MarylandNed

Consular birth registration is optional ("consular" being a misnomer as the registrations are now all handled in the UK). It's not even available for children born in some countries (e.g. Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa).

However, it can be useful for children born in the US because the UK authorities are suspicious of US birth certs that are issued more than 3 months after birth. This is because US birth records can be amended in adoption cases and so the birth cert may not name the biological parents. If you don't register the birth with the UK, I would suggest obtaining multiple "long form" US birth certs that provide details of both parents and which are issued within 3 months of birth.

mrken30

It seems that it's just harder to get a passport now. Even with a UK birth certificate you need to be able to supply parents details.

Applicants born or adopted in the UK – parents’ or adoptive parents’ details.

1)
Evidence of one of
your parents’ claim to
British nationality at the
time of your birth

• their British passport number (provided in Section 4 of the application form) or
• full birth certificate, or
• certificate of registration or naturalisation, and
• if this is your father, also provide his marriage certificate to your mother.
(This does not apply for those born or adopted on or after 1 July 2006 or samesex
adoptions.)
2)
Evidence of one of your
parents’ immigration
status in the UK at the
time of your birth
• their passport at the time of your birth, and
• if this is your father, also provide his marriage certificate to your mother.
(This does not apply for those born or adopted on or after 1 July 2006 or samesex
adoptions.)

So I'm not entirely sure of the benefit of getting a UK birth certificate.

BritInParis

Because you provide this evidence at the time of registration. The consular birth certificate will then state each parent's and the child's entitlement to British citizenship and so the passport examiner doesn't need any further evidence beyond proof of identity for the applicant when issuing a passport.

BritInParis

AFAIK it's still the following September.

Bob

Registration is life long proof, allowing you to get a GRO passport for a tenner in the future.

UK passport for a kid expires in 5 years. Isn't proof of UK citizenship by itself. Need to go through proof of citizenship again when they are older and get a proper 10 year passport.

Don't need UK passport to travel to the UK. Do need a US passport to travel.

If you've got the money, then go for it. If you've only got money to one thing and save money, get the registration and don't bother with the certificate.

Pulaski

FIFY

mrken30

You must register your child’s birth according to the regulations in the country where the child was born. They’ll give you a local birth certificate.
This local birth certificate should be accepted in the UK, eg when you apply for a passport or register with a school or doctor. You might need to have it translated and certified if it isn’t in English.

Once you’ve registered locally you may also be able to register the birth with the UK authorities. You can only do this if the child was born on or after 1 January 1983.

You don’t need to register with the UK authorities but it means:

the birth will be recorded with the General Register Offices or at the National Records Office of Scotland
you can order a consular birth registration certificate
You can still apply for a UK passport for your child even if you don’t register the birth in the UK.

Ozzidoc

You are dreaming. Or misinformed. Or the HMPO is doing whatever it wants to as this isn't the case this and last month. I've had to provide every single document that I had to provide to get our kids their "consular" registration, with the single exception of my naturalisation document as my husband was born in the UK.

hungryhorace

Rubbish. There is no suggestion that Boris hasn't always filed with the IRS as required.

mrken30

That's useful to know. So it sounds like it didn't make life any easier registering the birth with GRO. You still need to jump through the same hoops to get a passport. Today it's much easier to deal with things from overseas. Maybe 20 years ago it made a big difference.

BritInParis

Just checked the supporting documents guidance. The reference to consular birth certificates appears to have been removed when the guidance was updated on 21 September. I'll make enquiries with HMPO as to the change in policy.

Edit: Previous supporting documents guidance featured the following line at the start of Table B:

MarylandNed

You mean September of the calendar year following the year of registration (so anything registered Jan-Dec 2014 would mean you could get a birth cert from the GRO starting September 2015).

However, this actually varied by embassy/consulate. Some were better than others at submitting birth registrations from the previous calendar year. I was told by someone who works at the embassy in Washington DC that registrations done there were forwarded in Jan/Feb of the following calendar year and that GRO birth certs would be available in the April of the year following the year of registration.

MarylandNed

The problem is that not all US birth certs are acceptable to the UK authorities (e.g. for passport applications or birth registrations) for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, many US birth certs are "short form" by default - i.e. they do not provide full details of both parents. My daughter's Maryland "short form" birth cert names both parents and gives their ages at the time of the birth (note: ages, not dates of birth). However, this was not acceptable to the UK authorities. I had to obtain a "long form" birth cert that includes each parent's name, date of birth and place of birth.

Secondly, I then discovered that the "long form" birth cert wasn't acceptable either. This is because they were issued more than 3 months after my daughter's birth. The UK authorities are suspicious of US birth certs issued more than 3 months after birth. This is because US birth records are amended in adoption cases and therefore US birth certs may not actually name the biological parents. In this case, you would have to get a copy of the original Certificate of Live Birth or a letter from the facility where the baby was born confirming the biological parents.

UK birth registration is available to children born in the US precisely because US birth registration is not considered to be of a sufficient standard for the reasons I stated above. Some countries are considered to have birth registration standards at least equivalent to those in the UK and in those countries (e.g. Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) UK birth registration isn't even an option. I have 2 kids who were born in Canada and there's no way for me to register their births with the UK.

BritInParis

Yep, as I said, the following September.

Not sure that was ever the official line but it doesn't surprise me.

BritInParis

Okay, here's the response from HMPO.

Not perfect but still a marked improvement over having to send the parent's original certificates and passports.