Foreign Birth Registration

[teacaddy]

Will my marital status changing affect the process? I am unsure if I should send the documents in now as an unmarried applicant, wait until I am married, or if I need to restart the whole online application after I am married and file with the marriage documents. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

So long as you meet the requirements as an adult applicant I think you should just send your documents as soon as possible. Then if any details have changed during your wait that can be addressed later. Get your foot in the door first.

I've seen posts on this forum that say the certificate is issued in your maiden name. Then you can change this to your married name when you apply for a passport. If this is correct then there's no point in waiting.

[brainiacghost]

Will my marital status changing affect the process? I am unsure if I should send the documents in now as an unmarried applicant, wait until I am married, or if I need to restart the whole online application after I am married and file with the marriage documents. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

So long as you meet the requirements as an adult applicant I think you should just send your documents as soon as possible. Then if any details have changed during your wait that can be addressed later. Get your foot in the door first.

I've seen posts on this forum that say the certificate is issued in your maiden name. Then you can change this to your married name when you apply for a passport. If this is correct then there's no point in waiting.

I can confirm it’s issued in the name on your birth certificate, so wouldn’t be any point waiting.

[JoannaKJ]

One thing to bear in mind is whether you need your birth certificate for your marriage, in which case you can always order a duplicate copy.

[brianteur]

Hi! Does anyone have any insight on how to register a birth with a baptismal record?

Long story short is my husband's grandfather was born in the late 1800s in Ireland, but no birth certificate exists. I read here that it would be possible to create a birth certificate with a baptismal certificate. So, we gathered all the documents, got the original baptismal certificate and many other documents saying he was born in Ireland as well (marriage certificate, death certificate, immigration papers, etc.)

After many months of contacting various HSEs, we got the document for a "late birth registration", filled it out and shipped it off with the other docs.

However, we just got a response back saying that they can't create a birth certificate without a, well, birth certificate. Is there something I'm missing? Are we out of luck? Any help or guidance would be appreciated, as we spent a year trying to get this together and are flabbergasted.

[BrexitEscapee]

However, we just got a response back saying that they can't create a birth certificate without a, well, birth certificate. Is there something I'm missing? Are we out of luck? Any help or guidance would be appreciated, as we spent a year trying to get this together and are flabbergasted.

Yes, I had to do a late registration of my grandfather's birth. There were 3 things I needed to do this:

1. A certificate from the General Records Office confirming they'd searched for his birth certificate and found nothing. (There's a fee of around 10 euros to get them to do this.)

2. His baptismal certificate. (I'd had to his local parish priest to write one of these, some 150 years after his birth!)

3. The late registration application form.

If you've provided all the above to the correct department, they you should issue a birth certificate. If they haven't, then your best bet is to copy exactly what their letter says on here and someone will be able to advise you whether you need to modify your application or appeal against their decision.

[brianteur]

However, we just got a response back saying that they can't create a birth certificate without a, well, birth certificate. Is there something I'm missing? Are we out of luck? Any help or guidance would be appreciated, as we spent a year trying to get this together and are flabbergasted.

Yes, I had to do a late registration of my grandfather's birth. There were 3 things I needed to do this:

1. A certificate from the General Records Office confirming they'd searched for his birth certificate and found nothing. (There's a fee of around 10 euros to get them to do this.)

2. His baptismal certificate. (I'd had to his local parish priest to write one of these, some 150 years after his birth!)

3. The late registration application form.

If you've provided all the above to the correct department, they you should issue a birth certificate. If they haven't, then your best bet is to copy exactly what their letter says on here and someone will be able to advise you whether you need to modify your application or appeal against their decision.

Thanks for the input! We submitted all of these documents. Upon looking at the letter, it seems the discrepancy is that the baptismal certificate does not have the birthday on it. We don't know his exact birthday. Did your baptismal certificate have one on it? Are we out of luck without this information?

[BrexitEscapee]

Thanks for the input! We submitted all of these documents. Upon looking at the letter, it seems the discrepancy is that the baptismal certificate does not have the birthday on it. We don't know his exact birthday. Did your baptismal certificate have one on it? Are we out of luck without this information?

Yes, the format of my grandad's baptismal certificate (which I had the Parish priest create in 2017) is as follows:

On examination of the register of Baptisms of the above parish, I certify that according to it [My Grandad] was born on [birth day/month/year] and was baptised according to the rites of the Catholic Church on [date of baptism] in the Church of [name] by the Rev. [name].

