Foreign Birth Registration

[bdiggity24]

Documents received: June 16, 2022
email clarifying some details about my witness: March 9, 2023

My witness is an attorney who is licensed in one US state, works for a company based in another state, and lives/works remotely in a third state (where I also live). The person reviewing my application asked me about that. Fingers crossed my response will satisfy them.

[GoingBackBackToEire]

I just sent in my passport documents, I tried finding timelines before asking but spent a lot of time reading back many pages so I'll just ask...does anyone know the approximate timing for receiving your passport once they receive the documents?

Thanks!!

For me, it was ~6 weeks to get my passport book.

I mailed my documents 5 Nov 2022
They were received 10 Nov 2022.
I received my passport book 16 Dec 2022

Passport Card was slow. It took six more weeks to arrive.

[jojomc]

Docs Received: 21 June 2022
Address Confirmation: 10 March 2023

The address confirmation email received from dfa.ie says asks to provide a new address as they won't deliver to a PO Box. I live in a rural area (US, Washington state) with no home delivery. I can change my address using my street address with the PO box used as a suite number. I have done this successfully for other items that won't be delivered to a po box. I just want to make sure the docs are delivered. Any suggestions?
Email snippet:

Your original documents will be returned to you by registered post, which will require a signature on delivery. The postal address you have provided is a PO Box which we are unable to return documents to as mail to a PO Box is not signed for and delivery of the item cannot be confirmed.

[GoingBackBackToEire]

The address confirmation email received from dfa.ie says asks to provide a new address as they won't deliver to a PO Box. I live in a rural area (US, Washington state) with no home delivery. I can change my address using my street address with the PO box used as a suite number. I have done this successfully for other items that won't be delivered to a po box. I just want to make sure the docs are delivered. Any suggestions?

I don't know what you should do, but I can tell you that my letter carrier didn't care at all about getting a signature for my FBR, nor my Irish passport stuff (booklet, documents, passport card). They're all supposed to be signature required, and the envelopes all say "registered post, signature required" but the USPS was 0 for 4 with me.

Can you really not get signature required stuff at a USPS PO Box? That doesn't seem right.

[Dalton_Trumbo]

Docs Received: 21 June 2022
Address Confirmation: 10 March 2023

The address confirmation email received from dfa.ie says asks to provide a new address as they won't deliver to a PO Box. I live in a rural area (US, Washington state) with no home delivery. I can change my address using my street address with the PO box used as a suite number. I have done this successfully for other items that won't be delivered to a po box. I just want to make sure the docs are delivered. Any suggestions?
Email snippet:

Your original documents will be returned to you by registered post, which will require a signature on delivery. The postal address you have provided is a PO Box which we are unable to return documents to as mail to a PO Box is not signed for and delivery of the item cannot be confirmed.

can you explain the situation that there is no local delivery to your house. Maybe the local post office can hold it, or possible you could have them send it to the local Irish Embassy in Seattle and pick it up there? Just a few ideas.

If someone send mail to your address, does it just get held at the nearest post office?

[jojomc]

Docs Received: 21 June 2022
Address Confirmation: 10 March 2023

The address confirmation email received from dfa.ie says asks to provide a new address as they won't deliver to a PO Box. I live in a rural area (US, Washington state) with no home delivery. I can change my address using my street address with the PO box used as a suite number. I have done this successfully for other items that won't be delivered to a po box. I just want to make sure the docs are delivered. Any suggestions?
Email snippet:

Your original documents will be returned to you by registered post, which will require a signature on delivery. The postal address you have provided is a PO Box which we are unable to return documents to as mail to a PO Box is not signed for and delivery of the item cannot be confirmed.

can you explain the situation that there is no local delivery to your house. Maybe the local post office can hold it, or possible you could have them send it to the local Irish Embassy in Seattle and pick it up there? Just a few ideas.

If someone send mail to your address, does it just get held at the nearest post office?

