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FCO moves forward with changes to birth and death registration overseas

Monday, December 22nd 2014 - 22:06 UTC
Full article 4 comments
British nationals who are born or die abroad will be registered in one centralised unit in UK. British nationals who are born or die abroad will be registered in one centralised unit in UK.

Phase four, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela to start on January 14

 Phase four of the transfer to the UK, of overseas birth and death registrations of British Citizens will begin on 14 January 2015, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced.

The FCO is changing the way that it registers the birth and death of British Citizens overseas. Registration at British Consulates overseas are being gradually withdrawn throughout 2014 and early 2015. Registrations will be carried out instead in a central registration unit in the UK.

In June 2014, the FCO repatriated 26 countries and territories, in September, 33 countries and territories and earlier this month a further 83 countries and territories were repatriated. On 14 January 2015, we will repatriate a further 42 countries and aim to complete the transfer of remaining countries in one further phase in the first half of 2015.

This latest transfer of services will affect all applications from the following countries or territories:

Albania, Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Cyprus, Czech Rep, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Oman, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, The Occupied Palestinian Territories, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zambia.

There are no changes to the entitlement to register a birth or death. The processing time will remain the same but customers will need to allow extra time for documents to be sent to and from the UK.

Customers will find information here on how to apply for a consular birth or death registration.

Consular birth registration is an optional service and is only available to those born overseas who have an automatic entitlement to British Nationality at birth. There is no legal requirement for a consular birth registration and a local birth certificate with a certified translation if necessary should be sufficient for all purposes in the UK including applying for a passport. Similarly there is no requirement for a consular death certificate – the local certificate should be sufficient for winding up the affairs and obtaining probate in the UK.

Centralisation of consular birth and death registration into a single-purpose unit in the UK will allow the FCO to provide a common online application procedure with credit card payment facility, which will be more efficient and convenient for customers. Centralisation will also help FCO staff overseas give greater focus to their primary function of assisting British nationals in distress.

Categories: Politics, International.

Top Comments

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  • ChrisR

    This is nothing to do with 'improving' the service, simple cost cutting.

    It has been this way with passports for quite a time and has proved to be a mistake as far as passport holders are concerned.

    Uruguay has recently remade the post service (Correo) and at least post is arriving to us now but it wouls be highly foolish to trust them with legal documents of any nature.

    Even the Uruguayan Embassy in London will not use Correo and continues with DHL (Drop it, Hide it and Lose it) which starts at £65 for a small envelope.

    Way to go FCO, NOT.

    Dec 23rd, 2014 - 09:43 am 0
  • Jack Bauer

    I tried to renew my passport about 6 months ago....after all the demands, most of them senseless, plus the fragility of the Postal systems, I just gave up. Will just use the other ones......10 years ago it was relatively quick and easy. Now what I don't understand, is that if you are a British passport holder , why does the FCO require all your info, AGAIN ?? Wouldn't it suffice to fill in a simpe form, pay the fee and send in your old passport with a recent photo ?

    Dec 24th, 2014 - 03:23 pm 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 2 Jack Bauer

    Don't be daft!

    That would be far too simple and wouldn't make work for all the millions of tit-suckers we have now.

    My best UK friend's 21 YO son had to travel from SoT to Derby to have an interview to PROVE he was English and therefore British before he could be issued with a passport. The interview was conducted by a fucking Asian who could hardly speak the language.

    That is what the UK have conme to under The Cunt Brown © Jeremy Clarkson 2010.

    Dec 24th, 2014 - 07:05 pm 0
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