Indian Passport for a Baby Born in the UK

A baby born in the UK to two Indian-passport-holding parents is normally entitled to a first Indian passport, but the application is not a simple copy of an adult renewal. The birth first has to be registered with the Indian High Commission, and the finished application has to be signed by both parents together, in person, at a single VFS appointment with the baby present. NriDirect runs the whole thing for you — the eligibility check, the High Commission birth registration, the Passport Seva filing, the consent paperwork, and the VFS booking — for From £160. We turn your documents into a submitted application within a day of receiving them, and the passport itself typically follows 7 to 30 days after the VFS appointment, with the spread mostly coming down to how quickly verification and printing move.

Who this is for#

Talk to us if your child:

• Was born in the UK while both parents held Indian passports
• Was born to one Indian parent, where eligibility depends on the details of your case and needs checking before anything is filed
• Has an upcoming trip to India planned and does not yet hold either an Indian passport or an OCI card

Families where both parents are British-Indian, rather than Indian passport holders, are usually better served by an OCI card instead of a first Indian passport, since OCI gives a child lifelong visa-free travel to India without the earlier renewal cycle a minor passport carries. See Fresh OCI Application if that sounds closer to your situation — we can help you decide which route actually fits before you order either service.

How to apply for an Indian passport for a baby born in the UK#

The step people most often get wrong is the order — trying to book VFS before the birth registration has actually been accepted, which forces a rebooked slot. We sequence the two so that never happens on our watch.

Documents required for a newborn's Indian passport in the UK#

• The baby's full UK birth certificate, naming both parents
• Both parents' current Indian passports
• Current UK immigration evidence for both parents — a Share Code, visa, or settled/pre-settled status record
• The parents' marriage certificate, with an English translation if the original is in another language
• Two infant photographs to Indian passport specification, on a plain white background
• A signed parental consent form (we give you the wording)

Photographing a newborn to the Indian specification is genuinely fiddly — the eyes need to be open and the head straight, which is not how most infant photos naturally come out. We show you a simple technique that gets a compliant shot without a professional studio visit. If one parent cannot make the VFS appointment, a notarised consent letter stands in for their attendance, and we template that too.

Immigration evidence is the item that trips families up most often, mainly because it has to be current on the appointment date, not the date of the birth. A visa or Share Code that has since lapsed, or settled-status paperwork printed too far in advance, is a common reason VFS bounces an application back. We check the dates on your evidence before you head to the appointment, so this does not surface as a problem on the day itself.

Indian passport fees for a baby born in the UK#

The government charges £40 for a minor's Indian passport, or £36 if your baby is under 8 — both figures are for the standard 36-page, 5-year minor passport. Add a small ICWF surcharge, the VFS Global service fee of roughly £7.44, and courier charges of around £15 if you choose postal return instead of collecting in person. None of that is part of what you pay us; it goes to the mission and to VFS directly, is set independently of our pricing, and can be revised, so we always check the current amount with you before you order.

Our £160 fee is for the preparation work: the eligibility assessment, the High Commission birth registration, the full Passport Seva application, all parental-consent paperwork, the VFS appointment booking, photo guidance for the baby, tracking once it is submitted, and a free redo if something goes wrong on our end. Both parents' original Indian passports are only checked at the VFS counter and handed straight back — they are never taken from you.

If you have more than one child to register at the same time — twins, or siblings applying together — each child needs their own separate government fee and photograph set, though we run the paperwork for both through a single consultation and a single VFS visit where the appointment system allows it, which keeps the coordination on our side rather than yours.

Registering your baby's birth with the Indian High Commission#

Registration comes before the passport, not alongside it, and it is the step families most often discover late. It is filed online with the High Commission using the UK birth certificate, both parents' passports, and the marriage certificate, and only once it has been accepted can the passport application move forward. We prepare and lodge it as part of the £160 fee, so you are not left figuring out a second government process on your own.

If a name is spelled slightly differently on the birth certificate than on a parent's Indian passport, that mismatch is one of the more common reasons a registration gets sent back — worth flagging to us early, since it is quicker to sort before filing than after a query comes back. The same goes for a surname that changed on marriage but was never updated on one parent's Indian passport; a short supporting note usually settles it, provided it is prepared in advance rather than produced in response to a rejection.

What's changed for 2026#

The core requirements have not moved, but Passport Seva's document checks and VFS's evidence expectations are reviewed periodically, and a checklist that was correct a year or two ago can be slightly out of step today. We handle newborn applications from UK families every week, so we check the live rules and fees against your case before anything is submitted, rather than working from a static list.

Consular capacity at individual VFS centres also shifts through the year, with demand for newborn appointments rising ahead of the summer travel season. If your family is planning a trip to India, getting the birth registration underway early keeps you from competing for a scarce late slot once appointments start filling.

Mistakes we prevent#

• Filing the passport application before the birth registration has actually cleared
• One parent turning up alone at VFS without a notarised consent letter for the other
• Assuming citizenship is automatic without checking the parental-nationality position at the time of the birth
• An infant photo that fails the Indian white-background specification
• Quoting the adult government fee instead of the correct minor rate, or missing the lower under-8 fee
• A marriage certificate submitted without an English translation when the original is in another language
• Booking VFS before the birth registration has actually been accepted, forcing a rebooked slot

A less obvious one: parents sometimes assume a hospital-issued birth notification is the same as the official UK birth certificate needed for registration. It isn't — you need the full certificate from the General Register Office, which can take a couple of weeks to arrive after the birth, and that wait is worth building into your plans from the start.

Timing and related services#

Budget 7 to 30 days from the VFS appointment for the passport itself, and add roughly 1 to 2 weeks on top if birth registration is still outstanding. A minor's Indian passport carries 5 years of validity, not the usual 10, so plan for an earlier renewal via Indian Passport Renewal down the line. If OCI turns out to be the better long-term fit, see Fresh OCI Application. If VFS availability is the bottleneck, tell us and we will watch for an earlier slot.

Why NriDirect#

The process runs across two separate government systems — the High Commission's birth registration and the Passport Seva passport application — and it is easy to lose track of which one you are actually waiting on, especially with a newborn taking up your attention. We track both stages, tell you plainly where things stand, and handle any correspondence directly if the High Commission comes back with a query, rather than leaving you to decode it yourself. You can reach us by phone, WhatsApp, or email, including evenings and weekends, in English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Gujarati.

Most parents who use this service are doing it for the first time and have no reference point for what a normal timeline or a normal query from the High Commission looks like. We do this every week, so we can usually tell you within a day whether something in your file needs attention, rather than you waiting to find out at the appointment itself.

Ready to start?#

Let's get your baby's first passport moving. Call +44 7454 034747, WhatsApp +44 7454 034747↗, or email [email protected] — your eligibility checklist arrives within one working day.