Hawkini

So called this morning, and yes, the "Full" form is actually smaller, different colour etc - the nice woman explained that I should just write on the application somewhere where someone will read it asking for the "small green certificate". Apparently this is NCs way of asking for the Full one and not the normal one!!

jibsymalone

Is there a certain age that this needs to be done by? need to get my daughters sorted i guess!

Hawkini

As far as I can see no - it says nowhere in the guidance or the questions asked about the length of time between birth and registration.

I hope there is no limit, my daughter is nearly two!!

MarylandNed

No. It can be done anytime. However, be aware that the service is planned for centralization by the end of this year:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/c...ration-service

jibsymalone

My daughter is 2 and a half, hence me asking lol! i was hoping that it wasn't too late. The centralization seems like it would be a good thing, filing paperwork online and such, am i missing something here?

sir_eccles

Not really but complications can arise if it is left too late. See Bob's comments in post #5.

MarylandNed

There is no time limit.

Complications may arise IF the birth cert was issued more than 3 months after the birth. This is because US birth certs are amended in adoption cases. So the UK authorities are suspicious that a birth cert issued more than 3 months after birth may not name the biological parents. In such cases, you may or may not be contacted to confirm who the biological parents are. Usually it's easily confirmed by obtaining the hospital record.

It all comes down to personal choice whether consular birth registration is necessary but even the UK authorities say it's unnecessary. However, it may make sense in certain cases e.g. if it's a complicated case or record keeping is an issue. Some people think consular birth registration makes sense for any UKC born in the US.

BritInParis

HMG says it's unnecessary because they've wanted to run the service down for a long, long time - repatriating to the UK has been on the cards for years and is the first step to doing away with it for good as a ''underused service''. Personally I think that it's definitely worth it if you can as it will future proof your children's British citizenship. Who knows what their circumstances or the law will be in twenty, thirty, forty years time? This way you'll at least be giving them a citizenship safety blanket.

MarylandNed

I just got the answer direct from the UK Embassy in Washington, DC. It doesn't matter if the parent's most recent UK passport has expired or not. They just want a photocopy of the information page of that passport. By the way, I sent an email to [email protected] last Thursday and someone responded today.