Foreign Birth Registration

[MikeyMike]

Regarding posting from UK to Ireland at around midday the post office refused to allow me to send a letter to Ireland without a customs declaration (this is insane) I returned a few hours later with the customs declaration attached & was told it wasn't necessary and they accepted it as track & signed.
Confusing

I experienced similar nonsense this morning. Honestly, sometimes I feel like that Michael Douglas character in Falling Down. Barclays bank wasted my time last week when it came to certifying my passport application and today, the Post Office.

I put my passport application together in a C4 envelope, so the whole thing was categorised as a large letter in size and weight. The person behind the post office counter said I needed to attach a customs declaration. I replied that it wasn't needed because the envelope contained only documents, nothing of commercial value. Then began the madness. Documents are different to letters she said, and they need a customs declaration. She then held up a roll of customs declarations stickers. But I can't give you one of these, we can't process international post that needs a customs declaration because of the cyber attack. But you can go online and print it out yourself and then bring it back to me.

So, I trotted off home and went to the Royal Mail website. More madness followed. One of the questions when applying for international post is "Does your package contain only letters/documents and have no commercial value?". Answering yes completes the process and results in payment and a printable postage label. To generate a customs form I had to answer 'no' to that question and then within the customs form section, declare 'documents only-no commercial value'.

Anyhow, I finally got it all printed off and labelled up. Went back the post office and explained what I'd just done. Blank stare. I half-thought she'd come up with another reason to reject my letter but no, it's finally in the system. Jesus wept.

[binky62]

Hi all

Only been on this message a few months but what a great people with great information and have been hooked checking everyday seeing how others applications were going and feeling relieved as the waiting times fell.

My timeline for my application was

14/11/22 application made online
19/4/22 application received (delay in getting all my documents ready)
17/2/23 address confirmation

Just hopefully the congrats email is not too long and me and my wife can retire to Spain. Lucky lady as she is only a Uk passport holder. Finally done something right as a husband lol. Thanks grandad

The 19/4/22, that came up fast! This is also the exact same day that my documents were confirmed as received. Will be interested to see if I get anything through this week from them.

Good luck. Hopefully you do.

I just recieved my address check confirmation!

For those people questioning SPD78's dates, some of them have indeed moved to April. However, this is just an address check it could take another month + to get the confirmation through. So those surprised at the 10 month mark...it's not over yet.

My dates are:

17/11/21 application made online
19/4/22 confirmation of application received (delay of sending docs due to realising I had to request/buy a full birth certificate of my nan who is no longer alive, we only had the short one)
20/2/23 address confirmation

[Dyno66]

Hey Folks,


I'm new to the forum and I have two, hopefully not too stupid , questions. My partner and I are both naturalised Irish citizens, having lived in Galway for over 10 years. We are currently living in Spain and our daughter was born here last year. We have applied for FBR for her, providing all necessary documenation.

1. Is anyone else in a similar scenario (naturalised parents, living in Spain) that can let me know, from experience, if the process is cumbersome or fairly straight-forward?

2. What is the actual phone number and web-chat link for contacting the FBR office? I'm browing several, slightly similar pages with info but I cannot find a dedicated webchat for FBR.

Application Date: 18-Oct-2022
Application Received Date: 28-Oct-2022
Address Confirmation Date: TBD


Thank you for your help! Much appreciated.

D.

[meself2]

2. What is the actual phone number and web-chat link for contacting the FBR office? I'm browing several, slightly similar pages with info but I cannot find a dedicated webchat for FBR.

Don't think there's either of those; webchat is only for passport applications, if I recall correctly.
Why'd you need to contact them? There is urgentenquiries email, but it's for urgent enquiries, as they put it.

[kfdonovan]

New poster here.

Mailed application November 2020
‘Application received’ email: 21 Dec 2020
‘Return address for documents’ email: 15 Nov 2022
‘Final stage processing’ email: 29 Dec 2022
‘Certificate in printing queue, Congrats email to be issued “in near future,” mail tracking number for certificate provided. Statement that the printing queue takes “4-6 weeks.”’ : 18 Jan 2023
Still waiting, but soon it looks like!
I agree with previous poster that the Congrats email looks like it’s now sent when the certificate has been printed.

At the risk of inundating the system, I got a good status update by sending a request to urgentqueries@dfa.ie.

Received my “Congratulations” email 17 February! Portrush here I come. St. Pat’s Day has a new meaning.

