Registering overseas births

[femmeaufoyer]

I live in France, DC2 is due December. We will be here for another 2 years and then will return to the UK. I will obviously register the birth here in France but do I also need to register the birth with the UK? How do I do this? Also, we are planning a trip back to the UK in May, will I need to get a French or UK passport for the baby? Confused.....!

Well the info I have just read on the FCO website says the applicant ie to be born child, needs to provide a full birth certificate showing parents' details. I can't find a mention of needing the parents' full birth certificates - as parents have British citizenship already with UK as place of birth, that sort of makes the need to see the parents' full birth certificates unnecessary surely? Worth a phone call to clarify to Paris regional centre, I do in fact find the wording on the FCO website a bit hard to fully comprehend.

Yes I would read that as needing your full long birth certificate... but that's not what is written on the FCO link I am reading!

oh a short phone call should settle it, if able to get through that is!
Just state

1. you're both British citizens by birth, being born in the UK
2. you're married and have a marriage certificate to prove it
3. both parents names will go on the French birth certificate
4. naturally your baby will be born after 1/6/2006
5. both parents currently hold valid full British passports.....

so do you really need a long birth certificate for either of you?

Good luck and fingers crossed when you apply, you don't get the same d..khead who refused to renew our first born child's passport because we had failed to prove we were married - funny because we'd provided a copy of the marriage certificate when we applied for the first passport and we even got to talk to this d..khead on the phone and I asked him why on earth was he wanting to see it again.... OMG because he noticed I never changed my surname when I got married. Well I told him to stuff it (politely) and then he agreed to renew our son's passport. I think he was a bit scared I'd tell his boss :-)

LOL! With my raging pregnancy hormones..getting tough won't be a problem. Thanks for all your help.

I feel so smug. I registered DD at the British Embassy, had her BC and passport issued while I waited. Small country (Oman) who I didn't fancy revisiting if I ever lost her Arabic BC.

I'm in NL and applied for a baby passport very recently - in fact it went via Paris.

Birth registered locally (obviously), birth cert. Issued in all major EU languages. Birth cert from all 3 plus marriage cert sent off with credit card details. Passport back plus docs within 4-5 weeks. All very simple.

Hey Dolomitesdonkey, do you fancy joining our little benelux mumsnetters group? We have a spreadsheet listing members and also now a closed FB group. Dutch members are in Amsterdam, den Haag and Limburg at the moment but wherever you are you'll be most welcome. Longtimeinbrussels keeps the spreadsheet up to date. A PM to me with FB name would get you on the FB group.

I'm already in it and have been quacking about Heinz beans this morning. ;) Just name-changed, that's all.

Oh hello there, you changed your name, what were you before? I imagined you were someone who'd come over the Dolomites on a donkey and settled for somewhere a bit flatter, obviously not!

And how much do baked beans cost in the UK now? About to look that one up, I bet it's more than my beloved Lidl baked beans. I take great pleasure when finding things cheaper in Belgium than the UK, as it doesn't happen often.

Dolomite, did you have to send off your full length UK birth certificate too or was the short one sufficient? I am guessing if long ones are now required, it's for security purposes, but in fact anyone can buy a UK birth certificate for anyone born in the UK, so not so sure still why it is required to submit one with a child's passport application. I don't work for IPS, I do work close to it, so it's a mystery to me.

I'm not sure what a short one is - I sent off my original - which as an aside caused tremendous confusion at our town hall when getting married... because my birth certificate is different from my husband's.

You also have to give your own passport number and issuing authority - which I suppose cuts down on fraud (i.e., buying up UK birth certs).

Well no shit Sherlock, written 12 years apart by different registrars in different counties...

Oops, mixed up my paragraphs there!

The full UK birth certificate has parents' full details, home address at time of birth, shows whether your parents are married or not, the short certificate only shows the baby's name, date and place of birth.

Yes, we both sent full one.

And does your child have a British or Chinese passport?

Realise discussion has moved on, but to answer your question, he has a British passport as both DH and I are British and were born in the UK. He wouldn't be able to get a Chinese passport as to get one you have to prove at least partial Chinese ethnicity. The best he (and we) can get is HK permanent residency after we've lived here 7 years.

The ethnicity rule for Chinese citizenship could possibly prove problematic if DS stayed in HK and had a child with someone in the same situation as him (British by descent but born ex-UK) as the child wouldn't automatically get British citizenship and would definitely not get Chinese citizenship. However, I've been advised that it would be extremely unlikely that the child would be refused British citizenship if parents and grandparents were all British citizens.

The consulate were also very clear that registering the birth with them conferred no advantages in terms of securing citizenship and was not required-it's just an admin thing.