Hopefully it was either a joke or a misguided senator's attempt to gain favor from the extreme wing of his party. But I have to say what I sometimes thought were deranged ideas from the current WH occupant often came to pass.

All,

I'm applying for first passports for our minor children, who were born overseas. I was surprised to discover I need to send grandparents' birth and marriage certificates.

I was born in UK, post-1983. I will be able to send the children's paternal grandparents' (my parents') certificates, both birth and marriage, no problem.

My wife is British by naturalisation. Our kids were born after she naturalised. Getting her parents' certificates is proving a challenge. Since she's naturalised (and has a certificate to prove it), do we still need to send her parents' information?

They didn't ask for grandparents' details on the online application form.

We want to travel to UK in mid-late June, how near the wire are we?

Thanks!

Wow, that's a nightmare. I was applying online today - they wanted to know my deceased parent's passport numbers...which we don't have. The online information suggested they could process without that information, but it might take longer.
On the good side, my friend recently applied from the USA and his passport was delivered to the USA in 2-3 weeks! All the best.

You won't need your parents-in-laws' certificates; just your wife's naturalisation certificate.

Three months is more than enough time to get them their British passports. It's typically more like 2-3 weeks.

Ok thanks. After I completed the online forms, it mentioned both sets of grandparents' certificates was required.

Was that a generic pro-forma requirement that can be safely ignored? IIRC, the online form never asked if either parent was British by naturalisation (as opposed to birth or descent).

It’s generic so you can safely ignore it.

After the updated txt on the website I finally relented and got the mini tht their British passports. We had renewed the US ones and had approved ETA’’s based on previous txt which mentioned British passports not Citizenship… now I just need to take them to the embassy in NYC to get their EU passports to complete the set….

I had to send my registration certificate as a British Citizen (I was not born in the UK) and I sent their US birth certificates and their original US passports. Also included one of each of their British registration of birth overseas certificates (they were likely not needed) but given my less common situation I included them in case. Nothing was sent for my parents (their grandparents). New British Passports came back faster than the more important documents… all were sent back via DHL. I waited to do these until my oldest was 11 so next passport at 16 will be 10 year not 5… 10 passports to renew between 4 people will cost me a bunch…

Yes I had the same experience being flabbergasted at the amount of paperwork they were asking for. They are asking for everything that might be needed to determine/confirm the child's citizenship. But you may only send everything that is needed to prove it in your situation. Depending on how/why they are citizens you can do the research and provide only what is needed to prove that. I also sent a short cover letter explaining the citizenship route and why I had only provided some of the docs on the list.
(In my case my spouse is American, so sending her or her grandparent's birth/marriage certificates would have been ridiculous).

The citizenship rules are somewhat complex, especially because they changed over the years, so probably they would rather most people just send in everything, than trust that people correctly understand the rules.

My daughter, born in the US is a British citizen because I am, but only because I got my citizenship by being born in the UK to two British parents. My parents were citizens because they were born in the UK and in their day, that was sufficient. My mother took my father's name so that meant in total we had to send both my parents' birth certificates, their marriage certificate, my birth certificate, plus my daughter's birth certificate...

Glad you did that, I sent my youngest's British birth certificate as well, just to make sure lol!

And yes, we just renewed 2 US passports (and applied for my oldest's first one) and then renewed 2 UK passports (and applied for my youngest's first one) - we're officially broke now...

Posted in wrong place

This is a little confusing. Are you flying from the US to the UK and then to Gran Canaria? Ryanair doesn't fly to or from the US.

Theoretically your wife can use her British passport for the flight to the UK. From there she should be able to use her Italian passport to any EU destination.
If you don't have a British passport and you are a British citizen, you really need to move fast to get yourself a British passport.

Good luck,
Andy

Sorry, no flying from UK to Gran Canaria for two weeks.

We both have British passports.

It looks like you already have the solution.

As British citizens you both need to use your British passport for flights to the UK.
Neither or you need an ETA, and in fact you wouldn't be allowed to get one anyway..

Hope that helps.

Andy

Your wife needs to check in with her british passport maybe?

First time using both passports since the Feb 2026 change flying US to UK to US with British Airways. Had to use British passport to checking for US to UK. On the return was not able to check in online, there was no option I could see to change my passport and only an option to provide ESTA or greencard info.