My baby is due in August and I'm busy preparing all the documents for birth registration.
I received an application form for consular birth registration from UK embassy and a letter states that there is no obligation for the birth of a British national to be recorded in this way so I would like to find out there are any benefits of UK consular birth registration.
I'd like to apply for baby's UK passport and required documents are full foreign birth certificate and mother or father's UK birth certificate.
Hi there, I *think* the benefit is for your baby when he/she is older and needs to apply for things themselves - with a UK birth certificate instead of a Swiss one. When we went to the consulate in Bern the lady said that it wasn't necessary but your child would always need the parents BC in applications to prove citizenship.
We will registar our youngest eventually but it doesn't have to be before or immediately after the birth for what I was told.
IF you travel around a lot - and we do - it will prove very helpful.
My daughter was born in Dubai and my son was born in Norway and in both cases they have both the birth certificates of the country they were born in and also the British birth certificates.
The cost of the certificates is ridiculous but - I may be mistaken in this - they can only be applied for in the initial country of birth of the children ( although copies can be requested in the UK ). I just found it easier to get the birth certificates and passports done in one go.
A UK consular birth certificate is universally accepted as proof of your UK citizenship/identity independently of whether you have a passport or not. It never runs out, unlike your passport so it never needs to be renewed.
When you register your child's birth at the consulate it will be registered in the UK Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages which means you or your child will always be able to obtain a copy if you lose your birth certificate.
Having a UK birth certificate makes life a lot simpler if you're applying for a replacement passport when yours is lost or stolen (the first thing the passport office will ask is a copy your UK birth certificate) or when you apply for foreign visas. If your child doesn't have one then they'll have to go through more hoops and hassle to prove their british citizenship by descent - foreign birth certificate, maybe certified translation, parents birth certificates etc (which may not be always readily available in later years).
You should be aware that unless your baby is born in the United Kingdom, he or she may not be able to pass on British nationality to his or her children, also born abroad. The baby will be a British citizen "by descent". This is why British Government servants and military personnel are urged to have their babies on British soil, and the Government pays for the travel. Or did, last time I had occasion to consider the issue.
If a child's birth abroad is not registered with a British consular officer before the age of, say, 5 years, the opportunity for immigration fraud is great and the child risks having his or her status questioned. The issuance of a British passport resolves this; and normally a Consular officer will register the birth at the same time the passport application is dealt with. Issues usually arise only with dual nationals since the child cannot very well travel without a passport of some kind.
(It used to be the case that registration itself was part and parcel of the attribution of nationality. As I understand it this is today only relevant where nationality is sought "by registration" (with the word "registration" in the latter case having a somewhat different meaning, alkin to "naturalisation" as a matter of right.))
Our children have Swiss birth certificates and passports and now I want to apply for UK passports for them. We don't have UK consular certificates and at £160 each, we don't want them...
I have collected all applicable documentation but the website states that I need to provide translation of the birth certs and my marriage certificate (all DE/FR/IT docs).
Ignoring the irony that the British embassy in Paris is incapable of comprehending a simple birth certificate in French, is there any reason why I can't translate these documents myself? I don't see any requirement that they need to be notorised and it would pain me enormously to pay someone a substantial amount of money to translate a name, date and place of birth......
We didn't register our childrens births with the UK consular and successfully applied for British passports for 2 children born here (both parents British) with their Swiss birth certificates. The birth certificates issued here had GER/ITA/FRE/ENG on them already so no need for any translation.
Both kids born after 2007 and as I mentioned both parents British so not sure if you have older style birth certificates or if it changes if a parent is non-British?
Another vote for BS on their side. My midget has a British passport and all that was sent was his Swiss birth certificate, a copy of my birth certificate less than 6 months old and the Swiss marriage certificate I have. German, FCO and Italian are the sources of the 3 documents.
You don't need to have them translated from French.
Cunningly, the Swiss passport for Shorty was easy. The British one was almost as easy (harder because I had to actually post stuff) and we have not bothered yet with the Italian one (anyone who is Italian and deals with the consulato will know why).
Thanks for the replies. The birth cert for the younger one was only issued a couple of months ago (from ZH) but it is only DE/FR/IT. Don't know how others got one with EN also.
I think I'm going to send them untranslated and see what happens.There really is no possibility to mis-interpret them.
Just got a quotation for the translation of 2 birth certs and 1 marriage cert : CHF 248!
Why bother with the passports at all? You mention that you have Swiss ones for your children.
We didn't renew our eldest child's British passport when it expired and instead got them a Swiss I.D. card which is fine for travelling around Europe.
We'll take the hit on a passport next time we go to the U.S.
I just wondered whether I'm missing something that is of benefit with two passports, aside from always having one available when the other is in the post for a visa application.
We don't need the passports, but I want to establish British nationality for the kids and the passport seemed the easiest option. The passport is cheaper than the consular birth cert!
exactly what I'm doing. 70-odd francs for Swiss passport and ID card is an absolute bargain....but having that first passport for each nationality is also essential....
When we picked up my son's birth certificate (also here in Zurich) we had the option of getting an international birth certificate which only cost a few franks more. This is then in English along with DE/FR/IT and I think Spanish.
Could you go to the office that issued your son's certificate and ask about getting one of these?
We also first received only the swiss version of the birth certificate at first, but all it took was a phone call to the Zivilstandesamt and a couple of days later we received an international version (DE/FR/IT/EN) in the post, together with a bill for around CHF20.