US/UK passport for baby

[lin]

Hi all! I'm American, DH is British and we live in Asia and are expecting our first baby in about three weeks. I'm wondering about getting her a passport and am trying to be organized so we can get one possibly right after she's born, while we're still in the big city near the Embassies. We are going to get her dual citizenship, but I'm guessing that it isn't actually necessary to get her both American and British passports. I'm wondering which of the two is faster/easier/cheaper to get. I think I had read that the US requires even newborns to have their eyes open for their passport photos but that the UK doesn't, so that may be our deciding factor, but I'm wondering what experience others have had with getting one passport or the other. Let me know!  Thanks!

[Shreddingbetty]

I can't say for the British passport but I took DD's passport pic myself when she was 2 months old. Just laid her down on white poster board and took about 30 or 40 pics and we had one good pretty good one that was accepted. I didn't do her Dutch passport until 18 months because we have to travel out of state normally for that but once a year they come to Denver and that is when we did hers (plus they were threatening to do away with dual citizenship in the Netherlands which was another reason). The Dutch are very particular and difficult with their passport pics and most of the people that came to Denver that day had to have theirs redone even though the pics were done by an embassy approved photographer.

I honestly don't think it will be too hard to get a pic of your LO with their eyes open if you do it yourself. Just look up the specs online and if you are doing it yourself you can do it several times at your and the baby's convenience.

[americaninoz]

Your baby will have to get their US passport if they are travelling at some point to the US. If you're entitled to an American passport you have to enter and exit on it for US. We just got both UK and US. The US was slightly more conplicatec because she had to be present at the embassy for the interview, but it wasn't a huge drama:)

[frlcb]

Jan 3, 2014 1:55:09 GMT -5 americaninoz said:

Your baby will have to get their US passport if they are travelling at some point to the US. If you're entitled to an American passport you have to enter and exit on it for US. We just got both UK and US. The US was slightly more conplicatec because she had to be present at the embassy for the interview, but it wasn't a huge drama:)

This. Get both, it isn't really difficult. But if you only get one get the US if you ever plan on returning to visit or live.

[potatopie]

Since your DH isn't American, you'll need some proof that you lived in the US for at least 5 years. I used all my school transcripts (elementary, high school, and college...but you don't ALL those). You can also use leases and utility bills if I"m not mistaken.

[frlcb]

Jan 3, 2014 11:50:18 GMT -5 jamaicam said:

I have no ideas of the US one but I got my son's British passport while living in Jamaica. Hopefully things have improved as it took us nearly 4 months (when they'd originally told us 6 weeks) to get his passport as they were just moving to the regional processing centres at the time(this was summer 2012)

Some countries are deemed high risk for fraud and if you are in one of those countries, you are supposed to go for an interview with your baby at the High Commission/Embassy. Jamaica is high risk and I was suppsoed to go but I had a nice phone conversation and sent them some stuff via email and got through that way.

The photo was the easy part - we took his at about 3 weeks old and they were fine with it as there are different rules for babies.

I asked about also getting the notification of consular birth certificate and was told not to bother as we have his Jamaican boirth certificate. They said that the passport was sufficient for proving his British citizenship.

Feel free to ask me any questions as I am getting ready to do it all again before too long!

We also did not get the British consular notification of birth abroad for my daughter, it is unnecessary for getting their UK passport. It is, however, necessary for getting a US passport (the US one)

[frlcb]

Jan 3, 2014 10:42:06 GMT -5 potatopie said:

Since your DH isn't American, you'll need some proof that you lived in the US for at least 5 years. I used all my school transcripts (elementary, high school, and college...but you don't ALL those). You can also use leases and utility bills if I"m not mistaken.

All I showed was my passport, and tax returns I think.

[rupertpenny]

I don't know about UK passports, but we applied for my daughter's passport when she was less than 3 weeks old. Her eyes are closed in the picture and the state department still accepted it. From my experience the important thing seemed to be that only the baby is in the picture. We had some shots that were otherwise good, but we couldn't use because you could see my hand holding her in place. What worked for us was draping a white blanket over her car seat, placing her in the seat, then taking a picture. It was much easier than having her lay flat.

[wise_rita]

Don't be a fool, get that baby both passports immediately!

You never know when you'll need them.

[allibally]

Do both and get it done while your still in a big city.

Use a white sheet placed under the baby. One parent can stick hands under the sheet to hold baby's head. Other parent stands over baby to take the picture. Then you can go online they have templates to get the size right. Save it on a flash drive and head to store to print out.

[gibbylod]

Jan 3, 2014 10:42:06 GMT -5 potatopie said:

Since your DH isn't American, you'll need some proof that you lived in the US for at least 5 years. I used all my school transcripts (elementary, high school, and college...but you don't ALL those). You can also use leases and utility bills if I"m not mistaken.

I also used transcripts. 

I got DD's passport done at 1 month and got her pictures at the photo booth at the embassy. DD has been wide eyes open since birth so I had no problem there   The process was very quick and I got the passport in just 2 weeks. 

I don't know about getting the British passport, but since I have dual French/US citizenship, I did register her birth with the French embassy. With them it was important to do it ASAP after the birth because the paperwork required to register the birth (and therefore get her French citizenship) is minimal if done within 30 days of the birth, after which the process gets much more complicated. Just in case, I would check with the British consulate regarding registration of the baby's birth even if you decide not to get her passport right away.

[frlcb]

Jan 5, 2014 22:43:51 GMT -5 gibbylod said:

Jan 3, 2014 10:42:06 GMT -5 potatopie said:

Since your DH isn't American, you'll need some proof that you lived in the US for at least 5 years. I used all my school transcripts (elementary, high school, and college...but you don't ALL those). You can also use leases and utility bills if I"m not mistaken.

I also used transcripts. 

I got DD's passport done at 1 month and got her pictures at the photo booth at the embassy. DD has been wide eyes open since birth so I had no problem there   The process was very quick and I got the passport in just 2 weeks. 

I don't know about getting the British passport, but since I have dual French/US citizenship, I did register her birth with the French embassy. With them it was important to do it ASAP after the birth because the paperwork required to register the birth (and therefore get her French citizenship) is minimal if done within 30 days of the birth, after which the process gets much more complicated. Just in case, I would check with the British consulate regarding registration of the baby's birth even if you decide not to get her passport right away.

The UK does not require registering their birth to get a passport, or ever.