UK passport for a new born

[astone]

Hi sorry if this has been asked before.

Just became a father to a lovely little girl. My wife is a foreigner and I am a UK citizen. I have the forms to register the birth (and get a birth certificate) and to apply for the passport. I have the Singapore birth registration already. What is unclear is whether I actually need to go to the British High Comm and hand over the documents or whether I need to send them to HK. Can someone help.

Thanks very much

[Mi Amigo]

Resurrecting this thread to highlight the fact that, after 8th September, registration of births and deaths of British citizens will no longer be handled by the 'local' UK Consulate (in this case Singapore). Instead the registrations will be handled via a centralised UK service.

More details here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chan ... n-overseas

[aster]

Not sure what this registration is all about as I don't think you need to do any of that to be a citizen/apply for a passport. I mean it's not a pre-requisite of any sorts...

[Mi Amigo]

No, it's not a prerequisite for obtaining a British passport; in fact the page I linked to states that it is optional:

Consular birth registration is an optional service and is only available to those born overseas who have an automatic entitlement to British Nationality at birth. There is no legal requirement for a consular birth registration and a local birth certificate with a certified translation if necessary should be sufficient for all purposes in the UK including applying for a passport.

However, since this has come up on the forum in the past and some folks may wish to register a birth, I thought I'd flag up this change in procedure (which was mentioned in a .gov.uk weekly digest email that I received today), for future reference.

Our youngest daughter was born outside of the UK and I registered her birth at the relevant consulate, then obtained a UK birth certificate for her. This may not have been 100% necessary but I thought it would be good for her to have it, alongside the local birth certificate, just in case it was needed later on. There may be others who take a similar view in the future; if so the info in the linked page may be useful.

[aster]

This may not have been 100% necessary but I thought it would be good for her to have it, alongside the local birth certificate, just in case it was needed later on. There may be others who take a similar view in the future; if so the info in the linked page may be useful.

Good point. So if in the future she loses her foreign birth certificate she won't need to fly half way around the world to get a new one?

Is there a cut-off time for doing such a registration (like within a year of birth)? The web site doesn't seem to mention anything...

[Mi Amigo]

Good point. So if in the future she loses her foreign birth certificate she won't need to fly half way around the world to get a new one?

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I thought it would be a good idea.

Is there a cut-off time for doing such a registration (like within a year of birth)? The web site doesn't seem to mention anything...

Good question. According to this page...

All births in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must be registered within 42 days of the child being born.

But that's obviously a different case to a child being born overseas, and I expect most (or all) countries have their own rules about how soon a birth has to be registered (locally). However according to this page...

A consular birth or death registration overseas is an optional service, and there is no time limit for registration.

Probably best to double confirm with the relevant UK consulate to be sure.

[Mum in S'pore]

All new UK passport applications are now handled in the UK for foreign residents. It's a new procedure.

[ScoobyDoes]

A consular birth or death registration overseas is an optional service, and there is no time limit for registration.

Probably best to double confirm with the relevant UK consulate to be sure.

Mate, you don't need to ever get in touch with the UK Consulate, anywhere.... you've been here far to long to assimilate back again.