Parents: [names]

Sponsors: [names]

Signed [current priest] Dated [date]

If yours isn't like the above, you might be able to persuade the current priest for that parish to write you up a new one. I had to do this, as we didn't have my grandad's baptism certificate at all, but had found his name in a register of baptisms which we'd found in an online database of parish records via the National Library of Ireland. This record included his birth date. If yours doesn't, you might be able to persuade the priest to put a guesstimate for his birthday, or a month and a year, depending on what evidence you have available. So basically, I did all the legwork in finding this baptism record, then spoke nicely with the parish priest over the phone and persuaded him to write up a new baptism certificate, then sent him the baptism register entry by post. I don't think this will be an uncommon request, so the priest should understand what you need and why.

[jgclancy]

Just a last congrats to everyone who has finished.

My 2 year & 10 month journey to get FBR/Passport Book & passport card is finally over. My passport book & card each went on a nightmare US postal ride. Both were returned to Ireland & reposted(with exact same address)-2 months extra added to my quest! But I have them both now.

Good luck and as always---> patience for those still waiting

Once again --my advice is to notarize everything you can & add extra stuff too . More address & ID proof . I even sent a notarized copy of the 1911 Irish Census of my grandfather.

Advice is the same for getting passport-NOTARIZE!....And to answer the most asked question for getting a passport after you complete FBR---YES!...you can send a notarized copy of your passport so you aren't without your passport

Time for a glass of whiskey to celebrate --next up--move to Ireland LOL

Slainte......jgclancy

[Dalton_Trumbo]

Just a last congrats to everyone who has finished.

My 2 year & 10 month journey to get FBR/Passport Book & passport card is finally over. My passport book & card each went on a nightmare US postal ride. Both were returned to Ireland & reposted(with exact same address)-2 months extra added to my quest! But I have them both now.

Good luck and as always---> patience for those still waiting

Once again --my advice is to notarize everything you can & add extra stuff too . More address & ID proof . I even sent a notarized copy of the 1911 Irish Census of my grandfather.

Advice is the same for getting passport-NOTARIZE!....And to answer the most asked question for getting a passport after you complete FBR---YES!...you can send a notarized copy of your passport so you aren't without your passport

Time for a glass of whiskey to celebrate --next up--move to Ireland LOL

Slainte......jgclancy

Wow, almost 3 years of waiting. You earned that glass of Jameson!

[JohnFBR]

Congrats!! Love hearing these positive stories!

Feels like the output has slowed recently possibly due to the increase in applications in Jan 2020.

I’m 26 months now!

[duffy1867]

Time for a glass of whiskey to celebrate --next up--move to Ireland LOL

Slainte......jgclancy

Congratulations to you - a well earned passport and citizenship - thanks for all the guidance and leadership on the forum and enjoy your whiskey!

I remember your endless wait for confirmation (post address check email) - hopefully some good news for the Feb 2020 club soon

Cheers

[duffy1867]

wait, so they have 17 people working through a backlog of 30,000 applications?!

It also appears they removed the live chat link from its usual location. I can't find it at all anymore.

Yes - and according to the same link it was only ever 18 at its peak

Before the onset of Covid-19, 18 staff were assigned to Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) entitlement checking. Due to the pandemic, from March 2020, FBR staff were redeployed to assist in the delivery of essential services, which resulted in a pause in overall FBR processing for a total of 15 months across the 2020-2021 period.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id ... br#g1021.r

Personally have never really bothered with the chat, it's not as though asking them will speed it up at all

[Mode7]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I received my confirmation of address email last week but only just finding time to register and post. Here's my timeline.

30/12/2019 - Online application submitted
21/01/2019 - Documents received
11/04/2022 - Confirmation of address

The email came from team 8.

[Dalton_Trumbo]

wait, so they have 17 people working through a backlog of 30,000 applications?!

It also appears they removed the live chat link from its usual location. I can't find it at all anymore.

Yes - and according to the same link it was only ever 18 at its peak

Before the onset of Covid-19, 18 staff were assigned to Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) entitlement checking. Due to the pandemic, from March 2020, FBR staff were redeployed to assist in the delivery of essential services, which resulted in a pause in overall FBR processing for a total of 15 months across the 2020-2021 period.

https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id ... br#g1021.r

Personally have never really bothered with the chat, it's not as though asking them will speed it up at all

Yea, I've never seen the chat as a method of expediting anything, rather just a way to get an answer to quick status questions. Obviously the context now is unprecedented between Covid and Brexit and it seems important to give those of us who are now at 2+ years a method of getting status.

Nothing we can do but wait, but seems just reasonable given the effort and cost involved in the process that there should be some method to get answers to non-urgent queries. If it wasn't for this message board, I'd be flying completely blind here.

