Getting a passport is harder than getting into the Royal Family

I don't know if this is actually true as I have never tried becoming a member of the Royal Family and I also don't intend to ever become one but I can imagine that Lizzie & Co would want to know quite a bit about you before they let you into Buckingham Palace and .

Well, the people at the Passport Office are quite curious as well and that is fair enough as they obviously want to be sure that they only hand out passports to people who are actually eligible for them but to be honest, I think they are going a bit over the top with what they want to know.

This is what you need to apply for a first children's passport according to the Passport Office's website:

What the website doesn't tell you is that if one of the parents is not British (that would be me), you absolutely have to strip down to your pants when applying for your child's first ever passport. Not only do they demand that you send your passport and all other forms and certificates to the Passport Office, no they also require the following information for each of your parents: full name, date of birth, their place of birth and when and where they got married. What does my parents' wedding anniversary have to do with Amy? Isn't it enough that Ben and I gave proof of who we are? I really don't want to know what they would have wanted me to pull out my sleeve, if my parents had only been co-habiting - probably the birth certificate of my great grandaunt's German Sheppard. Ridiculous!