[Brentwoodjohn2]

Long time lurker here- finally got some good news:

Online application submitted: 14/01/22
Documentation receipt confirmation: 01/02/22
Address check: 17/01/23
Congratulations: 21/02/23

Congrats email stated, “Congratulations, your application for Irish citizenship through entry on the Foreign Births Register has been successful.

A certificate has now been printed and posted to the address provided by you. Please note that your application will be sent via Registered post and someone will need to be available to sign for the envelope.”

Hopefully the certificate won’t take too long to arrive and then on to the passport application. Good luck everyone- it took a year less than I had anticipated so there is hope!

[Valo]

Been 6 weeks since my confirmation of address email (Jan 9th) Seeing people after me getting congrats emails so surely shouldn't be long now?

[IdaCanada]

Long time lurker here- finally got some good news:

Online application submitted: 14/01/22
Documentation receipt confirmation: 01/02/22
Address check: 17/01/23
Congratulations: 21/02/23

Congrats email stated, “Congratulations, your application for Irish citizenship through entry on the Foreign Births Register has been successful.

A certificate has now been printed and posted to the address provided by you. Please note that your application will be sent via Registered post and someone will need to be available to sign for the envelope.”

Hopefully the certificate won’t take too long to arrive and then on to the passport application. Good luck everyone- it took a year less than I had anticipated so there is hope!

Just curious, did they give you a tracking number that shows something in the post now? I've been 4 weeks since my congratulations email, and post tracking number has yet to change as well.

[Redwing92]

They have been scaling up to handle the enormous workload.
That means hiring new employees.
New employees aren't going to be perfect, especially as they get up to speed.
Maybe cut them some slack.

Or maybe not because there bloody usless

[Brentwoodjohn2]

Long time lurker here- finally got some good news:

Online application submitted: 14/01/22
Documentation receipt confirmation: 01/02/22
Address check: 17/01/23
Congratulations: 21/02/23

Congrats email stated, “Congratulations, your application for Irish citizenship through entry on the Foreign Births Register has been successful.

A certificate has now been printed and posted to the address provided by you. Please note that your application will be sent via Registered post and someone will need to be available to sign for the envelope.”

Hopefully the certificate won’t take too long to arrive and then on to the passport application. Good luck everyone- it took a year less than I had anticipated so there is hope!

Just curious, did they give you a tracking number that shows something in the post now? I've been 4 weeks since my congratulations email, and post tracking number has yet to change as well.

No, didn’t get a tracking number, that would be far too useful!

[input-output]

Do people receiving / sending documents from the UK using Royal Mail experience delays? My passport application to Dublin has been held by Royal mail for nearly 10 days with no progress and i am worried.

[Valo]

I just got my congratulations email!!!

Application submitted online: 15/11/2021
Application received in Balbriggan: 12/01/2022
Confirmation of Address email: 09/01/2023
Congratulations email: 22/02/2023

1 year 1 month roughly. Delighted it's finally over! Now onto the passport application!

[ejstockwell]

Hi - first time poster but have been using this forum as a guide for my application so thanks!!

Application submitted online: 24/06/2021
Application and docs received: 19/01/2022 - website was saying don't send in docs for ages so waited until January 2022 to send in.

Confirmation of Address email: 11/01/2023
Congratulations email: 22/02/2023

So pretty much 1 year 1 month from the documents arriving which has been a surprise! Was expecting 2 years at least.

The confirmation of address email came from someone with "Passport Office ,Fingal Bay Business Park, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, Ireland." in their email signature. So seems they had been using internal staff to process the backlog of FBR applications?

Now just to wait for the certificate to come through, and onto the passport queue!

[Mr_Knight]

Do people receiving / sending documents from the UK using Royal Mail experience delays? My passport application to Dublin has been held by Royal mail for nearly 10 days with no progress and i am worried.

Unfortunately I have always used Royal Mail but at the moment I would strongly reccomend avoiding them completely. According to tracking my documents haven't moved for 3 weeks since they were processed to a Parcelforce depot.

[sloanb]

I just got my congratulations email!!!

Application submitted online: 15/11/2021
Application received in Balbriggan: 12/01/2022
Confirmation of Address email: 09/01/2023
Congratulations email: 22/02/2023

1 year 1 month roughly. Delighted it's finally over! Now onto the passport application!

Fantastic!

Were you told that your certificate has been printed? Perhaps that was the reason for the long wait.

[Fromireland]

Hang in there, everybody!! My journey looked unlike anyone else has described. Didn’t need to give any supplemental info and yet it took soooo long.

