Registering US-born child with UK

[BoggleHead 0]

Hi everyone

My wife gave birth to our daughter here in the US in March. I was born in the UK, originally came over on the K-1 visa but now have US citizenship. My wife is a US citizen.

I wanted to register my daughter's birth with the UK through the 'Register a birth abroad' - but after looking into this I don't understand why this option is available when I can just go ahead and get her a British passport at any time I like.

What is the advantage to registering her birth with the UK as opposed to just getting her a British passport? I guess I am just a bit confused as to why registering the birth without applying for a passport is even an option.

Are there any advantages to doing the registering a birth abroad process rather than just going straight for the passport?

Thanks.

Edited May 1, 2015 by BoggleHead

[wbeem 567]

You need a birth certificate to be able to apply for a British passport. I think that's the reason why you need to register your daughter's birth abroad first.

Perhaps email the passport service in the UK and ask them what the steps are that you need to take.

[rascalflatt 6]

Hi there

Really interesting you should bring this up, because I was about to register the birth abroad and pay the associated fees when I happened to notice that you can just go straight for the UK passport provided one parent is a UK citizen.

Contrary to what the poster above writes you don't need a UK birth certificate for the child to get a UK passport, just one parent's UK certificate.

So I completely agree with you - registering the birth abroad just seems completely and utterly pointless! I'll be going straight for the passport for our daughter.

[*Snowdrop* 603]

You don't need to do the register a birth abroad to get the passport. There must be a reason they have it for some people.

We didn't do it for my daughter and we just got her British passport using her American birth certificate and my UK birth cert and passport.

There's no real rush either. We travelled back and forth to the UK using her American passport for several years before bothering to get the UK one.

[BoggleHead 0]

After looking into this some more it looks as though the main advantage is when/if I want to get her a passport, I can simply use the UK birth record rather than having to submit her US birth certificate, my marriage certificate and my birth certificate. So, a little easier when going for a passport in the future and perhaps for proving entitlement to citizenship(?) in the interim?

Edited May 3, 2015 by BoggleHead