Applying for baby's passport from overseas

[mbabanemummy]

Apologies for the tedious nature of this - I have downloaded all the documents from gov.uk but am still struggling to know exactly what I'll need to send to get our baby's passport and I don't want to get it wrong because we're due to be returning to the UK in August.

The personalised form (after the online application) implies that I am the applicant and DS is the holder. However it says I need to send applicant's parents' birth certificates. Surely I don't need my parents' birth certificates to get him a UK passport.

I am envisaging my passport, my birth certificate, his birth certificate, maybe our marriage certificate?

What did you send to get a passport for DC???

[schokolade]

I did this recently, and the documents are different for different people (so be wary of taking my post as gospel!). Perhaps best to ring and clear it up if you're on a tight time frame.

I needed baby's birth cert, my birth cert, husband's birth cert, birth cert of both my parents (they are the British side of the family), my marriage certificate and my parent's marriage certificate (god knows why). It was a right pain in the bum getting them all.

[SavoyCabbage]

It might be something to do with the whole 'not by descent' carry on. Where you can't pass on citizenship for two generations.

[AppleBarrel]

I did this fairly recently - yes, the documents you have to send will be different for different people.

It will depend on where you were born (if not in the UK, then you will probably have to send more evidence), and when you were born (I vaguely have in my head that if you, as the parent, were born after a certain year -1984?? - you have to send your parent(s)' birth certificates.) But don't quote me on that.

I know that I just sent my baby's birth certificate, my birth certificate and marriage cert, and I'm pretty sure I didn't send DH's birth cert (we are both British, born in the UK), and didn't have to send any parental birth certificates either.

[schokolade]

True. I think it was 1983 actually. I was annoyed because I'm 1985 so needed everything but my 1983 sister needed next to nothing

[OccamsRaiser]

Passport Website
detail

We just had to do this for our son - I was amazed at the number of docs required (as DH was born post 1 Jan 1983) Our DS's BC, DH's BC, DH's father's BC, DH's parents marriage certificate, my BC, our marriage cert, my naturalisation certificate, copies of our other passports etc etc. It's a bit of legwork to get it together, but it was processed very quickly in the end!

[Rosa]

And if your ds birth certificate is in another language you need to have it translated - or it needs to be clear. In Italy they do a 'long' one which is multilingual. That was accepted and I sent the simple Italian one as well.

[OccamsRaiser]

FWIW, if you haven't got easy access to your folks' birth certificates (we didn't fancy the odds of them being posted out to us from DH's parents in the UK and then returned to the Passport Office in one piece), if they were born in the UK you can use the GRO to order new copies here

[mbabanemummy]

Thanks all, what a palaver!

I'm November 82 so just sneaked in with not needing every piece of official paper my family have ever had. Have had to get DH's birth certificate sent though, which he has never had a need for!

Ended up phoning to get a definitive answer. Have to say I'm really nervous about sending both mine and DH's passports as it leaves us stranded here if we needed to get into SA in an emergency. Am keeping my fingers crossed it all happens surprisingly quickly yeah right.

[Mutley77]

I didn't send in both passports - just put our passport numbers. I have the same worry as you about being stranded in a country of which I'm not a citizen with no passports!! It's even better now as if the baby / child has another passport (of the country you live in) you can get away with just a photocopy of that rather than the original so no-one is stranded with no passport!! The only passport I've sent is where I am renewing one and I send the old one (obviously not necessary for DDs first passport!).

[mbabanemummy]

UPDATE

All passports back in under two weeks. It's a miracle. Thank you UKPA!