Can't agree more with views Dapto10 and Secret.simon expressed below, especially the bit about naturalisation is a privilege, not a right. I totally get the point about frustration, which everyone has been through during the process of naturalisation. But it is a crazy time now and what we expect in normality does not apply.
I had a chance to talk to others who have been through the naturalisation process in other countries. For instance, most European countries take more than a year to complete the process, in some cases even a few years. Some asian countries like Japan or China, even you want to obtain their nationality, they wont give it to you unless you manage to meet very strict conditions they set: why? Because it is a privilege, not a right.
In that sense, Home Office isn't particularly bad in relative term. At the end of the day, they are making serious decisions on granting someone to obtain nationality, so understandably, it should not be taken lightly, and all necessary checks should be conducted as they see necessary. If you are British, I believe you do not want your government to go around and hand out nationality lightly to everyone and anyone who apply without properly checking the suitability of the applicants, no?
I understand people are frustrated, but complaining about the slowness of the government service that is not essential under the current climate is frankly a bit thoughtless. Put yourself in someone's shoes, if you work for home office, would you like to risk your life (potentially your families as well) to go into office so that you can quicken someone's naturalisation applications in order to not to frustrate applicants? I know I would not, but by the look of it, some of you may disagree... common sense should really prevail here.
secret.simon wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 3:46 pm
People, calm the discussion down. These are uncertain times and the Home Office is not going to prioritise decisions because anonymous people on a forum are complaining about its procedures. It is time to be understanding, as @mr_iyamu explained so well. Kudos to him, especially for that last sentence.
mr_iyamu wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:05 pm
Hello Guys,
I think we are utilising this thread to project only the flaws of the home office while forgetting how important their role is in national security and policing in this turbulent time.
Let’s thread with caution on making rash accusations as we don’t know what these people are dealing with 100%. Let’s face it, naturalising is not an essential service at the moment so these people fall into the category of people that ought to stay at home. I know how it feels to be waiting and checking here daily to see if anyone else got theirs. I do it daily as my application has been submitted for about 2 months now.
Please let’s focus on what’s at hand, appreciate what we have and Stay at home. If you are not working in essential service then I bet you are writing from the comfort of your home so it would be unfair to expect someone else to be out there investigating you at the expense of their family and loved ones because you paid £1349.00
Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. Stay Positive Folks. The Land shall heal and we would call it Home for generations to come.
tcell88 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:00 am
It's funny because this shows the disconnect, like people operating the phones and emails don't have a clear picture of what's going on.
The UKV&I
contact centre is outsourced to a private company and people who answer calls and emails are not Home Office staff. So they may not have access to all the information.
PPTP wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:58 am
Try to arrange an official complaint with HO. If they not gonna provide a proper and clear answer, we have the right to push complaint further to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Keep in mind that you would have to go through your MP if you want to escalate to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman. You won't be able to escalate to the Ombudsman if your MP refuses to progress your case.
What to do before you come to us wrote:Is your complaint about a UK government department or public organisation?
By law, we can only look at complaints about UK government departments and other UK public organisations if a Member of Parliament (MP) refers the complaint to us. You can complete our complaint form and ask an MP or their office to sign it.