Aka-chan admin III: Applying for Baby’s first UK passport, from Japan

To complete the hat-trick of baby admin in Japan, we applied for Hope’s first passport on January 23.

On April 11, it finally arrived!

Documents required

It has to be said that the UK Government guidelines about supporting documents are not particularly clear.

Here are the documents we sent to Her Majesty’s Passport Office, in Belfast.

1. Declaration form
2. Photos x 2 (one signed by a qualified person)
3. Applicant
   a. Birth certificate from Japanese Hospital
   (“Certificate of Live Birth” & “Notification of Live Birth”)
   + translations
   b. Registration of birth in Japan, from Japanese City Office
   (“Certificate of Receipt”)
   + translation
4. Applicant’s mother
   a. Birth certificate
   b. Passport
5. Applicant’s father
   a. Birth certificate (copy)
   b. Passport (copy)
   c. Registration of birth abroad (copy) – because Hope’s American dad was born on a Navy base in South Korea

The application cost GBP72.86, which I paid online by credit card.

Top tips

Some things I’d recommend:

Photos by Paspic
– Save yourself the trouble of going to a photo booth with a tiny, squishy baby. Instead you can take a photo of your baby lying down on a white sheet, upload this photo to Paspic, and then receive in the post head-shots that meet official UK Government requirements.

Translation of Japanese documents by Honyaku Plus
– You’ll need to send certified translations of all Japanese documents such as your baby’s birth certificate, so use a trusted translation company such as Honyaku Plus to take care of this crucial part of the process.

Registered mail
– Since you must provide your own passport(s) and other original important documents along with the application, send everything from Japan by registered mail. EMS cost us JPY2200.

All’s well that ends well

We’ve been speculating about why the passport took so long to arrive. Brexit fallout? The Trump effect? (Hope’s dad is American . . . )

Whatever the reason, we are VERY happy that we can now begin planning Hope’s first trip back to the UK. Yippee!

How long did it take for your baby’s first UK passport to arrive? I hope you didn’t have to wait for 11 weeks . . .