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Hi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
! Keeping my fingers crossed 
for you.Hi Mrsdoc,Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now! Keeping my fingers crossed
for you.
and thanks for your nice wishes.Congratulations Mrsdoc!Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Congratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Hi Hkg1222, thank youHkg1222 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:18 amCongratulations Mrsdoc!Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Can you please share if the letter states any deadline to book a ceremony upon receipt of the letter, and in how many months to attend the ceremony? Many thanks
. 
.Thank you Mcaremcare wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:24 amCongratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Mentioning the ceremony, can I ask you for a favor? Would you please ask the council since when did they have your certificate?
The reason I am asking is that I understand from the council register office that they have all my family certificates since July 22nd, but no letters came.
, I do hope too that I won’t need to wait ages for my final stage and get my ceremony booked soon . The £80 ceremony fee included in the citizenship application fee is for a group ceremony.EniB88 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:58 amGuys, we finally received the famous brown envelopes on Saturday, so only 1 week before our 6-month wait finished. It has the invitation for ceremony at our local council. So I called yesterday to book the ceremony and my jaw dropped. The next free, group ceremony is on 30th October, otherwise we can book a private or a virtual one for next Wednesday, which would each be chargeable at £160. Disgusting. When we paid the ton of money for the citizenship fees, it stated that the fees include the ceremony too, but now using the Covid situation to squeeze even more money out of us. Anyway, we will have no choice but pay for the private one as we urgently need to finish all paperwork, including the passports, as the primary school applications are open from today and I need to do that for our little one... I am so glad that we will soon finish this mad process, it took so much time, effort and money away from our house-savings. Finally, soon we can resume our "lives", our plans to settle properly.
Mrsdoc, have you heard anything back, yet?
Thank you, I am very well aware of that. What is frustrating that the group ceremonies are so far in dates, but when it comes to private paid ceremonies they have super early dates. I am also aware that we do not need to be British to apply for school however, my husband's Indian passport has expired in the meantime and we didn't extend it as he will have to surrender it once the British citizenship ceremony is done. So, he doesn't have a valid passport, and once we do school applications we would then need to change all our details on the application once again, too much headache.CR001 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:06 amThe £80 ceremony fee included in the citizenship application fee is for a group ceremony.EniB88 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:58 amGuys, we finally received the famous brown envelopes on Saturday, so only 1 week before our 6-month wait finished. It has the invitation for ceremony at our local council. So I called yesterday to book the ceremony and my jaw dropped. The next free, group ceremony is on 30th October, otherwise we can book a private or a virtual one for next Wednesday, which would each be chargeable at £160. Disgusting. When we paid the ton of money for the citizenship fees, it stated that the fees include the ceremony too, but now using the Covid situation to squeeze even more money out of us. Anyway, we will have no choice but pay for the private one as we urgently need to finish all paperwork, including the passports, as the primary school applications are open from today and I need to do that for our little one... I am so glad that we will soon finish this mad process, it took so much time, effort and money away from our house-savings. Finally, soon we can resume our "lives", our plans to settle properly.
Mrsdoc, have you heard anything back, yet?
Whether you choose to have a private ceremony is entirely your choice. The fees the council's charge for private ceremonies are set by the individual councils and vary from council to council. The private ceremony fees have absolutely nothing to do with UKVI or your citizenship fees already paid.
Unclear why the urgency for a private ceremony and British passport for primary school orocess as it is not mandatory to be british to attend school and being British doesn't give any advantage in placements.
My 6-month mark was going to be 4th September (applied on 4th March) and only received our approval letters+ceremony invitations on 28th August, last Saturday. I would say you can email them now as well, we have mentioned at least 3 different email addresses on the previous page where they replied to me fairly quickly. Worth a try. Good luck, I hope you get answer soon!camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:56 amI applied for Naturalisation in March so will be hitting the 6 month target for processing this month and have as yet, no decision.