[duffy1867]

Yea, I've never seen the chat as a method of expediting anything, rather just a way to get an answer to quick status questions. Obviously the context now is unprecedented between Covid and Brexit and it seems important to give those of us who are now at 2+ years a method of getting status.

Nothing we can do but wait, but seems just reasonable given the effort and cost involved in the process that there should be some method to get answers to non-urgent queries. If it wasn't for this message board, I'd be flying completely blind here.

Totally agree - they would probably save themselves a lot of time and queries if they updated their website with broad-strokes updates detailing roughly what month/quarter they were working on

Even better of course, would be the passport style tracker, but I understand that’s a lot to ask.

I realised myself this week that one of my proofs of address doesn't have my full name on - only first initial and surname - so I guess I will find out soon if this is a problem

[TrishMc]

Congratulations, jgclancy! A long wait over. And thank you for all the good helpful advice over the years. Late-Feb 2020 applicants come soon!

[JohnFBR]

They could put the number of the application up on the website with a status update. 000012345 - application begun etc

[Dalton_Trumbo]

They could put the number of the application up on the website with a status update. 000012345 - application begun etc

Yea, anything would be helpful. Even a simple status of "FBR is currently processing applications from (this date range).

There really has been no communication at all other than "we're closed" and then "we're" open. Leaving applicants to their own devices to search on google and if they're lucky, find a forum like this one. If I hadn't found this forum, I would have no idea whether my application submitted in Feb 2020 was going to be dealt with in 2 months, or 10 months.

I understand all the challenges they've faced and I'm sure they are working very hard to clear the enormous backlog caused by Covid, but I think it's unacceptable to have no updates, and no communication channel to receive even general updates. Especially for people who are 2+ years waiting. and removing the only channel for "non urgent updates" in the live chat without offering an alternative is not right.

Just my opinion, I certainly hope to done with the process in the next few months.

[binky62]

Hi Everyone,

I've only just got around to submitting my documents for an FBA (I realise I have left it so late!). I can see that my documents were delivered yesterday at the PO box office in Dublin.

I can see that many people submitted their docs in 2020/2021 and they didn't tell you that they had received the documents. I was wondering if the process has changed at all in late 2021/22? Like everyone else I agree that it is quite frustrating that they have turned off the chat.

Also, I'm hoping all my docs were correct (the instructions weren't that great). Did anyone have an instance where something wasn't correct?

Also FYI my mum put through a first-time Irish passport application that had to have citizenship approval in Jan and it's only just been shipped to England. They originally said 40 days.

Thanks!

[Sooze]

I'm almost there!!

Documents sent: December 2019
Documents received: 19 January 2020
Clarification/request for signed passport photocopies: 11 April 2022

Can't be much longer can it? At least there has been contact and I now know someone is looking at it and the application didn't fall down the back of a filing cabinet sometime in 2020!

[Sooze]

You have almost identical dates as me! I had to send back a couple of signed photocopies but also confirmed my address at the same time. I tracked the post so I know they now have those copies delivered.

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I received my confirmation of address email last week but only just finding time to register and post. Here's my timeline.

30/12/2019 - Online application submitted
21/01/2019 - Documents received
11/04/2022 - Confirmation of address

The email came from team 8.

[bramarcan]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I received my confirmation of address email last week but only just finding time to register and post. Here's my timeline.

30/12/2019 - Online application submitted
21/01/2019 - Documents received
11/04/2022 - Confirmation of address

The email came from team 8.

Exciting news! I bet it feels so good to finally hear something after so long. I'm a Sept 2021 applicant, so I'm fully expecting another 2-year wait. Hope it speeds up once they get to pandemic applications - I reckon the number must have reduced during that time.

[joemac41]

So after two years and almost 3 months, I'm finally Irish!

Applied Online - Dec. 17, 2019
Papers Received - Jan 22, 2020
Clarification and Address Email - April 19, 2022
Approval - April 21, 2022
Certificate - Still waiting....

So I am now a duel citizen.

[JMcA]

Congratulations to everyone who are getting their certificates, I'm June 2020 so hoping it's not too long for me now.

I've searched for an answer to this but can't find it anywhere - what happens when the address confirmation email/phonecall comes through, and you're not at the same address? Do you then have to send proof of your new address?

Thanks all.

[Mr_Knight]

Congratulations to everyone who are getting their certificates, I'm June 2020 so hoping it's not too long for me now.

I've searched for an answer to this but can't find it anywhere - what happens when the address confirmation email/phonecall comes through, and you're not at the same address? Do you then have to send proof of your new address?

Thanks all.

I have seen people say they ask for a scanned copy of your current address.