First child passport application -- British by descent dad -- docs required

Hi,

My son was born in England on 12 May 2021 to my Turkish wife (here on spouse visa) and me, a Brit born in Bahrain to a British mother. I didn't get a British passport until around the age of six, when my mum moved us to the UK.

I just filled out my newborn's passport application online and have been asked to supply the following docs:

Applicant’s documents
Send the following:

full birth or adoption certificate
any court orders (for example that describe parental responsibility or residency arrangements)
If you don’t have parental responsibility, also send the following:

a signed and dated letter from the mother (or other person with parental responsibility) giving consent for the issue of the child’s new passport

Parents’ documents
For 1 of your parents, send 1 of the following:

full birth or adoption certificate
naturalisation or registration certificate
the non-British passport they had when you were born showing indefinite leave to remain

I just want to clarify, do I actually need to send my full birth certificate? It's going to be a real pain if so, as I only have an official copy, plus my middle name is completely different on my birth certificate to my British passport. I don't have any of the other documents.

And also, the question is asking for my birth certificate right, not one of my parent's (the applicant's grandparents)? ... the wording allows for ambiguity, plus I always overthink these gov questions.

If anyone can help. I'll be grateful. Thanks

What documents did you submit for your first British passport?

It is likely that those same documents may suffice for applying for your son's British passport as well.

Essentially what the Passport Office is asking for is proof that at the time of the birth of the child applicant in the UK, one parent either had British citizenship or ILR/PR/Settled Status.

In your case, you have British citizenship by descent. You would want to submit the birth certificate of your British parent, your parents' marriage certificate and your birth certificate, to prove your British citizenship.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure what documents were provided for my first British passport as it was when I was six (30 years ago now), and I doubt my mother remembers.

Surely my current British passport is sufficient evidence of my citizenship, whether or not I'm British by descent. No?

nate2003 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:20 pm

Surely my current British passport is sufficient evidence of my citizenship, whether or not I'm British by descent. No?

No.

A British passport is a travel document and only prima facie proof of British citizenship.

When applying for a first passport or even when apply for a passport renewal, you can be asked to prove your British citizenship from original sources (either a registration or naturalisation certificate for those registered or naturalised as British citizens or a complete chain of birth and marriage certificates for those claiming British citizenship by descent).

If your mother is alive, it may be worth asking her what documents she supplied at the time.

Also keep those documents safe as your son may need them when they have to prove their British citizenship at the time of applying for their own children's passports.

Also see this post.

Ok, understood about the prima facie thing.

So you think I should send my mum's birth certificate and marriage certificate, and not just my birth certificate. Do you say that because it's likely they'll ask for them following an application with just my birth cert? Is this something the post office check and send service might know, because I can't find any official guidance listing the docs you suggest for parents in my situation on gov.uk.

My mother says she only needed my Bahraini birth certificate (which is an Official Copy -- hopefully they don't get their knickers in a twist about that) and her British passport to get me my first British passport. Prior to having my own individual passport I was also listed on her passport, which she says she might have somewhere. She also has a divorce certificate from my dad (no marriage cert) and her birth cert.

There are no registration or naturalisation certificates for me, as there was no period of naturalisation: she applied to HMPO when me moved here in 1990 and I got a passport.

It's rather ridiculous that my citizenship hinges on a bunch of tatty old papers from up 60 years ago, but I should hardly be surprised having gone through the utterly demoralising process of getting a spouse visa last year.

Thanks for your responses so far

Passport was approved with just an official copy of my birth certificate from Bahrain and baby's birth certificate.

It was approved in about a week -- so all in all pretty straightforward