I talked to the post master at my post office. I changed my address to my street address and added the po box number to my street address. Ex: 123 Main St, #789. This will get the mail to my box number and then I come in and sign for the package. I just received the congrats email from dfa using this new address. Turnaround time was 1 day. Start to finish my processing time was 8.5 months from docs received to congrats email.
App date: June 8 2022
Docs received: June 22, 2022
Address Check: March 10 2023
Congrats email: March 13 2023

[Dalton_Trumbo]

Docs Received: 21 June 2022
Address Confirmation: 10 March 2023

The address confirmation email received from dfa.ie says asks to provide a new address as they won't deliver to a PO Box. I live in a rural area (US, Washington state) with no home delivery. I can change my address using my street address with the PO box used as a suite number. I have done this successfully for other items that won't be delivered to a po box. I just want to make sure the docs are delivered. Any suggestions?
Email snippet:

Your original documents will be returned to you by registered post, which will require a signature on delivery. The postal address you have provided is a PO Box which we are unable to return documents to as mail to a PO Box is not signed for and delivery of the item cannot be confirmed.

can you explain the situation that there is no local delivery to your house. Maybe the local post office can hold it, or possible you could have them send it to the local Irish Embassy in Seattle and pick it up there? Just a few ideas.

If someone send mail to your address, does it just get held at the nearest post office?

I talked to the post master at my post office. I changed my address to my street address and added the po box number to my street address. Ex: 123 Main St, #789. This will get the mail to my box number and then I come in and sign for the package. I just received the congrats email from dfa using this new address. Turnaround time was 1 day. Start to finish my processing time was 8.5 months from docs received to congrats email.
App date: June 8 2022
Docs received: June 22, 2022
Address Check: March 10 2023
Congrats email: March 13 2023

nice! Glad to hear you figured it out. Also wow! basically a 9 month turnaround for the process! Happy to see that! Being a person whose application was impacted by Brexit and Covid and took 2 1/2 years, I'm super happy to see they have cleared the backlog and got this process back to the approximately a year timeframe!

[adlarson]

Is my parent's marriage certificate a red herring for my FBR application? My father's father is the one born in Ireland , and my father's name is on my birth certificate, so the fact my parents were (or were not) married is irrelevant. I ask because I easily tracked down all relevant certificates except my parent's marriage certificate and getting such a copy is taking a lot longer than expected, I'd rather just mail off all my certificates and if and when I get a certified copy I can forward it onto the Irish authorities? Or am I asking for trouble to not include this doc?

[Mr_Knight]

Is my parent's marriage certificate a red herring for my FBR application? My father's father is the one born in Ireland , and my father's name is on my birth certificate, so the fact my parents were (or were not) married is irrelevant. I ask because I easily tracked down all relevant certificates except my parent's marriage certificate and getting such a copy is taking a lot longer than expected, I'd rather just mail off all my certificates and if and when I get a certified copy I can forward it onto the Irish authorities? Or am I asking for trouble to not include this doc?

On a UK marriage certificate the information in column 2,3 & 7 their name, age at time of marriage & name of father should all corroborate & match their respective birth certificates. An official document linking generations. It is very important. My parents were not married, but my Irish citizen parent did get married to someone else later in life & I was instructed by the FBR webchat to include that marriage certificate.

[Milasz049]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

[Rxp2023]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

Some people seem to get a quick confirmation after address check (myself included) but then have a long wait for the certificate to be posted, and some others have a long wait for the confirmation with the certificate arriving shortly thereafter (hopefully this is the case for you). Not sure if it always works out like this but it seems to be a bit of a trend when looking at the data sheet.

[bdiggity24]

Documents received: June 16, 2022
email clarifying some details about my witness: March 9, 2023
Confirmation of address: March 14, 2023

[LittleAndrew]

For those that waited to send documents when office was just reopening;

Online application: 04/10/2021
Documents Received: 04/03/2022
Address Confirmation: 25/01/2023
FBR Approved: 14/03/2023

Hope you get your Citizenship soon my friends

[AngloIrish]

Hello,

As a long time lurker I was keeping track of the dates in posts here and expected my address confirmation at some point this week. It came through today!

