand that but you don't need a consular birth certificate to prove you weren't adopted. To obtain a UK passport, you could still use the same proof you would use to obtain the consular birth certificate in the first place. I understand that some people will want to get a consular birth certificate because they feel they may be in a situation where it just makes their lives easier. That's perfectly fine - it's a free country. You can get by without a consular birth certificate. In the vast majority of cases, obtaining one does not need to be the default course of action (which is also the official position of the UK authorities by the way).

fatbrit

A couple of hundred bucks is less than the cost of an i-thingy. Personally, I think it's a ridiculous price and all overseas Brits should whine and moan to the FO and their former UK MP as much as possible.

However.....to save your kid from problems later on in life, it is equally ridiculous not to do it unless that money means the difference between eating that week or not.

Bluegrass Lass

Incorrect. My husband was born in South Africa to British parents. He has a certificate of birth abroad from the consulate there. As we are getting ready to relocate back to the UK, we are in the process of organizing the documents required for my visa (since I'm a USC). And one of the sets of documents is his birth certificate. They specify they want this doc, in addition to his UK passport. So, for us, his Certificate of Birth Abroad is invaluable. Otherwise, I'm sure we'd have to get his parents birth certs to prove they could pass on their British citizenship to him.

Bob

At the moment, kids can get their parents birthcerts, who is to say they will in the future? Data Protection can change, it happened in Australia and other countries where the kids can not get their parents certs without permission, which is hard to get if they're dead.

That is what the point of this is about.

It's very easy to lose documents after 20 years of moving around. Being able to have the option of getting as many of them as needed, as easily as needed is rather good peace of mind.

MarylandNed

Maybe it was available at one time but UK consular birth registration is no longer available for UK citizens born in South Africa.

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

Exceptions
Please note that, because of their close links to the UK and documents being issued in English, we can’t register births which occurred in the following countries:

Australia
Canada
New Zealand
Republic of Ireland
South Africa
Overseas Territories

MarylandNed

I understand that argument but I just don't buy it. Consular birth registration isn't immune to rule changes either. It's possible that consular birth certs become invalid for passport application purposes. It's also possible that consular birth registration could be scrapped completely.

The language we are seeing on official UK authorities web sites seems to suggest that the days of consular birth registration are numbered:

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

Registering a birth
If your child is born outside the UK and is British you can register the birth with the nearest consulate or with our consular department in London if you’ve returned to the UK. You don’t have to do this, but if you do your child will be given a British document and the birth will be registered at the General Register Office in the UK. This is called Consular birth registration

This is not a UK birth certificate and should not be used as one. It should not take the place of the locally issued birth certificate.

Consular birth registrations do not confer British nationality and are not required to register your child as a British citizen or to apply for a British passport as British nationality is passed from parent to child. Your child will need to have an automatic claim to British nationality in order to register their birth.

There is no requirement for a consular birth registration to be done for any birth that has occurred overseas. The original birth certificate issued by the authorities in the country in which the birth took place, along with a notarised translation if necessary, is sufficient for all purposes in the UK (including passport applications).

Please refer to the Home Office for more information on British nationality

JAJ

When your husband was born, South Africa was not a Commonwealth country and consular birth registration was done there. Also, prior to 1983, it was a method of passing down British nationality through multiple generations - but only for those born in non-Commonwealth countries.

South Africa came back to the Commonwealth in 1994 and at some point consular birth registration there was stopped. Probably should have been retained however, as getting a copy of a South African birth certificate is not always easy or quick.