Is a certified copy of birth certificate acceptable for child’s first passport

[Blubellz]

We have lost dd’s original birth certificate. We found the certified copy but not the original.

Just that on its own is mortifying, but we are travelling on 30th July and need to get her a first passport.

We paid for a priority service for a replacement birth certificate which—after much longer than advertised—has arrived. It is just another certified copy.

Can anyone help? I don’t think a certified copy will be accepted, will it? Why have the General Registry Office only sent a certified copy? Is there no way of replacing a full birth certificate?

Of course it will be accepted, it's a certified copy not a photo copy

They are all certified copies so don't worry. I do a lot of family history :-)

All of them are certified copies.
Perfectly fine for a passport application

Thank you.

Five years ago, with ds’s first passport, I went with the certified copy, and it was refused.

It has to be the long version not the short one

"Original" birth certificates say at the top "certified copy of an entry of birth" - is that what you have? In which case it is fine.

Or do you mean a photocopy stamped and certified by someone else? Because that would not be acceptable, I don't think.

You've never had the original - that's in the central registry office. You have only ever had a certified copy. As long as it's the king version you're fine. Perhaps your other child's was the short version?

Your issue will be getting the passport in time frankly. Be prepared to have to cancel.

Even your original will have been a certified copy, that wont have been the reason. They are certified copies of the entry in the register.

*long version.

If you have the king version you won't need a passport

Thank you so much. This is reassuring.

Maybe ds’s was the short version. I definitely got turned away from Victoria with what I had thought was an appropriate document (certified copy, not a photocopy).

I guess the next gamble is whether we try to get a fast track appointment or send the certified copy off 😬 - I see on another thread that appointments are coming up … I haven’t seen any, though!

🤣 Thank you for clarifying. I did just shout down to DH to check that it was the ‘king’ version. Will go and clear that up now.

I have to ask, why have you left it so late to apply?

You'll need to book fast track - don't risk it.

Being chaotic, really. We have moved house twice, had a baby, dh started a new job, haven’t been abroad for years and thought we would book a holiday (… and do the fast track at Victoria) … and then I saw the headlines a couple of weeks ago.

We have also been waiting for the replacement. It now sounds as though I could have missed that step, except that I thought that the certified copy was useless because of my previous experience.

All of us are chasing renewals, but for dd it is her first, which seems to be taking the longest time. I shall keep refreshing the fast track page - if I could get an appointment that way, then that would save the day.