Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Hi, I am a British citizen living in the USA married to a US citizen. We have a 1 year old baby. I want to register her birth abroad and get her a british passport. I have looked at all the forms and documents needed. It says we must send in her full long birth certificate and also our marriage certificate with details of parents. But our marriage certificate only has our names on it and not much else. I'm not even sure if we get full long birth certificates in our state :confused: I've ordered copies before and have always been sent the short copy. I will call the vital records office tomorrow and try and find out, I am posting this here to see if anyone knows or has been through this?

Any advice/info greatly appreciated :)

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Ring the town hall where the birth was registered, they should tell you if your state does a long form cert or not.

It's usually not a problem though, as long as the certs were issued within 3 months of birth.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

I have just done this recently, and in fact last week received the certificate from Washington (and the horrendous receipt for payment <sigh>).

I posted before about what is required for the full certificate. It does indeed require the healthcare facility name and city (which the short version in NC does not have). It didn't take long if you write "Expedite" and pay an extra fee.

However - I phoned up the vital statistic office in NC, and was told if I did NOT write "FULL CERTIFICATE PLEASE" on the request form, I would get the short version. However, this might not apply to your state so you should still call.

Marriage certificate not sure, we got married in the UK so not a problem for us...

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Thank you so much for replies! Hawkini, I rang the State Department of Health and they said they do NOT release full long form Birth Certificates :ohmy: I explained I needed what I needed it for and the person on the phone said I just need to get the short form stamped by the Office Lieutenant Governor. I'm not sure about that :confused: Her Birth Certificate does say her city of birth but not hospital.

I'm thinking all i can do is send off what I have with a letter of explanation and hope for the best :(

I found this: http://www.wnd.com/2011/04/292053/

I'm in Hawaii and the even the President had a nightmare with this issue :blink:

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

At a minimum, you need a birth certificate showing parents details. It would be very surprising if Hawaii do not include this on the form of birth certificate that they make available.

For reference a U.K. "short form" birth certificate does not include parents details, this is why it is useless for most purposes.

It highlights the importance of obtaining a British consular birth certificate.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Ugh - well good luck... on a brighter side they will not take any money until they issue the certificate... not sure about sending your documents back... so if they do not have what they need they'll only tell you what it is I'm guessing.

Wierdly all the forms/instructions say a birth certificate which shows the details of both parents. However, get to the registration form for the USA, and it expects you to fill in the name of the facility AND City - which the "short" certificate from NC does NOT have.

I went out of my way to get the certificate with that information on. Now, since the registration form instructions does not specifically say "a birth certificate with details of both parents and name of hospital and city" I assume you just enter that information??

Again good luck - and surely the state MUST give you that information - FOI and all that? It is your information...

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Thank you for your reply JAJ, the birth certificate has our names on it (parents) our state/countries of birth and her city of birth, that's it.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

I think it stinks that I am denied access to my own and my child's information :thumbdown:

I am going to get the certificates apostilled, send in what I have with a letter explaining the situation and hope for the best :unsure: I do have one of those hospital birth certificates which states the name of the hospital so I shall send that in too but it is not a legal document so it may be futile :confused: I still have it in the envelope it was sent in which was mailed a couple of days after she was born.

If all else fails, I shall have to appeal to the Senator or seek legal advice. my child has a right to British citizenship and I want her birth registered and a British passport for her because she only has me and her father here in the US, if anything happened to us it could be disastrous, my parents and sibling live in the UK and she has a half brother there also, they all love her and would take care of her if ever the need arose.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

I shouldn't worry too much about it. You won't be the first time the British Embassy in Washington has registered a birth in Hawaii and they should be familiar with the problem. Send what you have, including any documentation from the hospital, with a explanatory note and if they require more information then they will contact you.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Send an email to the British Embassy in Washington, DC. You should get a reply within a couple of business days.

https://www.gov.uk/government/world/...ssy-washington

The email address is :
[email protected]

Explain that you want to register your child's birth and obtain a consular birth certificate. Tell them what documents you have (and what info each document contains) and ask if they need anything else.

By the way, you can also get a "letter of verification" from the hospital's records dept stating the child's name, DOB and details of the parents.

It looks like Hawaii can also provide a "letter of verification" that contains any birth info that you want to have verified:

http://health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecord...vital-records/

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

That is *really* the British Embassy's email address? That is a total joke if true. Whatever happened to an official fco.gov.uk address?

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Cost cutting. No email infrastructure required and gmail is free... :lol:

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

Be surprised how many use a gmail on public facing sites these days.

It deals with spam, doesn't give away their email structure and can easily be killed off and replaced with another.

Plus they don't have to maintain it.

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

How do they retain copies of emails as per UK government email retention guidelines?

Re: Documents for reporting a birth abroad
 

While I agree, it does tend to fly in the face of most internet security suggestions. Check the domain of the site you are entering details, government websites all end in .gov, etc etc.

Reminds me of the new US consulate site for booking appointments: https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-GB/niv Given all the "we'll help you fill in ESTA for a fee" scam sites, I don't know why it doesn't have a .gov domain.