Foreign Birth Registration

[jdh174]

Hi everyone. I submitted all my documentation for the FBR in October 2019 and received a confirmation of receipt of these documents on 7th October 2019. Since then I have not heard anything. Radio silence. Please can someone give me some advice on my situation, is anyone else having the same experience?

[jgclancy]

Hi everyone. I submitted all my documentation for the FBR in October 2019 and received a confirmation of receipt of these documents on 7th October 2019. Since then I have not heard anything. Radio silence. Please can someone give me some advice on my situation, is anyone else having the same experience?

That's just the way it is for everyone really. Until they reach Level 3 of lockdown the office is basically shutdown.

jgclancy

[FrozenTundra]

Should I go ahead and mail my son's FBR application or should I wait to mail until the lockdown is over?

I'd say wait until Level 5 is lifted to send it. It'll be a long time until completion so a few weeks won't matter.
I originally paid extra for my shipping to get it there faster (almost two years ago). Now I see I should have just sent it on a slow boat cheaply with a tracking number haha

jgclancy

I got tired/bored of waiting, so dropped off the application for my son with the USPS today. They said it would take 5-6 business days to get from the United States to Ireland.

Application submitted: April 13th, 2021

I am hoping that this entire process (including Irish passport) is completed before 2024 (i.e. by December 31st, 2023), but given how backlogged they are I'm not holding my breath. Fingers crossed though!

[seanlawlor]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

[jamiepompey]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

Difficult to say, you may need some legit legal advice for this one. Having said that you probably shouldn't have put down that she was Irish as before she is entered on the FBR she officially isn't Irish. I do appreciate you wanted the anglicised name on the birth cert however. You'd probably have to expedite an application through an Irish TD or something.

[jenstar187]

Hello,
I have a few questions about the foreign birth registration process and wonder if anyone can help.
I originally paid for my application back in March 2020. However, due to lack of organisation and COVID, never sent off the documents. I have now spoken to my siblings and we are planning to do a joint application.
Do you think the delay in me paying for the application and sending my documents will matter?

My address has changed since I originally filled in the application. Is there any way to change this? I have also realised I made a mistake on the section of the form asking for my grandmothers maiden name - can this be altered? I saw one post that suggested you could just add in an extra letter with your application to correct these - does this sound reasonable?

Finally, my brothers partner is a nurse. They are engaged but not yet married. Can she act as witness to his application?

Many thanks for any help you can offer - it is much appreciated.
Jenny

[Mr_Knight]

Hello,
I have a few questions about the foreign birth registration process and wonder if anyone can help.
I originally paid for my application back in March 2020. However, due to lack of organisation and COVID, never sent off the documents. I have now spoken to my siblings and we are planning to do a joint application.
Do you think the delay in me paying for the application and sending my documents will matter?

My address has changed since I originally filled in the application. Is there any way to change this? I have also realised I made a mistake on the section of the form asking for my grandmothers maiden name - can this be altered? I saw one post that suggested you could just add in an extra letter with your application to correct these - does this sound reasonable?

Finally, my brothers partner is a nurse. They are engaged but not yet married. Can she act as witness to his application?

Many thanks for any help you can offer - it is much appreciated.
Jenny

A detailed cover letter should suffice.
Your brothers fiance is now technically related to him I dont think that she can be a witness.

[cdfly]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

I would say it doesn’t hurt to send a query and ask to speak with a FBR officer! They tend to respond when there are baby issues.

[seanlawlor]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

I would say it doesn’t hurt to send a query and ask to speak with a FBR officer! They tend to respond when there are baby issues.

I guess that will have to wait until the FBR office opens again and the webchat is back online.

The FBR website currently states you can use the Passport Office webchat can be used for urgent queries.

However the webchat agent there passed me onto travelemergency@dfat.ie and after I emailed them I got a rather curt reply:

Hi Sean,

This is not the address for FBR queries, you must email fbr.consular@dfa.ie for further assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Sally

Customer Care
Passport Service

I could try emailing fbr.consular@dfa.ie but I doubt I'll get any response until the lockdown is reduced to Level 3.

[denzimart]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

To get out of this jam you might want to consider getting a British passport for your daughter while you wait for FBR. Unless you have explicitly revoked your UK citizenship you are still a British citizen irrespective of whether you have a passport, and subsequently so is your daughter. Applying for a British passport for her is a formality - just provide your birth certificate. I expect she could have a British passport in a matter of weeks which means she's not stateless while you wait for FBR.

[seanlawlor]

I'm an Irish citizen (2 Irish parents, I was born in UK, never had UK passport) currently living in Vietnam.

I have 2 children, a 5 year old son with Vietnamese and Irish citizenship (FBR 2015) and a 6 month old daughter for whom I'm applying for an FBR.

This time round has been more difficult, the law in Vietnam changed. In order to have her English names on the birth cert we had to record her as Irish. Therefore she is not entitled to Vietnamese citizenship now.

I wanted to ask anybody with experience, is there any way the office would agree to expedite my daughter's application considering her age and the fact that she is currently without citizenship?

