Consular Notification thingy of Birth Abroad

I didn't mail mine and was in & out in just over 2 hours.

Hmmm, so conflicted!

I have an appointment at the consulate in Edinburgh to get my son's US passport in a couple of weeks. Quick question: how do I know if the birth certificate I have for him is the long form or not?

Does it have info about you and your husband?  If not, it's the short form.  I think that was the main difference.  If you only received one and didn't pay for another, it's probably just the short form.  Our city gives you a free copy of the short form, but you have to pay for the long form--which is the only one that really counts for anything, so I don't know what point the short-form serves.

Ours is the long form then. Thanks!

Apologies if this has already been answered but I'm too tired to go through the thread just now.

Do you have to get them registered and a passport immediately after birth? The girls are 4 months now and I've not even thought about this yet. Do I need to start looking into this or can I wait until we'll actually need it?

You can do it whenever, but the earlier the better IMO that way if something should come up and you need to travel to the US it's nearly impossible to get an emergency appointment to get them registered & then get the passports since they are not allowed to enter the US on their UK passports. Someone on UKY was looking at travelling in October and needed to do just this and there are no appointments available at all. So you're looking at least 2 or 3 months before you can get an appointment anyway.

Just so people know...

The consulate in Edinburgh says it's open only to people in Scotland. But my husband emailed them and explained that we were only a 2 hour drive from Edinburgh but a 6 hour drive from London and they told us we could make an appointment in Edinburgh. We went last week and had no problems at all. So if you are a lot closer to Edinburgh, it's worth asking if they will see you.

You can do it whenever, but the earlier the better IMO that way if something should come up and you need to travel to the US it's nearly impossible to get an emergency appointment to get them registered & then get the passports since they are not allowed to enter the US on their UK passports. Someone on UKY was looking at travelling in October and needed to do just this and there are no appointments available at all. So you're looking at least 2 or 3 months before you can get an appointment anyway.

Cheers.

My 6 mo. old child has been to the US using her UK passport.  I didn't know at the time that this was illegal for the child of an American citizen. Neither did the immigration guy I guess.   I have been unable to find any info if I will have trouble getting a US passport now.  Any advice?

My 6 mo. old child has been to the US using her UK passport.  I didn't know at the time that this was illegal for the child of an American citizen. Neither did the immigration guy I guess.   I have been unable to find any info if I will have trouble getting a US passport now.  Any advice?

You'll probably get a telling off by the person who ends up processing the paperwork to do the registration and the passport.

It's not illegal because they're the child of an American, it's illegal because they are an American and must travel on a US passport to and from the US.

Really wouldn't be too concerned, just get it taken care of before you try to go to the US again.

For anyone interested there is disabled access into the embassy. They end up having to take you though the service entrance but you can get in there with out any issue. Just make sure you let them know you can't go up stairs. I also suggest that you mail things in ahead of time. We were in only 2 hours from getting to the car park and back (only a minutes walk) and we waited a long time to be taken inside.

Just starting to do my research and planning.  I am due in January and wanted to go back to the states with my baby in April for a family reunion - I'm worried that I won't get an appointment/passport in time - how long after the baby is born do you usually get his/her birth certificate? - If I know that then I can try to book the appt now so I know I will get in.

Thanks, dncsmmrs

Just starting to do my research and planning.  I am due in January and wanted to go back to the states with my baby in April for a family reunion - I'm worried that I won't get an appointment/passport in time - how long after the baby is born do you usually get his/her birth certificate? - If I know that then I can try to book the appt now so I know I will get in.

Thanks, dncsmmrs

Do you know what you are having? You will have to enter a name and birthdate for the appt, and I have friends who put in their due date but they know what they are having ahead of time to fill in the name. I also think appointments only open 2 months or so out - right now they only have appts through the beginning of November open, and they don't have any open yet to schedule after that.

We had our UK birth certificate when our son was 3 days old - you have to do it in a certain amount of time (I can't remember, 30 days maybe?) and you go and do it in the Council you live in, so we had to register our son's birth in Wandsworth. You go in and leave with the birth certificates in hand.

Also, once you apply for the US passport we had ours in a week, which I think is pretty average, so even if you do an appt in February or March you will be fine.

Just wanted to say that I went in to register my son George earlier this month. I mailed the paperwork in beforehand, and we were in and out of the embassy in less than an hour!!

Do you know what you are having? You will have to enter a name and birthdate for the appt, and I have friends who put in their due date but they know what they are having ahead of time to fill in the name. I also think appointments only open 2 months or so out - right now they only have appts through the beginning of November open, and they don't have any open yet to schedule after that.

We had our UK birth certificate when our son was 3 days old - you have to do it in a certain amount of time (I can't remember, 30 days maybe?) and you go and do it in the Council you live in, so we had to register our son's birth in Wandsworth. You go in and leave with the birth certificates in hand.

Also, once you apply for the US passport we had ours in a week, which I think is pretty average, so even if you do an appt in February or March you will be fine.

We didn't make our Embassy appointment until we had the birth certificate. We went and got the birth certificate when our daughter was a week old. Very quick. JUst bring cash to ay for the extra copies. I then went online to get an Embassy appointment and they were booked solid. I just kept checking every day, and finally some sprung up for the following week. I think they must open them all on a certain day of the week or something. We didnt mail our paperwork beforehand, just showed up on the day of our appointment with it. We were in there two hours. The passport and consular report came five days later. So, you can do it pretty quick. I think the number of appointments at the embassy may just depend on how busy they are at that particular time.