I'm wondering if there is anyone on here that has been in the same position as us and can give some advice on applying for our children's first British passports. The list of documents they are asking for is insane and I'm almost certain it can't be right.
I am a British citizen by birth (i.e. otherwise than by descent), both my parents are lifelong British citizens and I was born in England (after 1983). I now live abroad and my two children were born here, meaning that they are automatically British citizens by descent. They have a right to a British passport. My partner, their father, is not a British citizen and neither are their paternal grandparents.
It is perfectly reasonable that I have to prove my children's identity and then establish their claim to British citizenship to get their first British passports. So I can easily understand that I have to provide a) their birth certificate, b) my own birth certificate and c) my passport number (my current passport is valid for a period that covers both my kids' births).
Why is the website asking me for my parents' birth certificates and marriage certificate? I do understand that I have to prove that I am a citizen 'otherwise than by descent' as I know that 'citizens by descent' are not able to pass on citizenship to children born abroad. I know that since I was born after 1983 my birth certificate alone is not enough to prove that I am a citizen at all. But it's not possible to be a citizen by descent if you were born in the UK, so my passport and birth certificate in conjunction should conclusively prove that I am a citizen and that I have the right to pass that citizenship on to my foreign-born children.
And why the fuck is it asking for my kids' PATERNAL grandparents' birth certificates and marriage certificates? This is obviously nonsense - the entire paternal side of their family is foreign and has nothing to do with their right to a passport.
Is this website just badly designed? Or if I was feeling cynical I might ask whether it was deliberately designed to be off-putting for foreign-born British citizens trying to access their rights? Do I actually need to provide all this mass of meaningless evidence? I have sent the Passport Office several queries but they won't respond to me.