British citizens in the Kingdom will now register births and deaths directly with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), a central registration unit in the UK, following a change in the procedure introduced by the UK FCO.

“Effective from Jan. 14, 2015, birth and death registrations of British citizens in Saudi Arabia will transfer from the British Embassy, Riyadh, to FCO, UK,” an embassy official said on Sunday.

According to the British Embassy, the centralization of consular registration aims to allow the FCO to provide a common online application procedure with credit card payment facility, which will be more efficient and convenient for customers.

The aim is also to help FCO staff overseas give greater focus to their primary function of assisting British nationals in distress.

There will be no changes to the entitlement to register a birth or death, but applicants will need to allow extra time for documents to be sent to and from the UK.

The embassy official said that the FCO is changing the procedure for overseas British nationals as the registration at British missions overseas are being gradually withdrawn throughout 2014 and early 2015.

“Registrations will be carried out instead in a central registration unit in the UK,” she added.

According to the embassy, the UK repatriated 26 countries and territories in June 2014, 33 countries and territories in September and 83 countries and territories earlier this month, whereas on Jan. 14, it will repatriate a further 42 countries including Saudi Arabia.

The FCO aims to complete the transfer of the remaining countries by the first half of 2015.

Notably, British nationals must register a child’s birth according to the regulations in the country where the child is born.

A local birth certificate thus obtained is accepted in the UK while applying for a passport or registering with a school or doctor.