Register birth of British child at the consulate

Hello all,

My wife is German and I am British. We are living in Munich and are expecting the birth of our first child later this month. I have read that we can register the birth of the child with the British Consulate in Düsseldorf. There will then be a record of the birth back at something called the General Register Office back the UK. The only advantage of this registration seems to be that we can then get (copies of) a British birth certificate, just as easily as if the kid had been born in Britain. But the fee is €221, and I'm just not sure that it's worth it.

Can anyone here explain the disadvantages of not registering the birth at the British Consulate?

The child will be eligible for both British and German passports by descent (although whether we bother obtaining two EU passports is another question). This birth registration is not required to apply for the British passport.

Anyone got any experience with all this?

Thanks,

Tashy.

I'm in a similar situation and I decided it's not worth it. When you go to the Standesamt to register your child (which you must do within 1 week of birth) you can request an international birth certificate (Internationale Geburtsurkunde) which includes an English translation. This is recognised by the UK authorities and can be used when applying for a British passport.

Link: Kreisverwaltungsreferat München - Urkundenarten - Geburtsurkunde.

The only disadvantage I can see is it may be necessary to get another official translation if you move to a country whose language is not included on the international certificate, or where the international certificate is not recognised.

I didn't bother at all with this. Just as much as I will not bother with the two passports. The cost is too much for zero benefit!

Our children were born in Germany April 1989 & April 1992 (my wife is German). We did register them also with the British consulate. I don't recall the fee but at that time it was not massive.

Currently our children have German passports just because UK ones cost a lot more now - but if some need arises they can apply for one as and when they choose..

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has information here, an FAQ relating to this here, and the application form here.

I think that the disavantage could be that should anyone need to obtain a copy of their bith certificate at some time in the future, and they were only registered in Munich, then they would need to deal with the Munich authorities.

Some possible scenarios where this could be a problem:

• You move back the UK when the kid is small - it doesn't learn German, has problems getting its own copy in later life as it can't deal with German burocracy.
• English language birth certificate required for some purpose in the future, translation of German certificate is costly, or not available at short notice
• Future decendants can't trace their family tree so easily, as the birth isn't known in the UK

(so the last one isn't a problem for you, but could annoy someone at a later stage!)


No, but as our baby is due in 4 weeks, I'll be interested in feedback too!

Thanks for the replies, they've cleared things up a bit.

For the record, although there seem to be some small disadvantages in not doing the consular registration (the links from woolleym were very useful), I'm still not convinced that it would be money well spent. Unless something else comes to light, I'm not going to bother. The international birth certificate seems to solve some of the potential problems anyway.

I've e-mailed the FCO to ask about the validity of the international birth certificate in the UK, and also to check how long I've got after the birth to apply for the consular registration. I'm hoping that it is possible to leave it at the moment, whilst keeping open the option of registering later, if and when problems arise. Since a couple of people here seem interested in this, I'll come back with anything I find out.

mmm maybe I am wrong about this but I thought that the law regarding citizenship had recently changed. Previously children of British citizens born abroad automatically qualified for British citizenship but now, unless I am imagining having read this, your child will only gain citizenship if you register the birth at the consulate.

Edit: ok, I just read the law change again. The problem isn't for your child. Your child will be a British citizen by descent. The problem comes for your child's children. If he or she marries another British citizen by descent (rather than a British citizen otherwise than by descent) or someone of another nationality, British citizenship is NOT automatically given to their children.

Can you post a link?

http://www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk/se...d=1062156227562

So basically any spawn created over here will only be British by descent whatever you do, but if you want a british birth certificate, you have to pay GBP151 and then GBP59 for every copy of a birth certificate. Doesn't really seem worth it, does it? Your kid could have a lovely German EU passport, that's presumably loads cheaper and is unlikely to require all the biometric bollocks and huge fees of the UK one. No brainer - don't think we'll bother registering ours with the UK.

An interesting (and complicated) point at this link is that a "British citizen by descent" can pass on British citzenship further to their children in two ways...

1. The parent lived in the UK for 3 continious years (270 days absence in this period is allowed) before the birth of the child -> child will be entitled to "British by descent"
2. The family moves back to the UK, and resides for 3 years, and then registers the birth of the child -> child is "British otherwise than descent"

So, for my children, the following is possible

Me (British otherwise than descent)
-> child (British by descent)
...-> (1) child lives in UK for 3 years -> has grandchild anywhere, which is then "British by descent"
...-> (2) grandchild born anywhere -> child and grandchild then live in UK 3 years. Grandchild can then be "British otherwise than by descent"

In the case that (1) is applicable, but (2) could happen in the future, it is important that the child is only registered once (2) happens, as it is not possilbe to convert from "British by descent" to "British otherwise than by descent"

There doesn't seem to be anyway in which my child can become "british otherwise than by descent", it can only earn the ability to pass on British citizenship by living in the UK for more than 3 years at some time in their life.

Confused? So am I!

There is useful info. on the General Register Office web site - www.gro.gov.uk
I would be inclined to 'phone the GRO.
Having worked for the GRO, I can see numerous disadvantages in not getting
the birth registered in the UK system.

What would they be Jeremy, because at the minute, I'm thinking that just registering in Germany is preferable. Are there any pros to having a British passport rather than a German passport?

OK, I've spoken to the consulate and the FCO about this "consular registration". Here are some updates:

1. There is no deadline. So, if, for some odd reason in the distant future, the kid needs a British birth certificate and/or wants to record its birth with the British authorities, then it can do so. It is worth checking the FAQ mentioned by woolleym to see what documentation is likely to be required for this, and of course, there is no reason to think that the fee will be any lower in the future.

2. Registration doesn't change British "by descent" status to "otherwise than by descent". So that's got rid of one potential reason for paying the €221.

3. International birth certificates are not universally accepted. They wouldn't go into details about how widely accepted they are, but they are fine for applying for a passport, for example.

At time of writing this, it costs about 200andsomething euros to get a kid registered as English, according to the British Embassy website. Apparently not required for British Nationality though.

As to a "lovely German passport", I for one am fucked if I am gonna let my kid grow up in the knowledge that he'll have to partake in meaningless, pathetic German military service when he hits adulthood, not only making him annoyed by having to do suck bullshit, but costing his old man money in taxes. A Britich passport hardly carries as much clout as it used to, shit, some of the colonies won't even let you come over and shoot their tigers anymore, but still alot better than a Gerry one.

The passport doesn't grant German citizenship - it the child is eliigable, it is granted automatically at birth, and you can not avoid it! A passport does state the nationality, so is good proof, but it is not required. If the child is born to a German parent it can not avoid German citizenship.

I receviced (via the Standesamt) a letter from the Meldebehörde when I went to pick up the birth certificate of my daughter (refered to before her birth in the thread above). The letter basically stated that "Congratulations, as you have lived here for more than 8 years, your daughter has been granted German citizenship, and will, with in the Federal Republic of Germany, be considered German only".

So it doesn't matter if you don't take a German passport, the authorities consider the child to be German, and ignore any other dual (or in our case triple) citizenships that the child may have (except they know that the child must decide between the age of 18 & 23 if they wish to keep German citizenship, and loose the others).

If you want to make sure your child doesn't "have to partake in meaningless, pathetic German military service " then make sure the child isn't born German - e.g. move out the country to break your 8 years or more residency before the child is born! If your child is German by decent, they probably haven't a chance of avoiding national service, unless I guess, they manage to stay out of Germnay until for the entire period of time which German law requires them to do so, and then afterwards to avoid any punishment for not taking part if requested to do so!