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Our daughter's registration certificate arrived beginning of December. In the process of applying for her first British passport, we have realised that they want the town of birth that is on her registration certificate. However, her registration certificate lists "place of birth" as Cornwall (which is a county). I googled this and found some guidance for workers in the passport office. It states that place of birth should match on both the passport and the registration certificate so that Home Office records are consistent. However, the same guidance says that a whole county shouldn't be given as the place of birth. We think we need to submit an application to have her place of birth corrected on the registration certificate, and wait to apply for the new passport. We are feeling so deflated because we were hoping to visit family overseas in July or August. Has anyone been through similar, or have any advice? I tried searching the forum but couldn't find a similar situation. I find it all very confusing because I've read that place of birth is very important because it never changes, and yet it is given as just "United Kingdom" on her American passport, while her town of birth is on her Polish ID card.

What did you supply as.place of birth in your child's application? If you stated Cornwall, you need to apply for a replacement certificate and pay as it was your mistake. If you supplied the correct town, then you need to apply and explain it wasn't your mistake, and you will receive a new registration certificate for free. Either way, you have plenty of time to sort this and get a passport for your child for July or August, so don't worry too much about that.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:04 pm

What did you supply as.place of birth in your child's application? If you stated Cornwall, you need to apply for a replacement certificate and pay as it was your mistake. If you supplied the correct town, then you need to apply and explain it wasn't your mistake, and you will receive a new registration certificate for free. Either way, you have plenty of time to sort this and get a passport for your child for July or August, so don't worry too much about that.

I copied Place of Birth from her American passport, which is simply "United Kingdom" because US only uses the country of birth for place of birth, for citizens born outside of the US (unless someone is born in a contested city such as Jerusalem). Although I checked the application over many times, I admit I didn't think too deeply about or research this question. I wish there had been some clarification provided for this question. Whoever processed the application must have realized this isn't sufficient for a British passport, so they looked at her birth certificate and settled on Cornwall. When filling out the application I just copied from her American passport because I figured they were checking her identity. I have no problem with paying the £250 and would never dispute this if they ask me to pay because that would just make everything take longer. However, given we paid £1000 and they make a profit of over £600 on these applications, it would have been great if they could have shot me a phone call and clarified that town/city/village is required as place of birth for children born in the UK.

I've filled in the Form RR but am not 100% sure what to do about the declaration given our daughter is 5 years old. I've written my name with "mother of [applicant]" next to it and am planning to sign and date, but have emailed to make sure this is what I'm supposed to do. I might also see if there's a phone number I can call to ask about this part. I can't find any guidance for Form RR.

I appreciate that there is a lack of guidance, though unfortunately it always comes back to the applicant, and not on them. There is no specific guidance on form RR, and the form only seems to refer to adults, I imagine if you enclose a letter signed from you as the mother and maybe to be extra safe enclose the birth certificate to prove you are the mother they will process it. Maybe other members have more experience on this specific issue.