Docs received date: 27/06/22
Address confirmation: 14/03/23 (Today)

Looking at some recent posts here it looks like I might be officially Irish by the end of the week. My granny would be smiling! Good luck everyone. Thank you Ireland for this wonderful privilege.

[AngloIrish]

I just had a thought. What if my date of entry ends up being Friday? (St. Patrick’s Day)!

[misscat2]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

Some people seem to get a quick confirmation after address check (myself included) but then have a long wait for the certificate to be posted, and some others have a long wait for the confirmation with the certificate arriving shortly thereafter (hopefully this is the case for you). Not sure if it always works out like this but it seems to be a bit of a trend when looking at the data sheet.

I noticed this as well and I do wonder if some of the different staff work differently with some letting people know straight away while others wait until the certificate is printed.

[Will2022]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

Some people seem to get a quick confirmation after address check (myself included) but then have a long wait for the certificate to be posted, and some others have a long wait for the confirmation with the certificate arriving shortly thereafter (hopefully this is the case for you). Not sure if it always works out like this but it seems to be a bit of a trend when looking at the data sheet.

I noticed this as well and I do wonder if some of the different staff work differently with some letting people know straight away while others wait until the certificate is printed.

I’m hoping this is true. I’m 9th June 2022 documents received yet still haven’t had address confirmation

[Milasz049]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

Some people seem to get a quick confirmation after address check (myself included) but then have a long wait for the certificate to be posted, and some others have a long wait for the confirmation with the certificate arriving shortly thereafter (hopefully this is the case for you). Not sure if it always works out like this but it seems to be a bit of a trend when looking at the data sheet.

I noticed this as well and I do wonder if some of the different staff work differently with some letting people know straight away while others wait until the certificate is printed.

I might drop them an email to confirm this.

[Milasz049]

Ok I just spoke to the team dealing with FBR's. There's a backlog in the dispatch and printing portion of the application process. He said they email both the approval and that the documents/certificate has been shipped at the same time and this is why you have not heard anything. He also said that no news is good news, and that if there was an issue with the application I would have heard by now and that my son has been more than likely approved.

[Lurcio]

Hi all. I've been lurking in this forum for quite some time since my application for FBR. I'm posting now that I have some dates in case it is of any interest/assistance to anyone else.

Application documents posted 24/5/22
Acknowledgement that they had been received 1/6/22
Address confirmation Email 2/3/23
I replied to this on 3/3/23 & also resent it (this time requesting a delivery receipt) to ensure that it had been delivered to a valid email address.
I received a reply about 4 hours later to say that the application was approved & that my name had been entered in the FBR. It also mentioned that it's currently taking 2-3 weeks for the certificate to arrive. A tracking number was supplied.

[Lurcio]

Hi all. I've been lurking in this forum for quite some time since my application for FBR. I'm posting now that I have some dates in case it is of any interest/assistance to anyone else.

Application documents posted 24/5/22
Acknowledgement that they had been received 1/6/22
Address confirmation Email 2/3/23
I replied to this on 3/3/23 & also resent it (this time requesting a delivery receipt) to ensure that it had been delivered to a valid email address.
I received a reply about 4 hours later to say that the application was approved & that my name had been entered in the FBR. It also mentioned that it's currently taking 2-3 weeks for the certificate to arrive. A tracking number was supplied.

[LauHam]

Did you get any update yet?

Hi - in a similar position. Needed a different birth certificate for grandparent. I sent with tracking and have confirmation it was received by FBR office in December. Have heard nothing since. Not sure if that's good/bad/normal, but may be reassuring to know somebody else is in a similar situation!

Hey Alex, interesting. Have you tried contacting them at all? Mine didn’t offer tracking as it was letter mail so I’m just sitting not knowing if it got lost or received. I can’t seem to find an email other than the contact I have who hasn’t responded to me. I recall a year ago people talking about a live chat function, but I can’t seem to find that either. The waiting doesn’t bother me as I expected to wait 2+ years but the not knowing if my documents were received definitely is bothersome lol

I’m in a similar situation, they asked for a copy of my mother’s birth certificate - which I am 100% sure I’d already sent. Anyway sent a replacement one month ago, no news from their side, except to say that there’s a backlog in scanning documents so there might be a delay. No news otherwise from FBR team on timeline from now. Hope this helps.