Just wondering how many of us March (or earlier) applicants, like myself, are still waiting?
Will you be chasing/following up the status of your application once you hit the 6 month mark?
I noticed on this forum that some applicants get an email when over 5 months have passed, to say the processing time target of 6 months will not be met….is this type of email the exception or do most/all people who are delayed get this? Does it mean anything if I don’t?
Hopefully, those of us waiting will all get a response soon, but I’m just trying to get an idea of what my next steps should be, if I don’t hear soon and would really like to hear of other’s experiences!
Thanks!
EniB88 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:15 amMy 6-month mark was going to be 4th September (applied on 4th March) and only received our approval letters+ceremony invitations on 28th August, last Saturday. I would say you can email them now as well, we have mentioned at least 3 different email addresses on the previous page where they replied to me fairly quickly. Worth a try. Good luck, I hope you get answer soon!camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:56 amI applied for Naturalisation in March so will be hitting the 6 month target for processing this month and have as yet, no decision.
Just wondering how many of us March (or earlier) applicants, like myself, are still waiting?
Will you be chasing/following up the status of your application once you hit the 6 month mark?
I noticed on this forum that some applicants get an email when over 5 months have passed, to say the processing time target of 6 months will not be met….is this type of email the exception or do most/all people who are delayed get this? Does it mean anything if I don’t?
Hopefully, those of us waiting will all get a response soon, but I’m just trying to get an idea of what my next steps should be, if I don’t hear soon and would really like to hear of other’s experiences!
Thanks!
You aren't doing anything wrong with asking and I do not think emailing them would take time away from processing applications. They have dedicated team members to deal with the email enquiries. They just dont want people to email them because they cannot cope with the current amount of emails as they are really delayed with the applications, due to COVID-19 lockdowns happening on and off. Although they should have a plan of recovery, to be honest. No harm done if you email them. At the end of the day, people pay lot of money and expect some sort of service as an exchange.camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:47 amEniB88 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:15 amMy 6-month mark was going to be 4th September (applied on 4th March) and only received our approval letters+ceremony invitations on 28th August, last Saturday. I would say you can email them now as well, we have mentioned at least 3 different email addresses on the previous page where they replied to me fairly quickly. Worth a try. Good luck, I hope you get answer soon!camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:56 amI applied for Naturalisation in March so will be hitting the 6 month target for processing this month and have as yet, no decision.
Just wondering how many of us March (or earlier) applicants, like myself, are still waiting?
Will you be chasing/following up the status of your application once you hit the 6 month mark?
I noticed on this forum that some applicants get an email when over 5 months have passed, to say the processing time target of 6 months will not be met….is this type of email the exception or do most/all people who are delayed get this? Does it mean anything if I don’t?
Hopefully, those of us waiting will all get a response soon, but I’m just trying to get an idea of what my next steps should be, if I don’t hear soon and would really like to hear of other’s experiences!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for that and congratulations on your approval- it is a long and anxious process and the wait seems so long for many of us.
Looking back through the topic, I have seen the email addresses you noted, but it was my understanding that one should not contact them before the 6 months? I don’t want to do anything “wrong” or indeed take time away from employees trying to process applications, but at the same time I would really like to know the outcome as I have a long-standing booked 1 months travel in October (lost my Mum during COVID last year and we decided not to have a funeral, but a memorial service in October when we thought it would be safe for everyone in the family to travel internationally)
I suppose it may be worth a try soon (I applied 23 March), especially as you say that they actually did reply to you before your 6 month was up.
Anything else I can do?
