Birth registration

[eiche]

Hello everyone,

I was speaking earlier with a friend of mine mother of two and she told me that she was annoyed because one daughters passport states London place of birth and the others Chelsea, although they were born in the same hospital. When she tried to change the second daughters passport she was told that they can't write London because the birth certificate states Chelsea .

I went home and checked my daughters birth certificate and indeed it states the borough and not the city.

Does anyone know if a place of birth can be corrected on the birth certificate to state the city and not the borough? And how much would that cost!

Does it matter for any reason?

nicolenopants
Yes

I don't think anyone takes any notice. DH has been putting down where he thought he was born for years - until he actually looked at his birth certificate last year and discovered the actual town listed was different. No one has ever queried it in 57 years!

I don’t think it could be changed unless there was an error.

Perhaps things changed in between those children being born?

I imagine they lost the borough because people would need to know which register office to go to check the birth certificate.

I'm only thinking of my own experience doing family history - if a record just said "London", I'd have to pay multiple places to look for the certificate for me. But "Southwark" or "Chelsea" or whatever would tell me where the certificate is held. "Oxford" or whatever is on because there's only one register office. Family history is not that important, but for official purposes they need to know.

Why does it matter?

But it's not wrong, so how can you correct it? Chelsea IS the place of birth.

I have found what you need:

"Where an applicant has put a town/city (e.g. LONDON) on the application form but the birth certificate shows a borough,
then the town/city can be accepted."

www.gov.uk/government/publications/date-and-place-of-birth

So no - you can't change the birth certificate. But the passport office should accept London.

We are not British so actually my question is .. is it normal for the passports to show the borough and not the city? Because my passport shows place of birth Moscow and not for example kutuzovskii. Or another passport would show place of birth Berlin and not a borough in Berlin. That would cause confusion where this person is from. It matters to me because I want to help my friend and also learn for myself how things work here. It's not incorrect where the the person was born but that she didn't expect one passport showing London and the other Chelsea maybe you have to say at the time of registration place of birth London and not which hospital?

Essentially does you r passport state a borough or London?

topofrhehills

Thank you for finding this information! :)

Mine states a borough

@eiche You're welcome!

I think that document suggestions that passports usually show the city/town/village.

Birth certificates do say borough, though from memory I think mine says "town X in the borough of X".