The statutory declaration is the document that does most of the heavy lifting in this application. It is not a form HMPO provides. It is a document you write, swear, and submit. It is what stands in place of the birth certificate. Get it right and the rest of the application has something to point at. Get it wrong and the application has no foundation.
This lesson takes you through it line by line. Use it as the template. Adapt the names, dates, and addresses. Do not change the structure or the order. The order matters.
What a statutory declaration is
A statutory declaration is a written statement of facts that you swear to be true before a Commissioner for Oaths, a solicitor, or a notary public. It is governed by the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. Lying in one is a criminal offence under section 5 of the Perjury Act 1911. That is exactly the weight you want it to carry.
For this purpose, the declaration does three jobs:
- It states who the child is.
- It states who the parents are.
- It states why no birth registration exists, and confirms the parents' intention that the child is to be recognised as a British citizen.
It does these jobs in plain, sworn language. No legal flourishes. No theatrical phrases. No references to the strawman, common law, or any of the framing you have learned. The declaration is for HMPO. It speaks their language so they cannot reject it for being unfamiliar.
The structure, top to bottom
1. Heading
STATUTORY DECLARATION
Made under the Statutory Declarations Act 1835
That is the heading. Bold, centred, on its own. Nothing else.
2. The declarant block
I, [Full name of the parent making the declaration], of [full residential address including postcode], [occupation, e.g. mother, father, self-employed builder], do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:
This is the declarant block. The person making the declaration is one of the parents, usually the mother. If both parents are making it, you do two declarations, one each, identical in structure.
3. The numbered statements
Each fact gets its own numbered paragraph. Short. Plain. Sworn.
I am the [mother / father] of a child known as [full chosen name of the child], born on [date of birth in full, e.g. the fourteenth day of March, two thousand and twenty-three] at [place of birth, e.g. our home at 14 Elm Road, Bristol].
The child's father is [full name of father], of [address if different], a British citizen by birth, born on [father's date of birth] at [father's place of birth].
The child's mother is [full name of mother], of [address if different], a British citizen by birth, born on [mother's date of birth] at [mother's place of birth].
The child has not been registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, and there is therefore no certified copy of an entry of birth available in respect of the child.
The child is a British citizen by birth within the meaning of section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, having been born in the United Kingdom to a parent who is a British citizen.
I am applying for a British passport for the child in order to [brief reason, e.g. enable the child to travel with the family].
The information contained in this declaration is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
That is the body. Seven paragraphs. No more, no less, in this order.
4. The closing
And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835.
This closing line is mandatory. The wording is fixed. Do not paraphrase it.
5. The signature block
Declared at [city or town where you sign it]
this [day] day of [month], [year]
Before me:
[Name of Commissioner for Oaths / Solicitor / Notary] Solicitor / Commissioner for Oaths
You sign on the left. The Commissioner signs on the right. The Commissioner adds their name, their professional title, and the address of their practice. Most solicitors will charge between five and ten pounds for this. It takes about three minutes in their office.
The points each line is doing work on
- Paragraph 1 establishes the child as a real, named, located person. Date, place, name. Concrete.
- Paragraphs 2 and 3 establish parentage and the parents' British citizenship. This is the descent claim. Without it the application has no statutory hook.
- Paragraph 4 acknowledges the absence of a registration without apologising for it. It does not say "we chose not to register." It says, neutrally, that no entry exists. HMPO does not need the reason. They need the fact.
- Paragraph 5 names the statute the claim rests on. Section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 is the provision that confers British citizenship automatically on a child born in the UK to a parent who is a British citizen or settled here. It does not require a birth to be registered. Citing it directly tells HMPO the application is grounded in their own law.
- Paragraph 6 gives a benign, ordinary reason for the application. Travel. Family. Nothing political.
- Paragraph 7 is the truthfulness clause. Standard, but required.
What not to include
- Do not mention the bare trust.
- Do not mention common law, the Crown's duty, or the legal person.
- Do not include any quotations from Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, or anything else.
- Do not refer to the child as "the living child" or "the flesh-and-blood child."
- Do not write your name in capitals to signal anything. Write it normally.
The declaration is a quiet legal instrument. Its power comes from its plainness. Anything theatrical in it gives HMPO a reason to bounce it.
Print, sign, swear, copy
Print two copies on plain white A4. Take both to the Commissioner. Sign both in front of them. They sign both. You keep one original. The other goes with the application. Make a scan of the signed original for your records before you post anything.
The next lesson is the covering letter that goes on top of the declaration and explains, in one page, what HMPO is looking at and what is being asked of them.