Letecia Coquilla Rawlins, pictured here, was born on 19th. December 2022 in the town of Jagna on the island of Bohol in the Philippines.
Father - me, a British citizen. And Mother - Alma Coquilla a citizen of the Philippines.
I was told by an immigration specialist:-
Owing to your birth in the UK, your child acquired British nationality automatically at birth. This is on condition that you are the biological father.
But this is where it gets complicated.
I pointed out to the Immigration Advisor that mother & father were not married. And her response was:-
Owing to the fact that Alma was married to another man at the time of Letecia's birth, this adds complexity to the application and a different route needs to be taken for your child.
Your child would first need to be registered as a British citizen before the British passport may be applied for.
We would charge a fee of £1,440 for representation in this application and there is no government fee for children under the age of 18. ( a UK passport is £85.00)
This application takes 6-9 months to process once formally submitted.
We do only submit an application if we are confident of its success. Kindly note that we hold a 100% success rate for these type of applications.
In the unlikely event that the application is refused, you will be reimbursed our fees in full as you are covered by our 'No Win, No Fee' policy.
Now to put it simply, I do not have the required £1.440 + Passport £85.36.
My business, Pub and Restaurant, became insolvent due to covid19 and the restrictions imposed by the government and my son and I were forced to vacate the premisses in 2022 making us homeless and a severe reduction in my income.
I now only have my state pension plus a small workplace pension, and of course now also the loss of the winter fuel payment.
I have no savings at all as they were used up during covid19 lockdown supporting the pub and restaurant.
I did consider applying myself, which would have cost nothing but as I completed the form online, I realised how complicated it was. It is now on hold while I find the 2 referees required. I also do not feel I have enough knowledge of the system, and these days, at my age, I am a little prone to making errors, and this application is very important.
I did request an installment plan but this is a non-starter as they have quoted:- A maximum of 5 'instalments' but will only be able to start working on the case once their full fee has been received.
So here I am, hoping to raise funds for the application costs.