Oh Mel they are a waste of space.
Me and Ginger applied for our passports 2 weeks ago. When I was filling the forms in it said " If born after 1983 you need to send Mother or fathers Birth certificate and if you are applying for first time passport"....... so I told Ginger to ring them and ask why they needed parents Birth certificates when it clearly states on OUR Birth certificates where our parents were born.
Cut a long story short after ringing them 4 times about this matter ( because Ginger lost contact with his mother years ago) 3 people told us we needed the Birth certificates and 1 person said " no if you was born after 1983 you dont need to send parents certificates" Talk about right hand not knowing what left hand is doing.
"
So in the end I just sent our forms off WITHOUT parents B/C's.
Even when we were doing check and send she said " oh they will probably send them back asking for Parents B/C's" ..... I told her we'd risk it.
Hey presto 7 days later my passport back. 9 days later Gingers back!!!!!
It's a absolute disgrace that they don't even know all information!!!
Then we found out that as from 1st July 2007 for your first passport check and send is free!!! and post office isn't allowed to charge!!! they charged me cheeky gits, so I am reclaiming it.
AND another thing, I didn't know til all this, that you can apply for anyone's birth certificate
........ We rang Yorkshire where Gingers mum was born and asked " is it possible to get my mothers birth certificate?? " " oh yes just give us her name, D.O.B and we will send it through the post" .... omg alot of people see this as a form of identification, and you can request one over the phone
hmmmmm worrying.