Strutting around London: LITTLE POMMIE BASTARDS !!!

On 11 September 2013, our kids officially became little Pommie bastards. Really!

Before we left Australia, we thought we might be able to get Aisha and William British passports. Sally was born in London and left when she was the grand old age of 4 months. Like Sally's, Mark's parents are both British, so he too has had dual nationality for many years.

As with so many things, we had great intentions of getting the applications done ages ago, but only got round to it recently. A few weeks ago we filled in the applications, gathered all the ORIGINAL documentation, including our current passports and birth certificates and had our teacher neighbour, Helen, counter-sign everything. Mark made an appointment, got to the Passport and Identity office in time (just) and was prepared to pay extra for the 1 week fast track option.

Once the interview started, however, the interviewing officer found that Mark's previous British passport, issued by the British Embassy in Damascus in 2002, had some typing irregularities and a slightly wonky letter in the date that made it seem suspect. To add to that, there was no record of it on the UK's electronic system. Sally's previous British passport, issued in Canberra, was also not on the system.

Hmmmmmmm.

What we thought would be a fairly straight forward application suddenly looked very doubtful. Mark was referred to the 'enquiries section' upstairs. Fortunately he spoke to a fairly relaxed officer who said the solution was to get copies of Mark's father's birth and marriage certificates and for the passport office to go back to the original issuing offices (Canberra and Damascus) to request confirmation. Not too much of a problem in Sally's case perhaps but, as Mark pointed out, the British Embassy in Damascus was no longer functioning, with staff having left due to the civil strife.

In the end, Mark was able to get the necessary certificates from the registry office in London and it took less than the promised one week for all of us to be issued with new British / EU passports. Unless the kids marry UK nationals, this will be end of the line for British citizenship by descent for the Strutt/Eldridges.

To mark the occasion, we pulled together a very impromptu 'event', inviting the neighbours around to share in the occasion. Sally, who has presided over several Australian citizenship ceremonies, held her own UK version for the kids.

The kids knew that the passports had come but not that the neighbours were coming over, nor of the proceedings to follow. Sally tested them with a list of questions taken from the British citizenship test about landmarks, flags and notable historical characters. Helen and James next door set a test of nerve by requiring the kids to eat a Marmite sandwich while wearing Wellington boots! They undertook an English language test in which they had to correctly name several particularly English items including yoghurt (not "Yoegert"); flip flops not "thongs"; crisps not "chips".

The dreaded Marmite test.

A few highlights of the evening are below.

The intellectual challenges were much easier than some of the more 'physical' challenges.

The jury of fine upstanding British neighbours (and Muriel from France) all agreed that Aisha and William had passed with flying colours. At the end of the evening, having read the official oath of allegiance to the Queen and the official British pledge, they were presented with their British passports!.