Applied - January 2020

Address confirmation - Early December 2022

*emailed them again on January to make sure everything was in good order. Got an affirmative response with no indication of acceptance/denial*

Acceptance to FBR - TODAY! Feb 22, 2023

[Valo]

I just got my congratulations email!!!

Application submitted online: 15/11/2021
Application received in Balbriggan: 12/01/2022
Confirmation of Address email: 09/01/2023
Congratulations email: 22/02/2023

1 year 1 month roughly. Delighted it's finally over! Now onto the passport application!

Fantastic!

Were you told that your certificate has been printed? Perhaps that was the reason for the long wait.

Yep, printed and posted.

[smbschrader]

Final update to the timeline for my two children, who sent their documents together in one envelope accompanied by my original FBR, birth certificate, and marriage certificate:

Application submitted online: 04 Jan 2022
Docs received email: 27 Jan 2022
Request to confirm address: 13 Jan 2023
Confirmation of entry to FBR: 13 Feb 2023
Certificate received: 22 Feb 2023

It took 9 days for the certificates and documents to reach Washington state, USA. I'm not sure if that is good, bad, or par for the course. Also, the mail carrier didn't knock or ring. He just left the envelopes in our mailbox with all the other mail. I thought registered mail would require a signature upon delivery?

[Mr_Knight]

I thought registered mail would require a signature upon delivery?

I don't think they do that anymore since Covid.

[Coachman]

Final update to the timeline for my two children, who sent their documents together in one envelope accompanied by my original FBR, birth certificate, and marriage certificate:

Application submitted online: 04 Jan 2022
Docs received email: 27 Jan 2022
Request to confirm address: 13 Jan 2023
Confirmation of entry to FBR: 13 Feb 2023
Certificate received: 22 Feb 2023

It took 9 days for the certificates and documents to reach Washington state, USA. I'm not sure if that is good, bad, or par for the course. Also, the mail carrier didn't knock or ring. He just left the envelopes in our mailbox with all the other mail. I thought registered mail would require a signature upon delivery?

Greetings and Congratulations!

Unfortunately, my children were born prior to my journey to get an FBR via my Grandfather. I should be hearing about my status in the next few months. From what I read, my children don't seem to qualify under the FBR as I did. Did your children go through the Naturalization route via Irish Association or was it FBR since you had yours when they applied? Since yours was a success, I'm hoping you can share how they did it. I'm hoping to help my kids w guidance. The FBR is far easier than Naturalization.

Thank you!

[Dalton_Trumbo]

I thought registered mail would require a signature upon delivery?

I don't think they do that anymore since Covid.

It seems arbitrary and maybe depends on th person delivering it? I got my cert in August of last year in California, and I definitely had to sign for it. I remember because I missed him on the first attempt. I'd recommend people waiting assume they need to sign.

[Burtonian]

Today I received the ‘congratulations, your application has been successful/a certificate has now been printed and posted’ email. Exciting to say the least.

Application submitted online: 15/10/2021
Documents received email: 18/02/2022
Confirmation of address email: 20/01/2023
Congratulations email: 23/02/2023

[Paddy399]

Hang in there, everybody!! My journey looked unlike anyone else has described. Didn’t need to give any supplemental info and yet it took soooo long.

Applied - January 2020

Address confirmation - Early December 2022

*emailed them again on January to make sure everything was in good order. Got an affirmative response with no indication of acceptance/denial*

Acceptance to FBR - TODAY! Feb 22, 2023

This is the post I needed to see today. My siblings and I applied 13/10/20 and address confirmation 16/11/22. We haven’t received any notice since then. I could use some of your patience.

[Paddy399]

Hang in there, everybody!! My journey looked unlike anyone else has described. Didn’t need to give any supplemental info and yet it took soooo long.

Applied - January 2020

Address confirmation - Early December 2022

*emailed them again on January to make sure everything was in good order. Got an affirmative response with no indication of acceptance/denial*

Acceptance to FBR - TODAY! Feb 22, 2023

This is the post I needed to see today. My siblings and I applied 13/10/20 and address confirmation 16/11/22. We haven’t received any notice since then. I could use some of your patience.

[sloanb]

Final application update from me now my certificate has arrived:

Application submitted online: 15/01/2022
Documents received: 27/01/2022
Confirmation of address email: 16/01/2023
Congrats email: 13/2/2023
Cert. received: 23/2/2023

Data of entry on the births register was 17/1/2023, the day after the address check.

The certificate came via registered post, although I never got the tracking number. The postie did make me sign for it, but I guess practice varies, depends on who is delivering it and where.

Good luck everyone, out of sheer habit I will inevitably be checking in on the forum, but now off to get the passport application off