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Getting a British passport for our newborn

  1. #1
    ShatinTang is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    Shatin
    Posts
    3

    Getting a British passport for our newborn

    I'm sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, and if it has, then could someone please post a link because I'm having a hard time finding answers.

    When our first son was born, a little over two years ago, British passports were dealt with locally and his came through really quickly. All we needed was the right form, a photo or two, a copy of his HK birth certificate, my British passport and my full UK birth certificate to show that our son had British nationality through descent.

    Since then things have changed. Passports moved from the FCO to the Home Office and then to an executive agency and now back to the Home Office. They are dealt with in the UK and must be applied for on-line. Well, that's all ok, I suppose, but then we get down to the forms and supporting documents and I really wish it was as simple as it used to be. Perhaps it still is, but the information on the UK Government's website is worrying me.

    For instance, under 'supporting documents', it says that applicants under the age of 16 who were born abroad must provide photo ID. Another part of the advice says that valid photo ID includes drivers licences, passports, residents ID cards or any other official Government document with the child's photo. Well, as he is only nine days old he hasn't got a drivers licence and in Hong Kong children at his age don't have a photo on their ID cards. He isn't eligible for a Hong Kong passport and there are no other Government documents which come with his photo on! There's other advice that says where a counter-signatory is required to verify a photo, the counter-signatory must have known the applicant for at least two years.

    Well, anyway, there must be work-arounds for all this. I will telephone the Home Office in the UK when their office hours roll around, but in the past they have been abysmally unhelpful. The stripped-down websites, increased level of automation and reduced local services have all left me rather bewildered as to where to start.

    Has anyone got any recent experience of obtaining a UK passport for a child born in Hong Kong (who hasn't got photo ID)? I would be enormously grateful for any advice.

    Thanks


  2. #2
    vickiii89 is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Posts
    11

    We had a problem getting our sons passport a year ago. He was born in Canada ..

    Are you and your partner both born in UK .. And your parents and your partners parents?

    They wanted to know everything.


    Sent from my iPhone using GeoClicks


  3. #3
    vickiii89 is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Posts
    11

    As for photo .. We just sent in birth certificate and someone signed the back of the photo saying they know it was my son ...


    Sent from my iPhone using GeoClicks


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