Do I actually need a birth certificate

[PaperPanama]

I am a naturalised British citizen. I was born abroad, in a country where I do not have citizenship (my non-British parents were travelling). I have a British passport, but I have never had or seen a copy of my birth certificate. Do I need one?

Did your parents register your birth?

You wouldn’t have got your British passport without one

You must have one in order to have a passport?

I’d want one if I needed it or not. Have you looked up how to get one in the country where you were born?

You do need a birth certificate to get married in the UK for example so they are useful to have.

Yes you do. There are often random administrative tasks that require a birth certificate. Best to track it down when you're not under time pressure to find it.

A birth certificate is always handy to have even if not essential. I've got a vague recollection of having to have to have 2 forms of id when applying for a government job (It was years ago and didn't get the job so might be mistaken).

DD needed hers for her DBS check.

I don’t remember the last time I needed mine but dc needed it to join the armed forces

I have seen posts on Facebook or Instagram about a couple who haven't registered their child's birth, but she has a passport, receives N H S treatment with no problem. I can't remember the exact details, but it's something about legal entities.

I was registered in my country of birth.
Travelled with my parents on my mum’s passport.
Was naturalised as a minor when they were naturalised.
Have had British passports since then.
Taken out mortgages.
Got married in the UK.
Have had multiple DBSs.

Have never needed a birth certificate.

Passport, driving licence, utilities bills, marriage certificate have all been sufficient to prove my identity.

Several people recently have expressed surprise and shock that I don’t have a birth certificate. They seem to think it is an essential, but I’m wondering whether it would just be one more piece of paper to keep track of.

Officially, you can probably get away without one BUT insurance companies prefer them (plus later marriage certificates) over all other forms of proof of identity.

I worked for a major insurance company for some years and can still remember the lengthy discussions as to whether we'd accept a Polish baptismal certificate (written in Latin) as part of the proof of a claim.

In what circumstances would they require a birth certificate? I’ve taken out insurance and claimed on the car insurance in particular and have never been asked to provide anything like that.

I do have a birth certificate but I think it’s at my parents house. I’ve got married, have a passport, have DBS checks been to uni, am on a professional register, taken out a mortgage and have various insurance policies and don’t recall ever having to provide my birth certificate.

Marriage certificate comes out more often.

I've never seen or needed my birth certificate - I have a mortgage, am married, am a company director, have a passport, blah blah. 'Often' sounds a bit farfetched to me if I've made it through approx 20 years of adulthood without it!

For pensions we need to see someone's birth certificate if they need to make a claim to their deceased parents pension (for any unclaimed bits or a child's pension if relevant).

I had to show my birth cert a few weeks ago for getting my child a passport (I do hold a passport myself, but they couldn't accept that, had to be a birth cert) so there does seem to be some circumstances you still need it. Possibly to apply for a driving licence too but it's been a very long time since I did that!

I needed mine to register the kids passports. Also needed a copy of it for getting married and then a copy of it and the marriage cert to get divorced. I am very surprised and a little bit dubious that you have never needed yours.

personally id have a backup, thankfuly got passport renued to, but was omg time when needed them asap

I also needed mine to apply for DD’s first passport, although it wasn’t needed when we renewed it. I had to use it for a DBS check (also CRB before DBS), and the Vicar conducting our wedding ceremony also asked to see it. I haven’t needed it more recently, passport and driving licence have been fine, but I wouldn’t want to be without it.

We needed DD’s birth certificate this summer so that we could apply for her bus pass (she starts secondary school next term), and the requirements for that were insane - her birth certificate, her passport, my passport, my driving licence, and also a utility bill dating back no more than three months as proof of address!

Not sure about the OP's country of origin, but UK birth certificates are not seen as good proofs of identity unless you have the 'original copy' given to the parents when the birth was first registered, as anyone can just pay to get a copy of anyone elses birth certificate.

It's better to have a copy of your full Birth Certificate before you encounter any issues, such as a change in passport renewal requirements, loss or expiry of passport, some idiotic racist political group coming into power and deciding that nobody born overseas should have right to work/medical treatment/will be immediately held until they can be deported to their country of birth unless they can prove eligibility through a British Birth Certificate, etc; the Windrush fuckups weren't expected, as there had been records, the parents knew they had done everything right, but the records were destroyed and without huge amounts of evidence, people who had been here legally and as was their right suddenly found themselves faced with unemployment, the prospect of destitution, no medical treatment and deportation.

Just get it. Then you know it's available if there is ever a problem.

I have only needed mine once - when changing my passport back from married to unmarried name. Managed 55 years without one. I don’t think it was even in my possession until my parents died.

You can order an “original” - I had to do that when the post office lost my actual original.

You need 3 documents, doesn't have to be a birth certificate.

I’m a registrar, and that’s utterly ridiculous.

Unfortunately you'll probably need one if you have kids to register them and get them passports, regardless of their place of birth and nationality. I've needed mine multiple times, also when I got married to prove that I wasn't closely related to DH or a bigamist (how a birth certificate can prove this, I'll never know...)