Registering a birth in England

Hi!  My husband and I are both American.  We live in the Greater Manchester area in England.  We are here on a three year work Visa.  Our son was born September 2012 here in the UK.  We had to go into Manchester City Centre to register his birth.  We received the short and long form (£4) birth certificates at the appointment.  I can't remember where we went but you can Google it.  Then we had to go to the US Embassy in London to register his birth in the States.  You have to book an appointment, you cannot just show up at the Embassy!  The appointments fill up fast so book well in advance (online).  You have to have the UK birth certificate (among other things like our birth certificates, marriage license, etc) in order to register his birth in the US.  At this appointment at the Embassy we applied for his American passport as well as registered for his social security number.  We received all of these things later in the mail.  Since our son is American (because his parents are) our next step was to apply for his VISA.  We had to go to the UK Border office in Birmingham to apply for his Visa.  The Visa appointment was very, very time consuming and expensive.  The whole process for everything was tedious and expensive!