Salsero_007 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:13 pm
Hi,
my situation is probably not unique, and here it is:
1. I am a citizen of Russia, but I was born in one of the Baltic states (Lithuania) in 1970-ies. At the time it was a part of USSR, recognised as such by present Russia de jure. So all my document state I was born in the USSR.
2. The UK did recognise this de-facto, but not de-jure. Nevertheless, for all my documents, including naturalisation application I used USSR as the place of birth without any problems.
3. I will go for my naturalisation ceremony in early February. In the text of the certificate (included in the invitation letter) they write that my place of birth would be recorded as "Uzhkampiai, Russia" which is not, and never was, correct. It should read either "Uzhkampiai, USSR" to reflect the situation when I was born (de-facto recognised by the UK then) or "Uzhkampiai, Lithuania" to reflect the current state of things and the legal position of the UK at the time when I was born.
4. The guidelines say I should proceed with the ceremony and submit the certificate for correction after it. I intend to do so, stating things in (3) in the request for correction.
5. However, regardless of any mistakes, I would become a British subject after the ceremony. This opens the way for my spouse, who has her ILR, to apply for naturalisation.
Now, the bunch of questions are:
A. Do I need to wait till my corrected certificate arrives to apply for the passport?
B. May my spouse apply for naturalisation on the day I am naturalised or should she wait till I receive the corrected certificate (+2-5 months) or till I get the passport?
C. As my spouse shares my story of being born in a Baltic state but being a citizen of Russia, what could be done to prevent the same sequence of mistakes from repeating? Should we write a cover letter to the caseworker and enclose it with the naturalisation application?
I guess part of your situation in unique - at least as far as the people on this forum go. I will try and answer
A. I think you have to wait. The HMPO compare everything like did in my case. Though the error in my case was my last name repeated twice. They called me up and put my app on hold, then sent back the nat. certificate and now I am on this forum. In case HMPO dont consider that as an error, you will always have a mismatch in your actual birth place vs whats on the passport.
B. Your spouse doesn't need to wait for your passport (as a travel document can not be a requirement for citizenship if one doesn't want to travel). If she is applying as a dependent, then she shd be able to apply the day you do your ceremony . But not sure what will happen when she fills the app, mentions your citizenship date and place of birth in it, some caseworker checks and asks for more documents or puts it on hold. I guess given its taking 2 months minimum, so that shd help you make a decision
C. Yes, I have known cover letters to work with HO overall so definitely do that. You will surely not lose anything if not gain. Though remember if your correction is successful, you could easily refer to it in the cover letter and prevent the mistake. If your application is "in progress" , you still run the risk of having the mistake repeated.
So overall, if you are not dying to travel before summer, then my recommendation is wait for 6-8 weeks for your correction to happen and then do everything else.
