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?

Never needed BC in UK. I would remember because of the pita of getting it translated

The other country's passport as proof of identity. 🤷

Dad certainly didn't have this, but must have had army documentation or the like. I do know that he had an "Alien Card" which I found after he died.

I have come across this and I belive there has been a thread about it on here. It is ridiculous though.

I lost mine when I was about 19. I’m 45 now and it hasn’t been a problem and I’ve never been asked for it although I did already have a passport when I lost it.

My birth certificate has been lost since I was about 5 years old. Now in my 50s, have always been fine to do all sorts of admin and bureaucracy with a passport. I have never let it expire though, just in case.
I expect I could apply for a replacement but haven’t needed to.

Registered in country of birth usually means you have a foreign birth certificate and/or a registered birth abroad of citizen of your mother’s home country (as you were in her passport).

There will be one or the other.

There are very robust anti-fraud measures in place, both nationally and locally.

It would be different if you (for example) wanted a birth certificate for family history purposes of a dead relative and you only knew their approx details, compared to wanting the birth certificate of someone random, still alive.

All sorts of things get flagged up, which I’m obviously not going to list 😁

I am actually wondering if you/the banks in question got it backwards as it’s actually much more frequent that someone is asked to produce a birth certificate with the date of issue within six months of today’s date. That is what is required for foreign visas, etc. rather than the ones issued years ago, so that’s a frequent request.

I disagree with this or at least it shouldn't be true. An extract from the register should be treated the same. Not someone's fault if their parents lost the certificate or if it had to be submitted to an official body for some reason.
When I was born, they only gave out 'short' certificates. I was advised to ask for the long one as that would be taken more seriously, so in my case the non-original one is considered better.

Thank you!

Ah right, so they are all 'extracts' really. Good to know.

But they're not used to show that you are the person, they're used to show when and where you were born and who your parents are.

"I am actually wondering if you/the banks in question got it backwards as it’s actually much more frequent that someone is asked to produce a birth certificate with the date of issue within six months of today’s date. That is what is required for foreign visas, etc. rather than the ones issued years ago, so that’s a frequent request."

Yes, actually I had to get a NEW extract for an administrative task in another country so the new one was considered better than the original!

What do you mean you have ‘come across this’?

Are you saying you have been in a situation where a your birth certificate was deemed not a form of ID because it wasn’t issued when your birth was originally registered?

Im 47, I have a passport and driving licence, have been married (and widowed). Ive never even seen my birth certificate never mind needed it!? I presume its been lost years ago.

When I worked in a private hospital we had a lot of Arabic patients. They (actually it might have only been the women) all had the birthdate of January 1st. This was because they only knew their year of birth so 5 can believe this.

OP

You might find out you are entitled to a passport from your country of birth, or your parents home country or both.

Always useful to have.

Yes. If someone was born in, for example, rural Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or (mostly 50 years+ ago), India or Pakistan, you may be allocated a 1 Jan birthday. Male or female.

It’s not a massive percentage of people born in those countries though, and certainly no where near the majority, it’s a minority.

It is also not unheard of to not to have a surname if born rurally in some countries, which in the UK system isn’t a possibility, so if someone without a surname gives birth in the UK, their first name goes down as the surname and then normally an “otherwise” known as with whatever the NHS or immigration system has the person recorded as.

I really ought to do an AMA when I have a spare day 😆