Hey EniB88! Yes, I received my approval and a ceremony invitation on the 28th of August! All came in the brown envelope. I’ve been quite lucky with my Council too as they called me themselves straight after I left a voicemail to be contacted. I’ve been booked for the 9th of September next Thursday for a group ceremony.EniB88 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:58 amGuys, we finally received the famous brown envelopes on Saturday, so only 1 week before our 6-month wait finished. It has the invitation for ceremony at our local council. So I called yesterday to book the ceremony and my jaw dropped. The next free, group ceremony is on 30th October, otherwise we can book a private or a virtual one for next Wednesday, which would each be chargeable at £160. Disgusting. When we paid the ton of money for the citizenship fees, it stated that the fees include the ceremony too, but now using the Covid situation to squeeze even more money out of us. Anyway, we will have no choice but pay for the private one as we urgently need to finish all paperwork, including the passports, as the primary school applications are open from today and I need to do that for our little one... I am so glad that we will soon finish this mad process, it took so much time, effort and money away from our house-savings. Finally, soon we can resume our "lives", our plans to settle properly.
Mrsdoc, have you heard anything back, yet?
.Yaayy, congratulations!Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:00 pmHey EniB88! Yes, I received my approval and a ceremony invitation on the 28th of August! All came in the brown envelope. I’ve been quite lucky with my Council too as they called me themselves straight after I left a voicemail to be contacted. I’ve been booked for the 9th of September next Thursday for a group ceremony.EniB88 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:58 amGuys, we finally received the famous brown envelopes on Saturday, so only 1 week before our 6-month wait finished. It has the invitation for ceremony at our local council. So I called yesterday to book the ceremony and my jaw dropped. The next free, group ceremony is on 30th October, otherwise we can book a private or a virtual one for next Wednesday, which would each be chargeable at £160. Disgusting. When we paid the ton of money for the citizenship fees, it stated that the fees include the ceremony too, but now using the Covid situation to squeeze even more money out of us. Anyway, we will have no choice but pay for the private one as we urgently need to finish all paperwork, including the passports, as the primary school applications are open from today and I need to do that for our little one... I am so glad that we will soon finish this mad process, it took so much time, effort and money away from our house-savings. Finally, soon we can resume our "lives", our plans to settle properly.
Mrsdoc, have you heard anything back, yet?
It’s been a long wait but I’m glad that at my final stage it’s going smooth enough
our ceremony is on the 8th, but it is a paid, private one as the next group one would be on 30th October. Congratulations once again, hopefully the passports will be quick as well! Fingers crossedThank you so much for your lovely wordsEniB88 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:59 amYaayy, congratulations!Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:00 pmHey EniB88! Yes, I received my approval and a ceremony invitation on the 28th of August! All came in the brown envelope. I’ve been quite lucky with my Council too as they called me themselves straight after I left a voicemail to be contacted. I’ve been booked for the 9th of September next Thursday for a group ceremony.EniB88 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:58 amGuys, we finally received the famous brown envelopes on Saturday, so only 1 week before our 6-month wait finished. It has the invitation for ceremony at our local council. So I called yesterday to book the ceremony and my jaw dropped. The next free, group ceremony is on 30th October, otherwise we can book a private or a virtual one for next Wednesday, which would each be chargeable at £160. Disgusting. When we paid the ton of money for the citizenship fees, it stated that the fees include the ceremony too, but now using the Covid situation to squeeze even more money out of us. Anyway, we will have no choice but pay for the private one as we urgently need to finish all paperwork, including the passports, as the primary school applications are open from today and I need to do that for our little one... I am so glad that we will soon finish this mad process, it took so much time, effort and money away from our house-savings. Finally, soon we can resume our "lives", our plans to settle properly.
Mrsdoc, have you heard anything back, yet?
It’s been a long wait but I’m glad that at my final stage it’s going smooth enough
Finally, it has to you too
! . 
No I don't mean the invitation letter. I meant the naturalisation certificates themselves. The council told me they recieved them, but i never recieved the invitation letter.Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:26 amThank you Mcaremcare wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:24 amCongratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Mentioning the ceremony, can I ask you for a favor? Would you please ask the council since when did they have your certificate?
