Immigrationboards.com

Hello,

Both my wife and I are naturalised British citizens of Indian origin (holding overseas citizen of India card). We have settled in the UK and both of us are working here. My wife, who is pregnant, is currently in India as she intends to deliver the baby there. Hence I would like to know the process of getting baby's documents after the birth. Could you please let me know?

As I understand the baby will be born British with Citizenship by descent.

Apart from getting the local birth certificate issued by the local authorities in India, could you let me know what else we need to do to get the British passport?

Do we need to register the birth at the British High Commission as well?

Also, what documentation we need to send along? As I will need to be in the UK due to my work, I will not be able to send my passport.

Any help will be much appreciated.

We don't know you so we can't say what you need. You should look at the application requirements on the gov.uk site where you will find a list from which you can cherrypick what is appropriate to your situation.

As an example, for my own kids applications made overseas (but sent to the UK as is now required) I sent the following but you should not take this as a list for your own application as it really depends on who you are and what you can actually provide.

Printed passport Application form and CC payment authorisation
Child Foreign Passport – Child (only if the child has already been issued with any other type of passport)
2 x Passport photos
Foreign Birth Certificate
British Consular Birth registration Certificate
British Passport - Father
Birth Certificate - Father
Birth Certificate - Mother
Marriage Certificate – Father & Mother
IPTU Local Govt. Tax Statement (Official Tax instrument for address purposes).
HMRC Tax Statement (Official tax instrument for address purposes)

Thanks.

I did a bit of reading on this forum to make myself familiar with the various elements involved. Now I have 3 questions:

1. Once I have the baby's birth certificate issued by the local authorities in India, can I directly go for British passport for the baby or there is an additional step to "register the birth" at the British embassy? If there is, what's the procedure? The baby will be British citizen by descent.

2, Counter-signatory - I have read a lot of horror stories with regard to this one. As the baby will be born and present in India while applying for the passport, I am confused how I can fulfill this requirement of counter-signatory being British and has known us (parents of the child) for 2 years? My understanding is that the person signing has to be in India (but need not be in the same city where the applicant is based).

As we have stayed in the UK for almost a decade, why is it not acceptable to get a British citizen based in the UK to sign the form?

3. Perhaps the forum members of Indian origin are in a better position to answer the following question - Once we get the British passport for the baby, do we need to apply for the exit visa for the baby for traveling to the UK or obtaining OCI for the baby will be sufficient?

Best wishes,

Steve