I just recently had a baby, 7 weeks old now. I was applying for their passport and the UK gov website said I needed to provide my parents birth certificates and marriage certificates, of course I do not have these documents on hand. I am going back home mid-January and thought it would be easier to get the passport in the UK rather than on line. My child will get the swiss passport through their father. Has anyone had experience with this. I will be travelling back to the UK alone with the baby and I am wondering if it will an issue going through passport control with 2 different passports.
I don't know about that - my biggest concern would be in case Covid restrictions make travel for non-UK citizens impossible. And for that reason I wouldn't count on being able to travel easily in mid-Jan, and hence would just do the passport online if you can.
However, I just wanted to say it's really easy to get copies of birth and marriage certificates from the General Register Office. Any FreeBMD site should give you the references for the certificates you need, then set up an account with the GRO here:
Each cert costs £11. Be aware, though, that the UK post is terrible at the moment - it took over 2 weeks for the ones we had to order in October to arrive here, and even 1st class post within the UK was taking 7 days, and that was without the complication of Christmas.
I will be travelling home in 3 weeks. I am hoping there will be no ban on Swiss citizens by then. Regarding documents, these will take too long. I had to order my birth certificate and this took about 6 weeks.
I will be happy to be proved wrong but I don’t think it’s actually possible to apply for a baby’s first passport in person.
If you are a British citizen then there shouldn’t be a problem entering the UK with your baby using their Swiss passport even if the do restrict entry for foreign nationals by then.
If you are not travelling with your partner you need to have them sign a note giving you permission to take the Child out of Switzerland. If your child has a different surname from you, you’ll need their birth certificate or something showing you are the parent.
I did it all online from Switzerland. Just order the birth certificates online and do the application online. You just send everything through the post anyway so it doesn't really matter where you are.
Were you born in the UK? If you or your spouse are British and were born in the UK they are automatically British citizens so you don’t need to got through the citizenship process for them soit won’t cost you the £1012 for that.
All you have to do is apply for their passports and provide all the paperwork required. It’s very easy to do from abroad.
They are only British citizens automatically if one of the parents is British and born there, if the parent wasn’t born there they can acquire citizenship but it is more complicated.
My grandkids are British because their father was born to my wife and I - both British citizens - in the UK. But their kids will not get British citizenship and as I understand it, since they're also Swiss they won't be entitled.
Not sure what happens if two Brits born here but haven't naturalised were to have children.
I believe they would be entitled to it under that scenario but it’s more paperwork to achieve it as they go back to the grandparents.
Our son is British because we are both British but as he was born in Belgium he can’t easily pass that nationality on to his children, it certainly isn’t an automatic right and would take some effort.
In Ireland and by extension NI, in such circumstances the child be come Irish by registering them on the foreign birth registry at the embassy. But that is were it stops, what happens if you have not got citizenship beyond that I don't know.
The kid born in uk to british parents or one british parent is automatically british and can pass citizenship to his own kids even if born abroad, but such kids cannot easily pass citizenship to their own kids if they are born abroad. If they were born in uk , british citizenship automatically.
Each case is different anyway as british citizenship law is very complex. Different rules if you are british by descent or by naturalisation.
My kids father is british by naturalisation, both of my kids got british citizenship. One was born in uk and he can pass citizenship to his kids regardless where they are born. Second kid born in switzerland, cannot pass citizenship unless his child is born in uk.
I was told (by a government dept so mildly reliable source) that this applies whether your child acquired citizenship from a parent who had it by descent or naturalisation and was born outside the UK. Basically they are in a tricky position regarding passing on UK citizenship to their children if not born in the UK due to having been born themselves outside the UK. Not due to the nature of the citizenship route of their father