Passport help if you can help

[tryinghardatthis]

Hi everyone i want to get a passport it will be a first time adult passport.
This as become a mess before i have even started ill try to explain the best i can.
So i have no way of getting my mothers BC because there is no trace of her at all on record on my BC she is said name turns out she put her nick name on it and a random surname.
I did get her marrage licence that has the same name as on my BC she got married in her nick name and my surname.
but this is not her real name at all.
I have rang the passport office to explain this they said they have had this before and i should get a stack dec drawn up by a solictor i rang many of them to day and omg the price from 4-600 £s.
Or type up a cover letter with all imfo i can do this but i dont think i will work.
I really don know what to do next.

I have had no contact with my mother for over 20 years dont know where she is and dont care tbh.
My dad is not on my BC either.
Any advice.

Do you not know your mother's real name?
Have you never had a child passport then?

Use Freebmd if you know where she was born and roughly when, ideally with mother's maiden name.

I have her real BC but its not the same name on my BC so passport office wont accept it.

She literally put a random name in your birth certificate?

Have you got a driving licence? What else do you use for ID if it's required?

I don’t think there’s any real alternative to using a solicitor and swearing an affidavit, tbh.

So she got married and registered your birth using the same nickname and surname, neither of which are on her birth certificate.

And neither registrar checked her ID?

You can write a Statutory Declaration yourself without a solicitor, but it's important you follow the legal requirements.

It's probably worth paying £500 in the long run to do it with a solicitor though. Once you get your first passport proving your identity for legal purpose will get a lot easier.

Whether you do it yourself, or with a solicitor, it's worth starting now and writing down everything you know about your mother, father, and the circumstances of your birth.

Is the cost of a Stat Dec really that much? A paralegal could draft it for you. £600 seems steep for the task. It's not difficult and it's literally then an additional fiver for a registered solicitor to witness your signature.

I bet you could ask chatgpt to draft one and get it checked by a local solicitor for a lot less. It just needs to be logical and correctly reference the documents you have, i.e. the birth certificate and marriage certificate.

It won’t be £600 for a solicitor to witness a signature, but it certainly won’t be a fiver either 😁

I think this is going to be really problematic for you to sort out as you need to establish your Mum's identity to prove that you are British. If it's an option I'd ask the passport office for written confirmation of what evidence they will accept in view of your specific circumstances before I did anything else just to make sure that the declaration would be enough before you go to any expense

It absolutely does cost £5 for a solicitor to witness a signature unless this has changed in the last couple of years. It's the cost of the stat dec which sounds steep to me.

yes.

Yes its a fiver for it to be witnessed but a lot more to have it typed up.

I dint know i could do it my self yet again wouldnt know how too.
But thank you something for me to look in to.

Yes she got married when i was 9 to my step dad in her nickname.
I know its hard to believe but its the honest truth.
She never had a divorce either she up and left step dad said he married a ghost.

There are some similar scenarios on Just Answer (the pop-ups are a pain, but the information is worth it), for example:

• https://www.justanswer.co.uk/law/nkodn-need-statutory-declaration-passport-office.html
• https://www.justanswer.co.uk/law/pogun-correct-errors-appear.html
• https://www.justanswer.co.uk/law/q6et0-know-go-sorting.html

And from one of those, a link to some useful information:

• https://notary.co.uk/full-guide-to-statutory-declaration/