Passport for UK baby

From the commune in which the baby is born. The hospital normally provides the paper that the commune needs (if I recall correctly!).

> Where do we get the full certificate?
Same place you got the "extract". Tell them you need the special one to get a British passport.

in the past you could also get a british birth certificate from the embassy provided your child is entitled to it by warranty of your nationality. Give the embassy a ring and see, it used to be better to go straight after lunch, queuing was an idea. In the morning the did lots of visa maybe its changed its 13 years since we did it

> you could also get a british birth certificate from the embassy provided your child is entitled to it by warranty of your nationality
Yes, you can, BUT
1. You still need the Belgian birth certificate to get this, and
2. It costs almost as much as the passport, and
3. Unless you are a British Crown employee, then there's really no benefit whatsoever to getting a British birth certificate.

I think J's right if you are planning to be in Belgium long term, but if you're not going to be here very long, and your child probably will not have long term contacts with Belgium, I think the Consulate birth certificate (which is expensive) is worth it.

You can get copies made in the UK which are accepted as a birth registration and it gives what sort of citizenship the child has which might be useful to them later.

My son has both a Belgian birth certificate and a UK one, and it's the UK one we've always used.. grandparents have used it to open bank accounts and so on in the UK (where I think a French certificate would have been, ahem, less useful..)

Wrong, the consular certificate does not give citizenship, UK law gives that. When they are issued, it's explained clearly it is not an identity document and cannot be used as such. It's not a birth certificate either. It's pointless unless crown servant / EU functionnaire / Armed forces. It will also mean it takes longer to get a British passport, whilst waiting for it to be issued.

Indeed it doesn't confer citizen ship, I didn't say it did, (it gives (states) what sort of citizenship the child has) but it is a very convienient short hand, widely understood in the UK. Much more useful than a document in French (it can also be used to prove date of birth.. which outside a Francophone country frankly is useful too). The type of citizenship the child has will be useful later, when the child has children of their own.. knowing what type of citizenship it is will tell them whether their child is entitled to citizenship too.

As much as I hate to disagree with J, I'm afraid on this one I agree with abc123. The "birth certificate" or whatever you want to call it, issued by the Consulate means that the birth is registered in U.K. registers as well as in Belgium.

Both my (now adult) children, have needed English language birth certificates at various times, in a variety of places including the UK, the US and for a couple of countries in the Middle East.

One of them was "registered" here at the consulate, the other wasn't.

I can assure you that it's a hell of a lot easier, quicker (and cheaper) to go online to the Registry Office in the U.K. and order one, than getting a Belgian "extrait" and then having it translated by a certified translator.

(Oh, and neither of them are crown servants / EU functionnaires / or in the armed forces)

I have to say we went back yo the UK and certainly his UK certificate was useful at times opening saving and such because the lack of languages in the UK mean most people have no idea about a belgian birth certificate.