The reason I am asking is that I understand from the council register office that they have all my family certificates since July 22nd, but no letters came., I do hope too that I won’t need to wait ages for my final stage and get my ceremony booked soon
Yes, of course I’ll ask my council about that although they might not have my certificate yet as in the approval letter states that it could take up to 2 working days for it to be delivered to them. But based on my application being approved on the 20/08/2021, I am hoping that Council should have my documents by now.
And what do you mean all your certificates are already with them but no letters? Apology I may not be fully aware of this scenario. Do you mean invitation letters?
I received my approval & ceremony invitation today by email(one email).EniB88 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:15 pmYou aren't doing anything wrong with asking and I do not think emailing them would take time away from processing applications. They have dedicated team members to deal with the email enquiries. They just dont want people to email them because they cannot cope with the current amount of emails as they are really delayed with the applications, due to COVID-19 lockdowns happening on and off. Although they should have a plan of recovery, to be honest. No harm done if you email them. At the end of the day, people pay lot of money and expect some sort of service as an exchange.camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:47 amEniB88 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:15 amMy 6-month mark was going to be 4th September (applied on 4th March) and only received our approval letters+ceremony invitations on 28th August, last Saturday. I would say you can email them now as well, we have mentioned at least 3 different email addresses on the previous page where they replied to me fairly quickly. Worth a try. Good luck, I hope you get answer soon!camary2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:56 amI applied for Naturalisation in March so will be hitting the 6 month target for processing this month and have as yet, no decision.
Just wondering how many of us March (or earlier) applicants, like myself, are still waiting?
Will you be chasing/following up the status of your application once you hit the 6 month mark?
I noticed on this forum that some applicants get an email when over 5 months have passed, to say the processing time target of 6 months will not be met….is this type of email the exception or do most/all people who are delayed get this? Does it mean anything if I don’t?
Hopefully, those of us waiting will all get a response soon, but I’m just trying to get an idea of what my next steps should be, if I don’t hear soon and would really like to hear of other’s experiences!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for that and congratulations on your approval- it is a long and anxious process and the wait seems so long for many of us.
Looking back through the topic, I have seen the email addresses you noted, but it was my understanding that one should not contact them before the 6 months? I don’t want to do anything “wrong” or indeed take time away from employees trying to process applications, but at the same time I would really like to know the outcome as I have a long-standing booked 1 months travel in October (lost my Mum during COVID last year and we decided not to have a funeral, but a memorial service in October when we thought it would be safe for everyone in the family to travel internationally)
I suppose it may be worth a try soon (I applied 23 March), especially as you say that they actually did reply to you before your 6 month was up.
Anything else I can do?
Oh I see. The Council called me back late in the afternoon last Tuesday after I tried all morning to call them. Anyway, a lady from the registration office told me that my certificate was already with them and based on the time my application was approved and the letter been delivered to me it must’ve been around a week since they’ve had my certificate. And she did ask for an invitation letter in order to attend a ceremony and luckily I’ve received it the same time with my approval. But what I’ve noticed with a lot of February applications is that they tend to have approval and invitation in the same letter.mcare wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 6:12 amNo I don't mean the invitation letter. I meant the naturalisation certificates themselves. The council told me they recieved them, but i never recieved the invitation letter.Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:26 amThank you Mcaremcare wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:24 amCongratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Mentioning the ceremony, can I ask you for a favor? Would you please ask the council since when did they have your certificate?
The reason I am asking is that I understand from the council register office that they have all my family certificates since July 22nd, but no letters came.
Yes, of course I’ll ask my council about that although they might not have my certificate yet as in the approval letter states that it could take up to 2 working days for it to be delivered to them. But based on my application being approved on the 20/08/2021, I am hoping that Council should have my documents by now.
And what do you mean all your certificates are already with them but no letters? Apology I may not be fully aware of this scenario. Do you mean invitation letters?
I was wondering if it is a common situation for February applicants, hence came my previous question. But apparently it is not.
