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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU To think the passport application is ridiculous?!

62 replies

Pinkwithwhite · 03/04/2022 20:56

Trying to fill out uk passport application and they want grandparents birth certificates and grandparents wedding certificate! This is a joke!

DH is going to call up in the morning and find out exactly what we need to do but we have 2 children and myself that need passports. It's going to take forever if we have to send all this off and wait for it to be sent back for each person.

Anyone got any advice on how to speed this up?

OP posts:

SunshinePiggy · 04/04/2022 08:13

This is a relatively new requirement - we didn't have to do this in 2015 for my oldest but did have to in 2017 for my second. I didn't have access to all the documents required, although I had most, so I wrote a note on the extra section provided giving what details I could. It was fine. I'm sure many, many people don't have all the information required and even more sure that many people born after 1983 have parents who were not married anyway, so no marriage cert would exist!

It's frustrating but you have to do it. I think it has to do with clamping down on immigration in generations past, though if someone is currently a British citizen and passport holder I would imagine it's a bit late to be worrying about the identity of their parents

Now having to do this all from abroad and want to stab myself every time I look at the requirements. I've been putting it off for a long time but would like to actually get on a plane at some point soon, so need to pull my finger out!

dementedpixie · 04/04/2022 08:21

It's only OP that needs proof of citizenship
Dh needs none as its a renewal
Dh's new passport number could be used to prove citizenship for the children

dementedpixie · 04/04/2022 08:23

@SunshinePiggy if the parent/parents of the applicants have british passports then you don't need the other information as you just put those passport numbers on the application

From the passport notes:

AIBU To think the passport application is ridiculous?!

MurmuratingStarling · 04/04/2022 12:34

@chipmunkcalling

I would get it done asap if you're planning to go away any point this year. A friend of a friend works in the home office dealing with passports. They had an emergency meeting a week ago,(on a Sunday evening) saying that there is now going to be up to a 3 month wait for renewals and new passports. Due to people letting their passports expire during lockdowns and travel bans. Now the world is opening up again people have started panicking about it.

I don't have any advice on the application process, sorry, my ex done our son's first one, and we're both BC's so it was pretty straightforward.

@chipmunkcalling

A friend of a friend works in the home office dealing with passports. They had an emergency meeting a week ago,(on a Sunday evening) saying that there is now going to be up to a 3 month wait for renewals and new passports. Due to people letting their passports expire during lockdowns and travel bans. Now the world is opening up again people have started panicking about it.

Yep, the waiting time is increasing! A neighbour of mine sent her application for a passport off (online) around the third week of February, and she got an email saying it's been received, and they have received the old passports (within 3 or 4 days she got all this.) Since then, nothing has moved. In 6 weeks!

I am so glad I sent for our passports in mid January - only took 3 weeks from applying online, to the courier bringing them to our house. (Was a renewal as me and DH have had passports since the early 1980s.)

DC sent for their passport in September last year as they wanted to go on holiday at Christmas, and didn't want to book it until they got the passport. (Sensible thing to do, rather than book and then apply for your new passport as some do, and maybe then find it's expired!) DC's took 3 weeks and 3 days. Seems to be a much longer waiting time now!

@Pinkwithwhite

I hope she got it sorted in the end. How awful for her not to know where she came from and one side of her family.

I know right. I never did find out if she got it sorted. I imagine she did, but I don't know how long it would have taken.

mathanxiety · 06/04/2022 23:20

@SapereAude, under the Good Friday Agreement, aka the Belfast Agreement, people born in NI, even those born to parents who were also born in NI, are entitled to Irish passports and are still considered British. The entitlement to be NI-British and hold an Irish passport is one of the terms of the GFA.

SapereAude · 07/04/2022 08:45

[quote mathanxiety]@SapereAude, under the Good Friday Agreement, aka the Belfast Agreement, people born in NI, even those born to parents who were also born in NI, are entitled to Irish passports and are still considered British. The entitlement to be NI-British and hold an Irish passport is one of the terms of the GFA.[/quote]
Yes, I know.
I was talking about the opposite scenario. The ppt office need evidence of the BC status of the parent, not the Irish status.

WhiteCatmas · 07/04/2022 08:58

We got Irish passports for the kids recently and I don’t actually believe that process will be any simpler. In both cases you are confirming their nationality and it’s natural that the government of the country issuing the passport will want extra checks.
If you found out that it was easy to get a British passport just by sending in one piece of documentation you’d be horrified.

Original poster

Pinkwithwhite · 07/04/2022 14:02

DH sent his away for renewal so we don't have a passport number for him and when we called them they said they can't give that info over the phone.
It's taken us ages to get all the forms we need! Sent it all away today, we go on holiday in JUNE! Fingers crossed they will all come back in time.
If not DH is going to have 10days of luxury alone! 😭

OP posts:

SunshinePiggy · 15/04/2022 06:49

@dementedpixie thanks for this! It seems like I every time I look, it reads slightly differently! We definitely had to provide grandparent information for my middle one, I wonder if it's changed again?!

Anyway, you have put my mind slightly at rest. Now just need to summon the energy to phone the embassy and be passed from pillar to post, and then offered an appointment on the 9th day of the next blue moon

Padderbadger · 15/04/2022 06:56

Recently applied for my baby's first passport and we had to send grandparents' birth certificates and marriage certificates plus parents birth certificates - my husband's was only short form so we had to pay to get s long version first. I thought it was because we were living abroad but maybe not.

debbrianna · 15/04/2022 07:09

@Pinkwithwhite

DH sent his off for renewal on Friday so we don't have his passport number. It just seems so excessive. I'm from Northern Ireland so classed as a British citizen.

You sent off a passport without making a copy? Wow!

BlackLambAndGreyFalcon · 15/04/2022 07:31

@WalltoWallBtards

DP wanted to give our kids ( born in U.K.) their nationality/passport - flipping hell! Needed ours, parents and grandparents birth and marriage certs., sworn affidavit to identity of DP, passports and driving licences, all to be taken to an interview at the Embassy in London, WITH the kids in tow. What. A.PALAVER.

That sounds like Germany! DD's passport is coming up for renewal and I'm having to take her out of school for a few hours in the morning for the family trip to the embassy as I failed to get an appointment during half term. Fortunately we live in London so it's not too much of a faff, but it does make things easier to be able to use the shorter EU queue at passport control.

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