Foreign Birth Registration?

[Wilma1]

All, thank you for the updates, it all sounds very positive.

[Wavey]

I included a return envelope with a prepaid royal mail special delivery postage label attached. They sent back my documents, the fbr certificate and a cover letter all together. The certificate and cover letter were two a4 sheets so didn't add much in terms of weight or volume. The application form was retained.

Thanks for your reply, again.

Did your tracking number on yours become live?

I also sent a SAE just incase (I had read online you should) and I have also retained that tracking number to check.

[h0b0]

Royal mail special delivery tracking reported "Come back and check later" until the embassy posted the letter after which tracking reported delivery progress as expected.

[Wavey]

Excellent news h0b0. I appreciate your responses.
I was going to renew my British passport this week but will hold off for a few more aweeks. I fly late January to the US so that is more than enough time if my FBR comes this side of 2016.

[doomster]

Thanks h0b0 and jell for the useful indication of timescales.
I posted mine on 22 August so am hoping it will come in the next month or so. Slight complication is that my grandmother's birth certificate was a different first name and date of birth ! I also had baptism record for her in the correct name so am hoping it is OK.
I hadn't realised there was a need to send an SAE; don't remember reading about it. I printed the form early July, but had a delay assembling all the certificates so not sure if the process had already changed to include the return postage by then or not. I had to send a postal order, which has not yet been cashed.

[Wavey]

Evening Doomster

I would not worry too much about the SAE I'm sure I read it whilst fine-reading the paperwork and it definitely wasn't on the DFA.IE page or print out of application. I did read if an SAE was not sent then when sending documents/certificate back they would only send first class Royal Mail.

[h0b0]

Hi wavey, I read that you are hoping to get by on one passport and prefer an Irish one over a British one. Is it the case that for a uk resident an Irish passport is always as good as a British one?

I'm thinking more about readmission to the uk after brexit rather than minor visa fee differences around the world. After brexit I anticipate eu passports in general won't give free access to the uk. Is it expected that an Irish passport will allow access due to the common travel area?

[Wavey]

Hi wavey, I read that you are hoping to get by on one passport and prefer an Irish one over a British one. Is it the case that for a uk resident an Irish passport is always as good as a British one?

I'm thinking more about readmission to the uk after brexit rather than minor visa fee differences around the world. After brexit I anticipate eu passports in general won't give free access to the uk. Is it expected that an Irish passport will allow access due to the common travel area?

Evening h0b0,

You are correct as in readmission to the UK would (potentially post brexit) be harder with an Irish Passport compared to a U.K. one.

However, no one knows currently what the state of admission to EU states will be as a British passport holder as of now.

Due to work I travel a lot (inter European countries for example Spain to Germany) so I would rather keep my options open in the long term.

W

[Wavey]

FAYI

I have contacted the post office again regarding the postal order and it has still not been cashed.

W

[Wilma1]

How coincidental! I likewise checked my bank today, the draft is still not cashed

[Wavey]

FYI,

I have just checked my tracking (randomly) for the SAE I sent with my application and it is showing it has been sent with a delivery date of tomorrow?!

Will update tomorrow.

W.

[Sweet Mistakes]

Hey Wavey!
Just wondered if you received your FBR certificate today?

[Wavey]

Hey Wavey!
Just wondered if you received your FBR certificate today?

Evening,

Apologies for such a late response in the day, I have been extremely busy.

I have indeed received my FBR certificate!

A few bits of information to those (Wilma, Doomster etc)

My certificate is dated 14/11 and the cover letter is dated 17/11 and was posted yesterday. This all but confirms that they despatch in batches, My SAE I sent had markings of (I believe 15/29) on the front, maybe this is the order they were received in, in a certain week/month/day?

All documents were returned minus the application form and added was the certificate and the cover letter.

Fingers crossed you see yours this side of 2016 Wilma, hopefully next week!

I will keep checking this weekly for a while in hopes to answer any queries that any of you may have.

In summary - from sending to the certificate being created was 91 days, 94 days until the summary letter was printed and 113 days until I received my certificate.

Regards

W

[Sweet Mistakes]

I also have a query which i'm unsure if anyone here can help me with?

I'm currently in the process of ordering supporting documents for the FBR through descent from my Grandfather, who was married three times, and wondering if you think i'll need to supply all three of these marriage certificates, along with a divorce certificate and two death certificates for his wives?

His first marriage was to my mothers, mother, to whom he then divorced.
Might it be possible for me to just send these two papers to confirm my mothers heritage?
I don't want to be ordering certificates that are not relevant to to my application as of course this will become expensive and they will never be used. He also, being the male of the relationships, will never have changed his name throughout his life, therefore these certificates will have no bearing on his name.

How many certificates do you think i can get away with sending for the application?

Any help will be appreciated, thank you xxx

[damocov]

Been lurking for a while and I've seen that it seems the time scales are looking less than the 6 month estimates, glad to see that Wavey who started this thread has got his certificate now, so I thought I'd add my details to help aid other lurkers tracking their applications.

For reference I applied for FBR to the London embassy on the 1st November (received and signed for on the 2nd), so fingers crossed I'll be hearing from them about the end of January.

My Sister resident in Scotland applied to the Edinburgh consulate about 4 weeks earlier so it should be interesting to see the relative speeds...

