Are there two types of UK birth certificate?

[Rosinish]

I have a short one, I  have never needed a full one until a few years ago. I applied for two passports with just my short cert ( both British and Australian passports).

If it wasn't for my 3rd passport ,  I would still only have a short birth cert.
I had to get a long one for my Irish passport .(I applied through my mother's  birth, so needed the long cert to show my mother's name)

Cell,

That was a long time ago & with identity theft, child trafficking, foreign parents with child access running off with children, child abduction etc. then I can see a need now (impressive actually) & as mentioned previously, different countries have different laws which is the thing here as I have now discovered having had it pointed out by Lizzie.

Annie

[jc26red]

Annie - I got the impression that it wasn't actually the airline that wouldn't accept the short birth certificate, but the South African government.

Thanks Lizzie!!

That's a whole different scenario now that I have re read it!

A with medicals/jags/jabs for different countries then people need to read up on the conditions of different countries prior to travel.

Annie

That makes more sense, I have taken my eldest granddaughter on holiday without her mother since 2015 and wasn't asked for documentation.... just as well as my granddaughter has officially changed her surname from the one she was registered with at birth.  I did have all the relevant paperwork with me but wasn't asked for it.

All my other grandchildren have all travelled and not been asked for a birth certificate.


We were living in Saudi Arabia when my eldest children were due but I insisted coming home to have them as Saudi has the similar rules on calling up boys born in country in the event of war  . I know several other mums who stayed and and had boys... I wouldn't risk it, even back then.

[Rosinish]

All my other grandchildren have all travelled and not been asked for a birth certificate.

I doubt they would stop everyone with children but   

None-the-less the OP was referring to 1 Country i.e. we don't know which other countries operate in this manner but it's good to know for future for anyone travelling abroad with children as a full cert. is a lot cheaper than the cost of a 'lost' holiday.

Annie

[LizzieW]

We were stopped over 30 years ago when taking our American nephew on a ferry en route to France.  He was staying with my parents for a year and was too much of a handful for them as he was so badly behaved, his dad knew we were taking him away to France but we didn't have any written authority.  What the customs officers did was talk to our son aged about 10 at the time (same age as his cousin) and ask him who the other boy was, where he lived, where he was staying whilst in England etc. etc.  They were satisfied with our son's answers and let us take our nephew into France with us.

[Rena]

As a registrar I was always careful to tell people that a free short certificate was not accepted for most official purposes  - other than a child benefit application.

I can only think of one or two occasions (out of hundreds) where the parents chose not to have at least one full certificate at the time of registration.

Yes, my children were born in the 1960s and I obtained both long and short birth certificates at the time of registration with the view that (at the time) I would need them for school registration (I think local libraries needed sight of birth certs too) and I didn't want to let the long certs out of my sight in case officialdom lost them.

[Gillg]

Both my children were adopted as babies in the 1970s and only have short birth certificates.  Although they were issued with normal long certificates at birth, these never came into our hands, as the children were wards of court until the adoption process was completed and the original birth certificates were the property of the birth mother, then the local authorities.  After the adoption process was completed we were issued with adoption certificates in the babies' original names and new short birth certificates in the names we had chosen for them.  At that time new legislation stated that adopted children should be provided with information about their parentage, so we do have names, ages and details like hair and eye colouring, height, interests, academic skills and occupation for all four birth parents. 

There has never been any problem caused by their lack of a long birth certificate.  The short form sufficed for passport applications, university entrance, etc.  It sometimes aroused curiosity but never any difficulty. 

[larkspur]

My husband had to get a full birth certificate to apply for his passport, a short one would not do.
http://www.passports-office.co.uk/blog/passport_birth_certificate_short_long/

[JohninSussex]

My husband had to get a full birth certificate to apply for his passport, a short one would not do.
http://www.passports-office.co.uk/blog/passport_birth_certificate_short_long/

That of course is not an official website but a commercial company. 

The official page also says you need a "full" birth certificate.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-adult-passport/photos-and-documents-you-must-send

[larkspur]

Well, Awfully sorry.......slap my wrist