FBR application submitted through Irish embassy 2nd April 2021.

To get out of this jam you might want to consider getting a British passport for your daughter while you wait for FBR. Unless you have explicitly revoked your UK citizenship you are still a British citizen irrespective of whether you have a passport, and subsequently so is your daughter. Applying for a British passport for her is a formality - just provide your birth certificate. I expect she could have a British passport in a matter of weeks which means she's not stateless while you wait for FBR.

Oh really? I've been so focussed on getting her Irish citizenship and I thought it would be difficult as I have never had a British passport. I will look into that now and see which documents are required. Thank you.

[AP1972]

Hello - does anyone have experience in accessing the FBR web chat these past days and weeks?
I gave up for a few months but can see some movement of FBR certificates from the updates on this board.
Would be good to know if anyone had success in communicating through the web chat, I submitted the FBR request for documents in December but I assume they arrived just as Ireland went into their December lock down, no acknowledgment, not follow up. So in limbo...... 31 months and counting?

How come you're at 31 months? I'm reading that right? Two and a half years? Seems like a ridiculously long time to have waited.

It is a ridiculous amount of time and not super happy to be without some crucial documents for that period.
The good old days of send your documents to the embassy
Submitted Aug 2018, request for extra documents provided Feb 2019... black hole of thinking the embassy submitted the documents, waiting. Call embassy they confirm that documents only sent to Ireland in first quarter 2020, start screaming on web chat, request for extra documents December 2020, provided as Ireland locked down again. And more black hole.
Bad timing? Good that online document submission now in place as alternative for new applicants

[FrozenTundra]

Oh really? I've been so focussed on getting her Irish citizenship and I thought it would be difficult as I have never had a British passport. I will look into that now and see which documents are required. Thank you.

You can ask for more specific details in the UK immigration section of these forums, but basically you having or not having a passport is irrelevant. Plenty of British citizens do not get their first passport until they are adults, but that doesn't mean they weren't British citizens prior to acquiring their first passport.

British citizenship can be passed one generation abroad. That is to say, there is "British citizenship otherwise than by descent" and "British citizenship by descent". While there are some exceptions, the general rule is that British citizens by descent cannot pass on their British citizenship to their children born outside the UK; only a British citizen otherwise than by descent (e.g. British citizen through naturalization or a British citizen through birth in the UK) can pass on British citizenship to their children born outside the UK.

It seems that you are a British citizen otherwise than by descent, which means that your child born outside the UK is automatically a British citizen by descent. This status would be automatic; you would apply directly for the UK passport for your daughter since there is no citizenship registration (she would already be a citizen).

But before we go that route, we should actually confirm that you are a UK citizen. Again it seems like you are, but we should check. There are two sets of rules based on birth in the UK depending on year of birth.

* People born in the UK prior to January 1st, 1983 automatically acquired British citizenship at birth irrespective of their parents immigration status. If you fit into that situation, all you would need to do is provide your British birth certificate (to prove your British citizenship otherwise than by descent) and then your daughter's Vietnamese birth certificate (to prove she is your child and thus a British citizen by descent).
* People born in the UK after January 1st, 1983 automatically acquired British citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents was a UK citizen or had "settled" status at the time of their birth. The concept of "settled" status is complicated, but all that matters to you is that Irish citizens who live in the UK automatically have settled status courtesy of the provisions of the Common Travel Area arrangements. Thus, to prove your British citizenship otherwise than by descent you would still need to provide your British birth certificate, but also proof that one of your parents was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth and lived in the UK. Then you would provide your daughter's Vietnamese birth certificate to prove her British citizenship by descent.

I strongly recommend you reach out to the British embassy in Vietnam as they will be able to assist you with specific documentation.

Sorry for the off-topic tangent but hope that helped. Good luck!

[Rwmc6]

In February I informed the FBR team that my wife was pregnant. I had to send some proof from her midwife. I also advised them at this point that I had moved house and provided my new address.

I hadn’t heard anything since, until today where I have received all my documents back by post. I didn’t receive a confirmation of address email, probably because they updated it when I informed them in February.

What does receiving the documents back signal? Is this them starting to process my application? I haven’t heard anything from them other than the documents coming through my letterbox today. When do you normally receive the documents back? After being added to the FBR?

Thanks in advance.

[jamiepompey]

In February I informed the FBR team that my wife was pregnant. I had to send some proof from her midwife. I also advised them at this point that I had moved house and provided my new address.

I hadn’t heard anything since, until today where I have received all my documents back by post. I didn’t receive a confirmation of address email, probably because they updated it when I informed them in February.

What does receiving the documents back signal? Is this them starting to process my application? I haven’t heard anything from them other than the documents coming through my letterbox today. When do you normally receive the documents back? After being added to the FBR?

Thanks in advance.

I received my documents back after I received my FBR certificate. It’s likely that you have been added to the FBR but they haven’t printed your certificate yet or something like that. Hopefully congratulations will be in order soon enough!

