workingmama wrote:I am a British Citizen born and bred however my husband has applied for his naturalisation and I am actually quite amazed at the way they seem to process applications, it does not appear to be in a specific order such as being dealt with from date recieved.
I also work for a government department so I am also astounded at the lack of information that applicants are able to get about where their application stands. Considering its not a free service, applicants should be able to get updates.
The timeline they give of 6 months is normally put in place to cover periods where they are inundated with applications so you know the maximum length of time that it could take during busy times.
However when I see applicants for example who applied in January like my husband, with a straighforward case not hearing anything, when applicants in Feb have already been approved, it makes me wonder if when new applications come in they just get put ontop of whatever the caseworker already has, thus the application gets left behind so to speak.
If this is so I am amazed this is allowed to happen.
I plan to contact our local MP (who I deal with anyway in my own line of work) to ask her why the application for naturalisation is so hit and miss in regards to approval times. Why do some wait months and others get passed within a month. Why cant applicants get updates and why is the information given so incorrect at times.
I understand that being able to gain British Citizenship is an honor but considering the large fee of over £800 you would think applicants had the right to a slightly better service and not feel like a pest for phoning up when they see applicants who applied way after them being approved while they still wait and they want to know if some more info is needed.
Good luck to those who have been waiting a long time, it must be very stressful.
I agree with you on that the applicants deserve to know what is going on with their applications.
However, I believe the reason for the varying of wait times and the general mess that is UKBA is down to lack of staff to deal with all the applications.
If we take the applications made last year (2011) which was 205,210. And since 6 days in the week are 'post days', if we estimate that there are 312 (6 days x 52 weeks) of these post days, then on average the UKBA receive around 658 applications per day (205,210/312).
This is a staggering amount by any means and I am sure that they are understaffed. As a result, the sole reason why applications that are similar are being dealt with on a different time scale could be quite simply that officers are putting case files in different orders in a pile!
I think that for the amount that the applicants are paying, it is very bad value for money (service wise), and requires immediate investigation. Although being granted citizenship is a honour not a right, it is a right for the applicant for his/her application to be treated in a transparent, fair, timely manner.
I think we will all be really grateful if you could share with us your MP's response. Thanks.
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I sent my application via NCS early January until now I haven't receive the approval letter. I got so many things planned and need to travel abroad for couple of months but the application is holding me back. 
