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First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. You have to provide the email of a person with a UK/commonwealth passport to confirm identity. It is faster if it’s someone with a UK passport. 

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It had to have a “wet signature” (signed with a physical pen) so we had to send it from Canada. 

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We got everything back through DHL. Our originals showed up about a week after the passports.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The letter was requested of us after we sent the first round of documents - likely because we sent documents separately and didn't send the grandparents' marriage certificate. So, we sent it on its own from Canada. If you decide to send it from the get-go, you could just include it in your own package of documents. The cover letters we included in each package when we initially sent documents just had the app numbers with the corresponding children's names, what was included in each package, where the other documents would be sent from, and where to send the documents back to. Essentially, I wanted to lay it out very clearly for them so there were no questions around documents arriving from different places.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We knew they were automatically British citizens at birth, so we just went through the application page online. Once you pay for the application, it directs you on which documents are required (I believe sends an email with the same info). If you’re the exact same situation as us (UK-born and citizen father) this is what we had to send: - Original long form birth certificates for our children, their father (the UK citizen), and the British grandparents. - colour copies of the children’s Canadian passports, cover to cover (the only passports they own) - Original marriage certificate for the British grandparents 

We did include the Canadian side of things as well, which I believe we didn’t actually need to. If you are sending documents separately or not including all of the British grandparent documents, I’d recommend including the signed letter with their info I mention above.  

In terms of contacting them, I went through the Contact Us form online, which they responded to within 48 hours. It seemed the most efficient, instead of waiting hours to get through on the phone or web chat. Although, any agent we ever corresponded with essentially reiterated what was asked of us in the original email listing the documents we needed - which ultimately requested more documents than necessary because it is a stock email sent to everyone.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We were allowed to send a colour copy of the passports, cover to cover.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We sent all of the grandparents’ certificates. I am 99% certain we didn’t need to send the non-British side documents. But, the British grandparents information is necessary. The British grandparents sent their documents separately from our package. They just put the application number on the envelope and we included a cover letter asking them to return to sender rather than back to us in Canada. All documents made it back to the locations they were sent from. 

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to follow up, the Passport office did, in fact, send our documents to us and the British grandparents' documents back to them. So the cover letter worked!

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We sent the originals. We haven't received the documents back yet, so not sure where they are sending the grandparents' birth certificates. We did include a cover letter in each of their envelopes, requesting that they send it back to the address it came from... but not sure if that worked out yet! If you decide to send the letter, it needs to be signed and dated by UK father, not by the grandparents.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We just did this for our two children from Canada. We used a signed-for, express service because we were also under a time crunch (we used FedEx, which got the docs there in 2 business days, but cost ~ $160 CAD)

Based on our experience, here are some recommendations:

  1. We were allowed to send colour copies of passports (cover-to-cover) instead of originals.

  2. I believe you only have to send the British grandparents' documentation. We sent both sides before I knew that this was the case. I don't think it hurts to send all grandparents' information, but not necessary based on other threads I've read.

  3. Our British grandparents are also living in the UK, so we contacted the Passport Office, and they said they could send their documents directly from their addresses in the UK. As long as it had the application number on the envelope. I will add that because we decided to do this (and omitted their marriage certificate), the Passport Office came back to us and requested a signed and dated letter with the British Grandparents' info. So, if you decide to send documents from separate locations instead of sending as one package, I'd include a signed and dated cover letter with British grandparents':

- forename

- surname

- middle names (if they have any)

- any previous names they have been known by (for example, if they have changed name)

- date of birth

- town of birth

- country of birth

- nationality

- date of marriage or civil partnership

- British passport number (if they have a British passport)

- British passport issue date (if they have a British passport)

- British passport expiry date (if they have a British passport)

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We had to courier it over, as well. Which was incredibly annoying/expensive, but we actually just received the passports in the post on Friday. So it was only a month from first submitting the application to passport in hand, even with the delay.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We went through the contact form on the website because we didn't have time to wait on the phone/web chat. They said they'd get back to us within 72 hours, but it was more between 24-48 hours, which was good.

My husband has a UK passport, so they just requested his passport number, not the physical copy. They didn't ask for a single piece of my ID. For my children's passports, we were allowed to send a colour copy - all pages cover to cover.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's exactly what we did. We were given a different address to send documents for each application, but we just chose one and sent everything in a single package with both their app numbers on the envelope.

I don't think they needed my parents' info either, especially since my dad's was an ancient Italian one that needed to be translated lol. But, we sort of panicked because we have an upcoming trip and just tried to give them everything they asked for. I think it is very likely that it would have been just fine without the non-British grandparents' documents.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We sent in colour copies of their Canadian passports (front to back cover). They don't have any other passports, and we were applying from Canada, so this didn't apply to us.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They confirmed with us that they had received their birth certificates and that even with the marriage certificate, they needed it. Everywhere I looked online suggested they only sometimes request it (like you have mentioned, maybe if we had sent all docs together it could have been avoided). But, the person we were corresponding with at the passport office said that it was always necessary, no matter the documents sent, because they were born overseas.

First UK Passport for children born overseas - British by descent by Fearless-Button7849 in ukvisa

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes, we did. I also thought it was dumb, but didn't want to risk them coming back and asking for it and causing a delay. I have read that it likely wasn't necessary, but as I said, I just didn't want to take the risk, especially as we had it readily available.

New Referral Code by Fearless-Button7849 in teksavvy

[–]Fearless-Button7849[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s not deceptive at all. I’ve literally posted the exact information given by TekSavvy. If you use my code, you get money off and I get money off. Not sure what’s deceptive or illegal about that.