It was a nightmare trying to register the birth of our newborn in Switzerland as they needed to see parents (both British citizens) birth certificates no older than 6 months and I was born outside of UK, while my wife was born in UK. Therefore, I didn't want our child to go throught the same hassle in future as it's very easy to get a copy of English birth certificate on-line.
I called the British consulate for a quote for also registering the birth and getting a UK style birth certificate, but was quoted 263 CHF in total!
The last i've heard is that you can get the full British birth certificate for 4 GBP and the simple one for free, but what justification do they have charging 263 CHF for a piece of paper?
Could this certificate be obtained cheaply any other way?
By the way, the EF has been very useful and it has very knowledgeable EF'rs, whom I believe will definately have an answer to this question.
PS: The Swiss authority insists on copies of parents Birth certificate no older than 6 months because they need to check if the person was adopted later on. Not sure if this makes sense, but that's the answer I got.
I imagine if you go to the registration office where you were born you might get one for £4, but about 20 years ago I paid DM200 in Munich for a birth certificate from Britain.
A tip for everyone: buy the international Swiss birth certificate, because it is printed in about 10 languages and saves a lot of money with future translations.
My ex boss was refused permission to marry in Germany. He was brought up in Devon but had been adopted. She was from Edinburgh in Scotland. The refusal was based on the premise that they might unknowingly be siblings. He had to employ a private detective to find evidence they were not related.
The international birth certificate that you mentioned: Is that requested through the Zivilstandamt?
We recently received our sons birth certificate, but it has only the standard Swiss languages on it. I would be interested to get the international one for the future.
The English birth certificate is not required for our child to be British as we are both British Citizen and my wife was born in UK. However, a British birth certificate would be useful if one needed to order a copy and they were not resident in Switzerland.
I also enquired about the International Birth Certificate and this is indeed issued by the Zivilstandamt, but they will charge you extra, not sure how much but I tell you when I get one copy for our child.
As I understand it if you get an international certificate straight after the birth of your child then it is only about 5 chf more than the standard one (or that's what it cost us, can't remember the exact amounts). If you request it later it may cost you a lot more, or that's what we were told.
In terms of the British birth certificate I don't think there is any way to get it cheaper. I have also heard (but can't remember where) that you must get it before you return to live in the UK. We keep thinking about doing it just to make the children's lives easier in the future as they won't have to try and obtain their birth certificate from Switzerland should they need a copy.
Many years ago (About 23) I was told by the deputy British Consulate in Munich that there is a legal difference between stamps and seals.
I was told that stamped birth certificates have a limited life, but that birth certificates with embossed seals do not expire.
Maybe if you call the British Embassy they will confirm this, and you can convince the Swiss Standesamt they do not need new certificates.
Please be advised, also at the same time I was told that full British citizenship can only be passed on from British parents if they were born in Britain. In the case where the child is born abroad, to British citizens that were born abroad, full citizenship needs to be applied for. There was a British lady on the EF here, about 2 years ago, with a new born child that had to wait 6 months for her child's British passport to be approved and issued. In the meantime the child could not leave Switzerland.
You are correct about the seals having no expiry date. However, it is very easy to order a new birth certificate from UK online and it's only a tenner, so I won't fuss about a sealed copy. Besides, the Zivilszandamt keeps the copy you give to them so no point going the extra mile for the seals.
I'm aware that one cannot get automatic British Citizenship if both parents are British Citizens, but the latest criteria is that if one of the parent is born in UK then our child will qualify, and they do now. I am also aware that if our child decides to marry someone who is British but was born outside UK then their children will have trouble gaining British Citizenship, but that is a long long long way ahead and by that time I'm not sure if gaining British Citizenship would be favourable judging by the state UK is in at the moment.
My wife already called the British consulate in Bern before the birth to check the conditions of citizenship, as I know that if our child did not qualify for British Citizenship then they would be stateless, as birth in Switzerland wouldn't give them Swiss Citizenship either.
I lieu of the original birth certificate the zivilstandamt wanted me to get a confirmation letter from the GRO that I don't have birth recorded in UK and then they wanted me to get an Afidavit signed by the British consulate in Bern, which was quite easy to get after I've explained my situation to them, but it cost me around 80 chuffs.
When I handed these docs over, I then received my LO international birth certificate within 2 days and it came in all the official languages and also in English and costed 31 chuffs.
I then sent the UK passport application in Paris beginning of Dec together with the international birth certificate (British style birth certificate was not required) and now have the passport in hand, which costed around 140 EUR including registered post.
The saga is truly over and we are free to travel with the LO.
I have a UK passport but was born abroad. I went onto the FCO website and ordered a new copy of my birth certificate (I have two, one in Germany and one from a UK embassy).
I used a standard Swiss birth certificate and got my child a UK passport.
I did not go through any of these hoops. With both parents holding UK passports, it should be even easier...!
The hardest thing was getting the pictures correct. That's the nice thing about the Swiss kiddie passport - they have a cot and take the picture for you (and it's much cheaper!!).
I was not a British citizen when I was born outside of UK, and therefore wont have UK style birth certificate. I was naturalised later. Hope this explains your confusion.