Trying to get a British passport for my 7 week old son. As I got married to an Irish women in Italy I needed to double check the documents I required. Five calls to the passport information service provided 5 different answers.
As a result I became very sceptical and phone the passport office directly to establish that I only needed to do was send the application form plus my son's birth certificate as the law had changed on July 1st 2006 so that a nationality can be given via the father without having to be married with the mother.
Point 1
The Post Office "checking service" knows diddly squit. They contested every bit of information I had and even sent off my own passport when they didn't have to! This resulted me cancelling a trip.
Point 2
Our passport offices don't know what they are doing either. I received a letter in the post asking for a copy plus translation of my marriage certificate stating my son's application was on hold till they received it.
I phoned today only to be told that I was correct - the law had changed and no marriage cert was needed.
Point 3
On the phone today, I got told that the application was still on hold - despite having all the information because MY passport was issued from an Embassy outside of the UK not a passport office and therefore the UK system does not have my details on record. They had requested my file from the Embassy and would continue with the application when they had received it.
Bottom line: Unless you are a Brit who has never lived outside the UK, nor married a non-Brit, nor got married outside the UK then don't expect to get a passport anytime soon.........unless of course you are an illegal immigrant then I am sure the waiting time is so much quicker.......!!!
As a result I became very sceptical and phone the passport office directly to establish that I only needed to do was send the application form plus my son's birth certificate as the law had changed on July 1st 2006 so that a nationality can be given via the father without having to be married with the mother.
Point 1
The Post Office "checking service" knows diddly squit. They contested every bit of information I had and even sent off my own passport when they didn't have to! This resulted me cancelling a trip.
Point 2
Our passport offices don't know what they are doing either. I received a letter in the post asking for a copy plus translation of my marriage certificate stating my son's application was on hold till they received it.
I phoned today only to be told that I was correct - the law had changed and no marriage cert was needed.
Point 3
On the phone today, I got told that the application was still on hold - despite having all the information because MY passport was issued from an Embassy outside of the UK not a passport office and therefore the UK system does not have my details on record. They had requested my file from the Embassy and would continue with the application when they had received it.
Bottom line: Unless you are a Brit who has never lived outside the UK, nor married a non-Brit, nor got married outside the UK then don't expect to get a passport anytime soon.........unless of course you are an illegal immigrant then I am sure the waiting time is so much quicker.......!!!
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