RoA while British Passport application is pending

[gre.bm691]

Hello all

I am in a bit of a fix and wondered if someone could help. I will try to be brief. I am a naturalized british citizen. Wife is on Spouse visa (indian passport).

My son was born in India about 4 months ago. Rather than applying from India, I decided to apply for his passport from within the UK. The passport application is progressing well and I was told last week that the application has successfully undergone all UK based checks and now has been transferred to India for verification.

Now, here is the tricky bit. They are not sure how long will the verification process in India take. It can take upto 4 months apparently and my patience is on the brink.

So, the question now is, can I apply for RoA while the British passport application is in progress? I am going to get all my UK based supporting documents back soon and have a trip coming up. I dont see a problem myself, but wondered if anyone has done this before.

Thanks in advance.

[secret.simon]

Does the child have an Indian passport? The CoE-RoA goes on an existing passport of another country.

For the passport application form, did you get a countersignatory who knew the child?

A person who has a British passport is ineligible to apply for a CoE-RoA. Not sure if the same is the case for somebody who has applied for the same and the application is in progress or not.

Passport applications for people outside the UK are taking between 6 months and a year according to timelines on this site.

[gre.bm691]

Thanks for responding.

The child does not have an Indian passport yet. (If he did, I would have had to submit it as part of the British passport application).

But getting that won't take more than a week. If this is not allowed, I regret applying for his passport and not going for the RoA route!

[secret.simon]

The CoE-RoA is a vignette (a sticker) that is applied in an existing passport. So, another non-British passport must exist for the vignette to go on.

I presume that the child was born in India after you had attended your naturalisation ceremony in the UK. Then it would be eligible for both Indian and British citizenship, until the date it is issued with a British passport (which automatically revokes his Indian citizenship).

A CoE-RoA can take between six and sixteen weeks, a British passport between 6 months and a year.

Decide which one you want to do first. Remember that most of the checks will be the same for both and so try to relax; you cannot rush the process.

Did you read therequirements for the countersignatory to the child passport (see Page 10 of the document)? The person needs to be a professional, a British or Irish citizen (in a pinch, a Commonwealth/Indian citizen will do, but it will take longer) and needs to have known you for at least two years and has also met the child. If you are in the UK and the child is in India, it would be difficult for a counter signatory to meet all these requirements. That may be holding up the passport process.

[gre.bm691]

As I had originally stated, because I had applied for his British passport for the child from within the UK I was able to chase this up with the Liverpool passport office. They have informed me that all the verification within the UK have been completed.

Please note that it is NOT necessary for the counter signatory to have met the child. It suffices if the countersignatory knows the person who signs the application form (in this case, it was me). When they get a query, they should be able to identify the child based on the passport they enclose. He has seen my family photographs and could confirm that it was in fact my child. My countersignatory had received a query and he had responded. So thats a non issue in my case.

Getting the Indian passport wont be difficult as the mother holds the indian passport. After I get that sorted, do you think it would be a problem though if RoA application is also initiated whist the passport application is processed? I have checked and I think I will have all the documents required to apply for it.

[secret.simon]

I see that you were advised extensively in the past on the issue of RoA or passport in a past thread. So apologies for repeating the advice.

He has seen my family photographs and could confirm that it was in fact my child.

I did not realise family photographs were sufficient. My bad.

do you think it would be a problem though if RoA application is also initiated whist the passport application is processed?

I will leave it for others to comment on this question. As I mentioned, a person holding a British passport can't be issued a CoE-RoA. I am not sure if the same rule applies to a person who has applied for one, but who has not yet got it.