Information from Foreign Office (June 2009)

Registering a birth overseas

If your child is born outside the UK you can register the birth with the nearest consulate or with our consular department in London if you've returned to the UK. You don't have to do this, but if you do your child will be given a British style birth certificate and the birth will be registered at the General Register Office in the UK.

We recommend consular birth registration because it means you'll be able to get extra copies of the consular certificate from the General Register Office in the future.

Before applying for consular birth registration

You won't be able to register the birth with your local registry office in the UK so you'll need to register the birth with the local civil authorities and obtain a birth certificate from them.

From April 2010, we will be able to start consular birth registering in the above countries, except for the Overseas Territories.

• Exceptions
  Please note that we can't register births which occurred in the following countries:
  * Australia
  * Canada
  * New Zealand
  * Republic of Ireland
  * South Africa
  * Overseas Territories
  
  

The standard of registration in these countries is similar to that of the UK. We also can't register a birth if the parents were born overseas and are only British by descent. Nor can we register the birth of a non-British child who has been adopted by British parents.

What documents do we need to provide?

To consular register a birth you will need to provide:

• child's civil overseas birth certificate
• mother's full length British birth certificate (or Home office naturalisation or registration certificate if born outside of the UK)*
• father's full British birth certificate (or Home office naturalisation or registration certificate if born outside of the UK)*
• parent's marriage certificate
• One current British Passport

* this is at least A4 sized and shows details of your parents. Copies can be obtained from the General Register Office.

If one parent was born overseas, we will still need to see their overseas birth certificate or passport photocopy.

A full British birth certificate is one which shows details of the parents on, and is usually at least A4 sized.

We’ll need the original documents and two legible photocopies of each, and the application form plus one copy.

We can accept a certified copy of your passport but the bio-data page will need to be certified by a UK Solicitor or a notary public registered with the Law Society.

If you and your partner are not married

If you are a British man and your child's mother is foreign you can only apply for a Consular birth registration of a child who born on or after 1 July 2006. If you are an unmarried women who's had a child abroad and you would like the father's details recorded on the certificate, you will need to swear Statutory Paternity Declarations in front of a UK solicitor/Commissioner for Oaths. This is sworn in front of a consular officer if you are resident overseas.

Paternity Declaration

• How much does it cost?

The cost of registration, whether in London or at the Consulate abroad is £98.00 and each certificate requested is £63.00 e.g. one certificate costs £98.00 + £63.00 = £161.00; two certificates would cost £224.00 etc. You can pay by postal order or bank draft made payable to "The FCO". We do not accept personal cheques. If you would like more than one copy of the certificate each additional certificate will cost £63.00. The fees are closely regulated by parliament and cover the cost of administration.

• Registering at a consulate overseas

You should consult the website of the relevant consulate for information on processing times and other information.

• Registering at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London

We can't accept personal callers at our London office so you will need to post your documents to us by recorded or special delivery.

First you'll need to download and complete the registration form. (From the FCO web site).

Please include two stamped addressed special or recorded delivery envelopes so we can return your documents and your consular birth certificate to you. We'll return your documents to you within or just after 20 working days. You should receive the Consular certificate about 6 weeks from receiving a complete application.

• Obtaining copies of the certificate in the future

You'll be able to obtain certified copies of the certificate from the General Register Office from the March of the year after registration. If you need a copy before then you should submit a request to us plus a payment of £63.00 for each certificate requested which we’ll forward to the relevant British embassy.

e.g. If a child is registered in June 2000, their certificate will be obtainable from the General Register Office from March of 2001; if they were registered in November 2000 the certificate would still be available from the GRO from March 2001.