First Passport after completing Foreign Birth Registration

[robert147258369]

Hello everyone.

I received my certificate last week after applying for the Foreign Birth Registration in October 2024.

The next job then is to apply for my first Irish passport.

I have a few questions, and would be really grateful for any help.

My application was based on both my grandparents being born in Ireland, but, like me, both my parents were born in the UK.

My questions are as follows:

1) On the Ireland.ie website, when looking at the additional documents required, am I right in thinking the correct option I should be looking at is "I was not born on the island of Ireland. My parent was an Irish citizen when I was born but they were not born on the island of Ireland."
I was not fully sure here, as my parent has never been an Irish citizen, unless they mean they are deemed a citizen because their parent was born in Ireland, i.e my grandparent. If it is not this option to choose, does anyone know which one I should be using instead?

2) On the ID section, it says I should provide:
"copy of front and back of Public Services Card, or
original passport from another country, or
original National ID card from another country, or
certified copy of Driving Licence from another country,* or
certified copy of Irish Driving Licence*"
Obviously, as a UK resident, I only have a UK passport and a UK driving licence. I can easily provide a certified UK driving licence. But has anyone had any success in including a certified copy of their passport as the second form of evidence? Or is it absolutely you must send your original UK passport no exceptions? I am just a little bit worried, in case my passport goes missing, and we go on holiday in a couple of months. If I absolutely must send my UK passport, then I might have to delay my passport application until after our holiday, just to be on the safe side.

3) I am sure a while back (though I cannot find it now!) that someone mentioned about applying for an NHS letter to prove your name. But Ireland.ie website also says you need a separate letter to prove your address. If you have been in a similar position to me, what have you done here?

4) I still have all the original documents that the authorities sent back to me after successfully completing the Foreign Birth Registration. Would it help and speed up the application if I enclosed all of these documents again as part of the passport application?

Thank you very much for any assistance you can give. Mostly I am worried about parting with my passport!

Thank you.

[Vadrar]

1. your parents are Irish citizens, whether they've claimed their passport or not. (Unless they specifically renounced.) So yes, you've selected the correct option

2. I believe there is no option than sending your original passport when a UK resident.

3. You'll need two forms of proof of address. At least one government letter - from NHS, HMRC, Dept Work and Pensions or similar. If you can't get two govt letterheaded letters, you can try using one utility bill as second form.

4. Nope.

If in doubt, speak to https://londonirishcentre.org/our-servi ... formation/ and if you are close I'd recommending completing your application through them (it's free.) They provide direct passport application support, and my understanding is that they process (as in volunteer admin and application support; they have no official role and are not part of Irish govt) more British applications for Irish passports than anyone else. Because they submit more applications than anyone else, they know all the intricacies of what works in any given month (because requirements change) in an application from the UK.

[jgclancy]

You have chosen the correct passport application route via FBR : "I was not born on the island of Ireland. My parent was an Irish citizen when I was born but they were not born on the island of Ireland."

I don't know rules for sending UK passport but I do know people include a letter asking them to return documents immediately after they've been scanned into the system and not wait until after passport book is printed. They seem to do this for people.

For the proofs of name just be sure it is your full name and no initials.

Good luck

jgclancy

[robert147258369]

Thank you very much everyone for your very kind and helpful replies. I think I will therefore hold off doing anything until after our holiday, just in case we do not receive our passport back from the Ireland authorities in time!

[eastern1977]

Did you send your GBR passport with your application?

I am in the same position.

I have completed the foreign birth register, and now want to apply for the passport.

[pcbbc]

If you read the Identity Verification Cover Sheet you will see it adds “If resident outside the state, certified colour copies of ID are acceptable”. So you can, presumably, send a certified copy of your passport if resident outside of The Republic (e.g, UK of GB and NI).

But of course there’s no requirement to send your passport at all, since according to those instructions there are a multitude of acceptable forms of photo ID, of which only one is required.

Having just been entered on the FBR myself, I sent off my first time passport application earlier this week. For photo ID I included a certified copy of my driving licence (which should have been sufficient according to cover sheet) but also a certified copy of my UK passport as an additional “backup”. Like you I’m not keen on my UK passport going AWOL.

If you look there are actually 3 separate lists of the documents required, all with varying instructions about what to send…

1. The verification form cover sheet
I’ve no idea why the advice “If you are providing your original passport from country of birth/previous nationality you do not need to submit additional government issued photo identification.” appears in the bullet points where it does. It doesn’t relate to the item before “proof of address” or the item after “applicants FBR certificate”.

2. The email that was sent when you completed your passport application
This list DOES say as a separate bullet point you should provide “applicants passport from country of origin/previous nationality”. Note that the requirement for passport is NOT mandated anywhere on the cover sheet! There, passport is just ONE of the allowed forms of photo ID you need to provide, but not compulsory.

3. Online on the DFA Website
Under the “I was not born on the island of Ireland. My parent was an Irish citizen when I was born but they were not born on the island of Ireland” section there is yet another list.
This one says you should have a marriage certificate if you’ve changed name. Not mentioned in either 1 or 2!
Passport is mentioned under the types of acceptable photo ID, but again you only need to provide ONE of those listed, just like the cover sheet.

It’s really a total mess when they cannot even be consistent. I feel your pain.

I decided to provide what was requested on my cover sheet, as that is in the envelope with the application. That seemed reasonable to me. As I said I did also include my certified UK passport just as a backup.

I’ll certainly be “having words” if they say what I provided is insufficient, not least because there are at least the 3 different and contradictory lists, as I mention above!

Also there may be people applying that do not have a passport for their country of origin, even though they are citizens. So it does NOT seem reasonable to mandate providing it.

[Nazo]

Hi

My son born in the uk last year 2024 and his father was Irish citizen through naturalisation his father was not born in Ireland

My son father is died this year so I have no his any Irish nationality number I have only his Irish passport number
I want to apply for FBR for my son because his father was Irish
My question is can i apply for FBR without his father nationality number because in the form they want naturalisation number can i use his father Irish passport?

Please reply me