[Finmcf]

Hi everyone, I submitted my application and all my documents in March 2020, so I'm expecting to be in the queue for maybe another year, I'm applying through one of my grandparents being born in Ireland, however im estranged from my mother and my Irish grandmother for certain circumstances, so I was unable to get a copy of their state issued IDs, but I was able to get everything else, all of the marriage and birth certificates etc. and I wrote a statement and provided some court documents which can act as proof of the estrangement to show I have a genuine reason for being unable to get the state issued IDs, do you guys think I have a chance of being approved for the FBR? even though im missing the IDs?, has anyone had similar circumstances to me regarding this?

[Mr_Knight]

Hi everyone, I submitted my application and all my documents in March 2020, so I'm expecting to be in the queue for maybe another year, I'm applying through one of my grandparents being born in Ireland, however im estranged from my mother and my Irish grandmother for certain circumstances, so I was unable to get a copy of their state issued IDs, but I was able to get everything else, all of the marriage and birth certificates etc. and I wrote a statement and provided some court documents which can act as proof of the estrangement to show I have a genuine reason for being unable to get the state issued IDs, do you guys think I have a chance of being approved for the FBR? even though im missing the IDs?, has anyone had similar circumstances to me regarding this?

I had a similar situation. I contacted the FBR department before sending my application. They said to just mention it in the cover letter and send everything else and continue with application process. However I dont know how to "prove estrangement".

[Chillchill]

In February I informed the FBR team that my wife was pregnant. I had to send some proof from her midwife. I also advised them at this point that I had moved house and provided my new address.

I hadn’t heard anything since, until today where I have received all my documents back by post. I didn’t receive a confirmation of address email, probably because they updated it when I informed them in February.

What does receiving the documents back signal? Is this them starting to process my application? I haven’t heard anything from them other than the documents coming through my letterbox today. When do you normally receive the documents back? After being added to the FBR?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Rwmc6 - First of all congratulations that you are expecting!

May I ask exactly how you were able to contact them in February? I'm due in August this year. I tried to contact them via the passport Webchat and they told me to wait until they were back in the office basically. So at the moment I'm following the advice not to send any supporting documents until they re-open. However getting a little concerned as I'm due in 4 months. Thanks

[Rwmc6]

I would speak to them again on live chat. Live chat told me I had to send proof of pregnancy on headed paper from the NHS. I had my wife’s midwife do this and emailed off to them to the email address provided by live chat. She did say they wouldn’t come back to me until offices opened, but out the blue I’ve received my documentation back without any other correspondence from them. I’m a tad worried that they have cancelled my application by accident or something but probably just overthinking it.

[derekkn]

I know this is the most wishful of wishful thinking, and I should just sit tight and wait, but my documents were accepted at Balbriggan in November 2019 and I'm wondering if anyone else in that cohort has been seen yet? I for sure won't be holding my breath, but I'm hopeful it won't be another year, hopefully...

[Alice14]

I have a promising update - I received an e-mail confirming my certificate has been posted this morning. I had an email in December saying I had been added to the register but my certificate wouldn’t be posted due to the level 5 restrictions starting after Christmas.

Documents Received: 10/09/2019
Request for missing document: 10/12/2020
Confirmation of address: 22/12/2020
Email confirming certificate has been posted: 20/04/2021

[Celtic67]

That’s great news! I am October 2019 so hopefully it will not be long before they’re completing mine.It might be level 3 on May 4th at last with news from Dublin

[Rwmc6]

After receiving my documents back out the blue and sending an email to the FBR team, it was confirmed to me today that I was added to the FBR on 9 April and I am now an Irish citizen.

Documents Received: 28 November 2019
Proof of wife’s pregnancy given (due Aug 2021): 8 February 2021
Documents returned: 17 April 2021
Confirmation by email been added to FBR: 20 April 2021

Good luck to all still waiting for their application to be processed (and apologies for skipping the queue due to the pregnancy!). I am now just awaiting my certificate being posted.

[derekkn]

After receiving my documents back out the blue and sending an email to the FBR team, it was confirmed to me today that I was added to the FBR on 9 April and I am now an Irish citizen.

Documents Received: 28 November 2019
Proof of wife’s pregnancy given (due Aug 2021): 8 February 2021
Documents returned: 17 April 2021
Confirmation by email been added to FBR: 20 April 2021

Good luck to all still waiting for their application to be processed (and apologies for skipping the queue due to the pregnancy!). I am now just awaiting my certificate being posted.

Good luck to you! Congrats.

[UncleBud]

Good News! I just received my FBR and all of my supporting documentation in the post today! My FBR says I was entered into the registry on December 18, 2020, just as they were going into lockdown. There was no email telling me that the documents were coming.

FBR Documents Accepted: 27 September 2019
FBR Confirmation of Address Email: 17 December 2020
FBR Entered into Registry: 18 December 2020
FBR Congratulations Email: none
FBR Certificate and Supporting Documents Received: 22 April 2021

The good people in Dublin are definitely clearing the stack of FBRs which were approved but not posted.

Feels good to be officially Irish!