[damocov]

Sweet Mistakes: you shouldn't need anything for your grandfather's second and third wives, as they are irrelevant to proving your lineage.

The certificates you need are to prove that you are his descendent, not his entire history, nor the history of any of his wives (including your grandmother after she gave birth to your mother)

So his birth certificate, marriage certificate (to your grandmother), death certificate, may be worth including the first divorce certificate that shows he was still married to your grandmother at the time of your mother's birth, but so long as he's named on her birth certificate that shouldn't be really essential to the process.
Your mother's birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable), copy of current passport or death certificate.
Your birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable) and copy of current passport.

So you don't need any certificates for your father or grandmother other than their marriage certificates as they are not relevant to proving your link to your grandfather.

[Wilma1]

Hi Wavey, great news, will let you know when ours arrive!

[Wavey]

I also have a query which i'm unsure if anyone here can help me with?

I'm currently in the process of ordering supporting documents for the FBR through descent from my Grandfather, who was married three times, and wondering if you think i'll need to supply all three of these marriage certificates, along with a divorce certificate and two death certificates for his wives?

His first marriage was to my mothers, mother, to whom he then divorced.
Might it be possible for me to just send these two papers to confirm my mothers heritage?
I don't want to be ordering certificates that are not relevant to to my application as of course this will become expensive and they will never be used. He also, being the male of the relationships, will never have changed his name throughout his life, therefore these certificates will have no bearing on his name.

How many certificates do you think i can get away with sending for the application?

Any help will be appreciated, thank you xxx

Damocov is correct, It is only your line of decent so the others are irrelevant, you could contact the Embassy to make sure (I could be wrong) but I'm confident Damocov is right!

Been lurking for a while and I've seen that it seems the time scales are looking less than the 6 month estimates, glad to see that Wavey who started this thread has got his certificate now, so I thought I'd add my details to help aid other lurkers tracking their applications.

For reference I applied for FBR to the London embassy on the 1st November (received and signed for on the 2nd), so fingers crossed I'll be hearing from them about the end of January.

My Sister resident in Scotland applied to the Edinburgh consulate about 4 weeks earlier so it should be interesting to see the relative speeds...

Glad you could join us, Good luck!
I would definitely expect it within the 6 month time frame, hopefully sooner, as said mine was 4 months and I did send it 6 weeks (approx) after the 'Brexit' vote, which is the time it took me to gather documents and such so would guess it would have taken people in my situation the same amount of time.

Hi Wavey, great news, will let you know when ours arrive!

I will definitely keep my fingers and toes crossed for you, I would expect it this side of the New Year for certain.


--

All I am going to Liverpool tomorrow to use the 'Passport Express' service to get my Irish Passport. I will (if you wish) keep you updated on how long it takes (I believe it should only be 10 working days??)

W.

[Wilma1]

Hi Wavey, good luck with the passport. It will be interesting to know how long it takes, as things stand, we have no current plans to apply until the existing passport runs out.

[doomster]

Just received my certificate today. Very proud as this was something I set about long before Brexit, but had found difficulty with the paperwork as my grandmother's birth was recorded under a different first name and birth date to how we knew her !
Posted form 22 August. Certificate is dated 25 Nov, cover letter 28 Nov, postmark 19 Dec and received 20 Dec.
Good luck everyone else !

[smurphin]

Hi doomster and everyone else, I randomly decided to check the board today to see if there were any updates and could see there's been quite a bit of movement, then got a notification about your post, you sent your docs about 2 weeks before me, so thought I'd go and check if the postman had been yet, he had, and he'd delivered me a nice brown envelope with a nice new FBR certificate very happy as we have a baby on the way and it means now the baby will be entitled to dual citizenship too, a great Christmas present!

Posted on 31st August, certificate dated 25th November (same as doomster) cover letter dated 28th November (same as doomster) postmark 16th December, received today 20th December (probably due to a mail redirection after moving house) no SAE sent with my application. It definitely looks like they're doing these in batches, around 15 weeks for me.

Good luck everyone

[Wavey]

Happy Holidays

Congratulations to you both, I'm very pleased you have both received yours, hopefully Wilma brings good news shortly!

An update on the passport process:
I sent my Passport application via Passport Express from Liverpool on 11/12/16, they received it on 13/12/16 and it is currently being processed with an ETA of 06/01/17.

Fingers crossed, no issues and will update you all soon.

W

[doomster]

One thing to be very careful of with Liverpool is the photo. I went there just before Christmas and they rejected the photo. There is a pdf you can download about the photo requirements. I'd had mine done a Max Spielmann, but it was still rejected. I think they were wrong, but what can you do.
According to the pdf, with the chin aligned with the bottom red line the top of the crown through the hairline has to be between the 2 red lines.
I can't see what's wrong with this photo, but I had to go all the way back to Manchester, get another one, get it countersigned again and back to Liverpool. Even then they thought the new one was chancey.

This is the one rejected as the head being too small (i.e. top of head too low down):

[fakboss]

Good Evening everyone on this forum,
Congrats those,who got their FBR and well wishes for
those,waiting in processing queue!
I've applied for FBR in Oct 2016 but have not received any
update yet.
I sent all supporting docs in original with my application
anyone here knows,how long it normaly takes to get reply?
Regards,

[doomster]

Based on my experience and the others in this thread it was about 4 months