passport office, birth certificates and misinformation

[aclivity]

As some people will know, we had a twinset delivery earlier this year to add to the two singles. (one of the singles thinks they may need a pony soon).

Well, when we registered them we had no cash on us so couldn't buy the long form birth certificates - registrars can't accept plastic - so we just took the basic certificates that you get for free.

Now we try to apply for passports for the little ones, and we are told we HAVE to send in the long form certificate. They will not accept the standard short form.

No problem, we can get a long form certificate.

Ring up the general records office, explain the requirement, get told it will take 3 to 4 weeks, and cost £27 EACH, or we could look on a website to find the GR reference and then it will cost only £5. Sounds a bit weird but we thought it was worth a try.

The website was www.1837online.com

You have to pay before you can use that website, so plastic cards out, £5 thankyou very much.

Ahh ... when it says you can look up records from "1837 to present" they actually mean "1837 to 2003". As the twins were born in 2005 that doesn't really work.

Now it looks like we have to go, in person, to the registrars office. WE'VE MOVED HOUSE SINCE THEN. It's 200 miles away. Travelling 400 miles with 4 kids in one day is not my idea of fun, leaving them at home is not possible as there's no-one about to look after them. We have no choice, though ... travel back to the office or don't take them on holiday ... can't see the latter going down too well.

I'm annoyed at everyone now. Thankyou for reading my rant.

If anyone wants to look up some births, deaths or marriages from 1837 to 2003, PM me as I still have 49 searches left out of my £5 to be used up by November 28th. I may go and search for Elvis Presley's death certificate ... oh wait, his won't be there, he's not really dead.

[chrisch]

Forgive me Andy as I am kidless. Do you need passports? I thought they just went on the parent's until they were about 5 or so. Hardly likely to be travelling on their own prior to that age!

Anyway Siemens need the money to pay for the looney ID cards scheme!!! he he he....

Chris

[nickb]

Originally Posted by chrisch

Forgive me Andy as I am kidless. Do you need passports? I thought they just went on the parent's until they were about 5 or so. Hardly likely to be travelling on their own prior to that age!

Anyway Siemens need the money to pay for the looney ID cards scheme!!! he he he....

Chris

Children have needed their own passports since 1998.

The money still goes to the Government via the UK Passport Service which is an agency of the Home Office. I think Siemens get something like 50p for each passport application that they process.

[Conor]

They don't like making it easy do they?

Sorry for the hassle you seem to be having. Can you not request a copy by mail from the central registrars or in person from any local registrar?

I didn't think you would have to go back to the original office now

Good luck

Conor

[Narced at sea level]

My sympathies - a several years back my passport was destroyed - along with my girfriends mini - in a fire

I couldn't remember my old passport number and they wouldn't tell me it so I had to make a complete re-application.
Unfotunately I was born overseas (forces brat) but I still retained a british birth certificate - but a special sort of British birth certificate which for some reason made things very complicated for them - in addition to that my father had passed away and my mother was naturalised British - so in order to get a passport I was told I needed to submit the following:

My birth certificate
My mothers birth certificate
My fathers birth certificate
My fathers death certificate
My mothers naturalisation papers
and a load of other crap I can't recall

My mother - being a rather absent minded person didn't know where half of these documents were so I was bluntly told by the UKPA that I wasn't entitled to a British passport (even though while talking to them on the phione they admitted they could see me as a british passport holder in thier records but weren't allowed to tell me my passport number because of data protection)

Finally about 6 months later - just for fun I phoned them up and explained (lied) that my mother was refusing to hand over these documents and was there anything else I could do, only to be told by the UKPA " I have no idea why you've been asked to produce that, all we need is your birth certificate"
Grrrrrrrrrrr

[LisaR]

If you need a sitter for the day Pm me & I will gladly help out if I can

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by nickb

Children have needed their own passports since 1998

Not quite correct..........if they are already on a parents passport, it can still be used until that passport expires.

When my wife & I last renewed our passports we thought it a good idea to add the kids to both (in case one of us were to be ill / detained, then the kids could still return). As I was also born abroad, I had to supply the birth certificates of my father, mother, grandparents, my entry visa, the passport I originally entered the UK on in 1970 (ie 27 years ago) etc, etc. UNLESS I just renewed, in which case my old passport was sufficient! (the kids are on hers)

Cheers, Paul

[aclivity]

thanks for all the replies ...

what really bugs me is that the people you phone often tell you the wrong thing. In the end, through a bit of web searching and just being bullish on the 'phone, we finally managed to speak to the registrars office in Enfield, and they said all we needed to do was put the request in writing to them directly, with a cheque for £14.00 (2 x £7.00 fee) and they would send it out in the next couple of days.

WHY couldn't someone else have told us this originally? Are civil servants paid to be obstructive, or did we just get some bad luck by finding 'nice but dim'?

[Conor]

glad you got it sorted

[AndyJudge]

Arrrrgh Don't talk to me about (Un)Civil servants & the mindless red tape that seems to surround good old British Joe pubplic from getting anything from the Govt. Yesterday we spent 3 Happy hours being passed from Pillar to post trying to find out whats happened about my wife's maternity pay claim

I'm sure the Govt. are trying to make things so complex that people give up asking for anything.