Hello and Season’s greetings. I am currently in the process of applying for first UK passports for two of my (now adult) children, who were born in France. I was born in the UK before 1983, so they normally have the right to have a British passport through me. My husband is French. I didn’t get around to applying for them in the past when they were younger as things were easy before Brexit! I am trying to work out exactly what ‘group’ they belong to, group 2 or group 3. I would be grateful for any help from anyone who has done this as I’ve gone around in circles on-line trying to work it out from the different government web pages! Also, I can’t work out if I need to send my and my husbands’ birth certificates, as I seem to come across conflicting information. Any help would be gratefully received.
Sorry, not sure what group 2 and group 3 are. But you did register their births in the UK didn’t you so they are officially citizens?
Hi Jane, thanks for replying. No I didn’t get around to that either as it didn’t seem necessary at the time. My first two children were on my passport as babies in the late 90s, so have uk passports now, but when my last two were born several years later, you could no longer add them to adult passports so I never bothered. Group 2 and Group 3 seem to be for overseas applications but I cannot work out the differences between the two.
If I were you I’d talk to the consular bit of the embassy and see exactly what you need to do. UK passport etc. admin is much worse than French frankly.
It is a pity you didn’t register them as minors, that can be a stumbling block, which is why it’s worth getting an appointment and talking to somebody. You may eg have to prove citizenship and if so what type.
(My children and I are all dual Fr/UK nationals from birth so I sympathise).
Absolutely Vero, it would have made things easier. From what I’ve re-read, my children should have the right to automatic British citizenship through me, as long as all the correct documental ‘proof’ is sent. Anyway, I think I’ll just bite the bullet, send everything off and see what feedback I get from the passport office!
If you do get clarity then useful to post it on here so future people in a similar position can find it.
Might save time in the long run to phone either the UK Embassy in Paris, or the Passport Office in the UK to take advice.
I can’t help with the groups but I’m sure once you start the process it will be very straightforward. I have an elderly second cousin who got married in France in 1963 and has lived in the country ever since. She has three children and none of them had their birth registered in the U.K. One of them, post Brexit, decided to apply for a British passport. She applied in June 2022 and the ceremony at the Paris Embassy was five months later on November 3rd. Very straightforward and very quick.
I’ll be applying directly to the UK and live near Lyon, so I’m not sure that there’d be a ceremony. I’ve never heard about that. Maybe it depends on what ‘group’ you’re in ( e.g. British mother born in UK, mother or father born outside UK to British-born mother, person born in overseas territories etc).
She was in exactly the same position as you. A British mother born in England and a French father. She was born in France. I’m not sure where she applied but she went to the ceremony in Paris and picked up her passport there as well.
Depends on the préfecture, some still have ceremonies and others have stopped doing them. I was jealous of a friend in Paris who had hers at the Parthenon. Ours was just in the main meeting room in Sub-préfecture,
This was a ceremony at the British Embassy in Paris for a French national to pick up her new U.K. nationality paperwork. No préfecture involved.
Duh! Of course! I was forgetting we are talking about UK nationality not French 
Hi. I finally spoke with a very helpful person at the passport office. He said my application should be pretty straight forward as I’m a British Mother born before 1983. So basically my children (one generation) have the right to a obtain a British passport, even if they were born in France. Any children they have will not have automatic citizenship. Any application from overseas must be on-line, paper applications are only accepted for UK-based applicants. So I shall start the wheels rolling and see what happens. 
Exactly the same as my cousin.