Consular Notification thingy of Birth Abroad

Unfortunately, they do want every instance including coming and going with vacations. The guidance says it includes vacations. It's a total pain! I goofed up on my days and had one holiday off by a day (said it ended on 31st in a month that only went to 30) and it held me up while I was called back to make corrections at the embassy.

One thing I did that was helpful was to write the list down and save it on my computer. Then I didn't need to do it all again for dd2. Most of my dates were in my passports, but if you can't find the exact date of your high school trip, they may let you approximate.

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Thanks!
Ugh.  Such a pain!  I think I've managed to find everything for myself now. 

One more question... do they need all the dates DH was in the US given that he is British and it is me that is passing on citizenship to the baby?  He had some trips to the US as a child and I'm not sure he still has his passport from then to find the dates.

no they just care about the US Citizen, don't need his dates.

I know I am crazy.

Due in April.
Would like to move back to the US in July, baby would about 10 weeks old (allowing for birth to go up to 42 weeks).

So I have some questions:

1- I can schedule an appointment before the birth, right? I've noticed usually most available appointments are for 7-8 weeks out.

2- Is the courier service worth it? Faster? Is there any info on how much it costs- I didn't see it on the embassy website.

3- Is this even humanly possible? Does anyone have a paper bag I can breathe into?

Personally, I thought the courier service was a headache, and if you miss them, I hear they are a right pain to reschedule.  I'd just bring in your own special delivery envelope that was pre-paid.  My last one got held up longer even though it had been expedited, and I can't help but wonder if it was sitting in a queue at the couriers as it arrived the next day after we called to complain and had been approved before that.  It's pure conjecture, but I wasn't thrilled with the courier.

Thanks Cadenza! I figured it would be 50/50 on whether it would actually be faster or if it was just a ploy to get extra money.

Our RM delivery guy seems to have some sort of vendetta against people who live in my building & was just hoping to avoid him so I won't be the one who answers the door the day he goes postal. (he even leaves weird 'WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING?!!!!?!" messages instead of call time on delivery slips!)

Our RM delivery guy seems to have some sort of vendetta against people who live in my building & was just hoping to avoid him so I won't be the one who answers the door the day he goes postal. (he even leaves weird 'WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING?!!!!?!" messages instead of call time on delivery slips!)

Ugh, our local Parcel Force driver does this sort of thing. I complained. Like we should all quit our jobs to wait at home in case something turns up.

Sorry for double posting this with my own thread, but I need an answer as soon as possible as I don't want to miss out on this open appointment!

When applying online to book my CRBA appointment, it says "child's surname, forename" etc. and then it says "applicant's date of birth"

Is the "applicant" me as her mother applying to register her birth, or my daughter herself applying for citizenship?

You use all of your daughters details.  I think some on here have gotten around the birthdate thing but I'm not positive. 

We just did our son this week up in Edinburgh and I just gave his name at the door but they seem to be a little more relaxed up there about appt times and such. 

We took our son down to the embassy today to register him.  Our appointment was for 10am, but between a late-running train and having to drop our electronics off at the local chemist, we didn't get in until 10:20 or so.  Nobody seemed to mind, and getting through security with a changing bag and stroller/pushchair was no problem.

After security we got to the first counter where an embassy worker checked through our documents to make sure we had everything.  It was at this point that I realized I hadn't brought our marriage certificate.  The woman said we could go ahead and they'd probably mark our application as pending until we sent in the marriage certificate.

We got and paid for our courier envelope, and then got assigned a number and proceeded up to the waiting room.  They called our number within a couple of minutes, and I gave all our documents to the worker at the window.  I had filled out a part of the form that I didn't need to, so she gave me another copy of the page and had me redo it.

I was called back about 20 minutes later to explain why our marriage certificate wasn't included, and got the same "we'll probably make it a pending application" answer.

After another 30 or so minutes we were called up again.  This time we were asked a bunch of questions about where we got married, how many people came, and what interesting things happened during the planning and the wedding itself.  After this, the interviewer said she was satisfied we had a genuine marriage, and our application was approved, and we'd get the baby's passport and SSN from the courier in a few weeks.

All in all we were there for a little over an hour, and despite not having all the required documentation, we were approved anyway!  Yay, US Embassy!   

Congrats, camoscato! 

Glad it went smoothly! 

Holy Poop you guys!

We went to the Embassy on June 18 at 8:30am. We got the courier envelope and since we were the first applying for the CRBA, we were out before 10am.

Yesterday we received the documents at 10am- so just 2 weeks and we received the passport and birth certificate! We were expecting it to take at least a month, and we were biting our nails as we are flying out on August 1st. Woo hoo!

Oh and the certificate has gold foil embossing and a holographic sticker- super fancy 

We took our son down to the embassy today to register him. 

And now we're done!  Got a text from DX yesterday saying they'd deliver our stuff today.  The DX guy called first to make sure someone would be around, and showed up about 20 minutes later with the baby's passport and whatnot.  The whole process was a piece of cake!

Some very reassuring posts on this topic, so thanks to everyone who took the time to to note their experiences. We are due at the embassy next Friday to get a CRBA for my 12 week old son whose mother (my wife) is a US citizen.

I have a couple of questions if someone would be willing to help:

1) We have obtained high school and college transcripts for my wife, these are copies 'certified' as official by the system the school/college uses to send out such things. I believe one is from a company called Parchment - will these pass muster with the consulate staff?

2) We have all three of my wife's old passports, her first dating back to when she was 13. I've looked through the original one to start to tally up dates she was in and out of the US, but it seems like some countries she visited didn't stamp her properly so I can't be sure when she entered these countries (one of them is France, go figure). The stamps for her re-entry to the US all appear to be present and correct. As a lot of these trips were well over ten years ago it's unlikely she'll be able to recall the exact dates, and even if she could would the consulate staff even accept them?

Appreciate any advice anyone can give!

1) We have obtained high school and college transcripts for my wife, these are copies 'certified' as official by the system the school/college uses to send out such things. I believe one is from a company called Parchment - will these pass muster with the consulate staff?

2) We have all three of my wife's old passports, her first dating back to when she was 13. I've looked through the original one to start to tally up dates she was in and out of the US, but it seems like some countries she visited didn't stamp her properly so I can't be sure when she entered these countries (one of them is France, go figure). The stamps for her re-entry to the US all appear to be present and correct. As a lot of these trips were well over ten years ago it's unlikely she'll be able to recall the exact dates, and even if she could would the consulate staff even accept them?

1. My high school and college transcripts were the official ones given out by each institution, and they were fine.  I assume as long as it's the real thing given out by the school, you should be fine.

2. Some of my international travel was over 30 years ago, plus I only have my current and 1 previous passport, so and I just took my best guess at the dates, and nobody brought up any issues. 

My overall gut feeling was they're not trying to nitpick to find a way to deny citizenship.  Instead, there are a number of things they use to verify the application, and as long as the overall picture is one of legitimacy, the application is approved.

Hope that helps.