I received a request for additional documentation (Grandfathers original birth certificate) and sent it tracked mail which arrived in Balbriggan on January 6, 2023. I haven't heard a peep since. I sent two emails asking for an update with no response.

When all my paperwork was returned there was a memo/note which was added (accidentally i assume ) instructing the person that contacted me "do not respond to this email" when I emailed them (once) asking if they had received the additional document they requested. I don't know why they do this but they definitely ignore some of us until they see fit.

Seems odd, the lady I was in contact with told me she’d let me know as soon as she got it. Than nothing after my emails. Seems unprofessional too, especially if they are saying don’t respond to emails. Like why? Just tell us you received our documents so we don’t feel like we’re in limbo.

[LauHam]

Did you get any update yet?

Hi - in a similar position. Needed a different birth certificate for grandparent. I sent with tracking and have confirmation it was received by FBR office in December. Have heard nothing since. Not sure if that's good/bad/normal, but may be reassuring to know somebody else is in a similar situation!

Hey Alex, interesting. Have you tried contacting them at all? Mine didn’t offer tracking as it was letter mail so I’m just sitting not knowing if it got lost or received. I can’t seem to find an email other than the contact I have who hasn’t responded to me. I recall a year ago people talking about a live chat function, but I can’t seem to find that either. The waiting doesn’t bother me as I expected to wait 2+ years but the not knowing if my documents were received definitely is bothersome lol

I’m in a similar situation, they asked for a copy of my mother’s birth certificate - which I am 100% sure I’d already sent. Anyway sent a replacement one month ago, no news from their side, except to say that there’s a backlog in scanning documents so there might be a delay. No news otherwise from FBR team on timeline from now. Hope this helps.

I received a request for additional documentation (Grandfathers original birth certificate) and sent it tracked mail which arrived in Balbriggan on January 6, 2023. I haven't heard a peep since. I sent two emails asking for an update with no response.

When all my paperwork was returned there was a memo/note which was added (accidentally i assume ) instructing the person that contacted me "do not respond to this email" when I emailed them (once) asking if they had received the additional document they requested. I don't know why they do this but they definitely ignore some of us until they see fit.

Seems odd, the lady I was in contact with told me she’d let me know as soon as she got it. Than nothing after my emails. Seems unprofessional too, especially if they are saying don’t respond to emails. Like why? Just tell us you received our documents so we don’t feel like we’re in limbo.

[LauHam]

Hi there, I seem to be in the same boat as some of you guys. I sent away for the Irish foreign births register on the 12/12/21 got first reply back on the 05/01/23 i needed to add some extra document which i sent back on the 21/01/23. I had a couple of helpful emails from a said person but trying to find information on whether they got my documents in the post or any updates has been not easy, which i had a contact email.

Did you get any update after resubmitting documents?

[FBRLurker02]

Received my the address confirmation email on Feb 9thnfor my son's FBR application. Still waiting on the confirmation. Very jealous of the people who got the confirmation days after the address confirmation.

Some people seem to get a quick confirmation after address check (myself included) but then have a long wait for the certificate to be posted, and some others have a long wait for the confirmation with the certificate arriving shortly thereafter (hopefully this is the case for you). Not sure if it always works out like this but it seems to be a bit of a trend when looking at the data sheet.

I noticed this as well and I do wonder if some of the different staff work differently with some letting people know straight away while others wait until the certificate is printed.

I’m hoping this is true. I’m 9th June 2022 documents received yet still haven’t had address confirmation

My docs received was 2nd June 2022 and I also haven't had address confirmation so at least you're not alone. The silence has been driving me crazy because I wasn't able to provide my grandfather's ID, so especially seeing later applications get address confirmation is hard. Hopefully not too much longer!