Good luck with the rest of your process
?I am glad you had both in the same letter. I hope you have your ceremony very soonMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:40 pmOh I see. The Council called me back late in the afternoon last Tuesday after I tried all morning to call them. Anyway, a lady from the registration office told me that my certificate was already with them and based on the time my application was approved and the letter been delivered to me it must’ve been around a week since they’ve had my certificate. And she did ask for an invitation letter in order to attend a ceremony and luckily I’ve received it the same time with my approval. But what I’ve noticed with a lot of February applications is that they tend to have approval and invitation in the same letter.mcare wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 6:12 amNo I don't mean the invitation letter. I meant the naturalisation certificates themselves. The council told me they recieved them, but i never recieved the invitation letter.Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:26 amThank you Mcaremcare wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:24 amCongratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 amHi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Mentioning the ceremony, can I ask you for a favor? Would you please ask the council since when did they have your certificate?
The reason I am asking is that I understand from the council register office that they have all my family certificates since July 22nd, but no letters came.
Yes, of course I’ll ask my council about that although they might not have my certificate yet as in the approval letter states that it could take up to 2 working days for it to be delivered to them. But based on my application being approved on the 20/08/2021, I am hoping that Council should have my documents by now.
And what do you mean all your certificates are already with them but no letters? Apology I may not be fully aware of this scenario. Do you mean invitation letters?
I was wondering if it is a common situation for February applicants, hence came my previous question. But apparently it is not.
Good luck with the rest of your process
Still no joy with your invitations letters?
Thank you mcare, yes I’ve got a group ceremony scheduled for the 9th of September this Thursday.mcare wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 6:08 pmI am glad you had both in the same letter. I hope you have your ceremony very soonMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:40 pmOh I see. The Council called me back late in the afternoon last Tuesday after I tried all morning to call them. Anyway, a lady from the registration office told me that my certificate was already with them and based on the time my application was approved and the letter been delivered to me it must’ve been around a week since they’ve had my certificate. And she did ask for an invitation letter in order to attend a ceremony and luckily I’ve received it the same time with my approval. But what I’ve noticed with a lot of February applications is that they tend to have approval and invitation in the same letter.mcare wrote: ↑Sun Sep 05, 2021 6:12 amNo I don't mean the invitation letter. I meant the naturalisation certificates themselves. The council told me they recieved them, but i never recieved the invitation letter.Mrsdoc wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:26 amThank you Mcaremcare wrote: ↑Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:24 amCongratulations Mrsdoc. Hopefully you be more lucky with the ceremony and passport processesMrsdoc wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 9:09 am
Hi Echinol, I just want to let you know that I received my approval this morning along with invitation letter and I honestly believe yours won’t take long either. I see all February applicants having their turn one by one now
Mentioning the ceremony, can I ask you for a favor? Would you please ask the council since when did they have your certificate?
The reason I am asking is that I understand from the council register office that they have all my family certificates since July 22nd, but no letters came.
Yes, of course I’ll ask my council about that although they might not have my certificate yet as in the approval letter states that it could take up to 2 working days for it to be delivered to them. But based on my application being approved on the 20/08/2021, I am hoping that Council should have my documents by now.
And what do you mean all your certificates are already with them but no letters? Apology I may not be fully aware of this scenario. Do you mean invitation letters?
I was wondering if it is a common situation for February applicants, hence came my previous question. But apparently it is not.
Good luck with the rest of your process
Still no joy with your invitations letters
For your question, Yes. No letters nor emails. Interesting enough, the council lady told me they had the certificates since the last week in July. I already emailed all home office emails on August 14th, but got nothing back except the auto response...
I will wait till the 14th of september, then ask the MP for help if nothing comes by then.
Let me know if you have any better idea.
with this whole waiting situation. Yes, I think you have to ask your MP for help even at this stage as you’ve been waiting long enough, personally I’d do that if I were you. Don’t forget MPs have got some sort of facility to contact HO directly so give it a try.Sorry I can’t even think of any other solutions for you. 
