Hello

Just this morning got the letter through from the embassy with my interview date, still almost 2 months off but I've been checking through the things I'll need to bring with me. I read on the IV-15 thing after birth cert it says "Please note that the so-called British "short form" birth certificate is not acceptable".

Now as far as I'm aware and as far as many hours of digging through my parents "filing system" I only have 1 birth cert, but I have no idea whether this is a short form or not. To the uninformed me it looks fairly short, smaller than an A5 sheet of paper, with just my details (name, place and date of birth) and a signed statement by the "registrar of birth". Is this sufficient or should I set about applying for yet another form?

Cheers

You need the A4 version of the birth certificate. I didn't have this either. You need to get in touch with the registrar of births and deaths where you were born and they will send you certified copies. I think if I remember correctly, they are £7 each.

It only took about 4 days for them to send them to me after I had sent them a cheque

Tash is right, the one you have won't be accepted by the Embassy. The 'long form' birth certificate will have your parents details on it as well as your own.

Gillian

Congratulations on your interview date

(you got the info on the birth cert above )

Cheers just been to the general register office website (http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/) and ordered a me new cert, says it'll arrive on the 19th of may, good thing the interview date is not till June!!

Ahh isn't bureaucracy a wonderful thing.

I've had my long form cert since birth and its a bit battered and bruised. However, it's the one given at my birth and I didn't want to risk the embassy not giving it back and so on. So I ordered a copy and it arrived a few days later. The thing that surprised me is that it is a certified photocopy of the one my mother signed when I was born. It has her signature on it and everything (unlike my original birth one).

Considering she died a couple of years ago, it was actually a nice surprise to see her handwriting on the bottom.