Naturalisation and Passport Pilot Scheme

I have received my approval letter today. (yayy!)

BUT in the letter, it says 'Please be aware that you need to apply directly through the passport office for a British passport'

I have to admit I am a little bit irritated to hear that ....I am going to call Passport Office tomorrow to enquire.

congrats.. thats super quick...

it does say that you have to attend a ceremony (have you booked one yet?) before the passport will be relesaed to you.

sirina wrote:I have received my approval letter today. (yayy!)

BUT in the letter, it says 'Please be aware that you need to apply directly through the passport office for a British passport'

I have to admit I am a little bit irritated to hear that ....I am going to call Passport Office tomorrow to enquire.

That's great news, congrats! Good to see the initial pilot scheme applicants getting their approval letters. So far it appears to be around 2 months from the time biometrics are submitted.

Do let us know the next steps once you speak to them about your passport application.

fielddrive wrote:congrats.. thats super quick...

it does say that you have to attend a ceremony (have you booked one yet?) before the passport will be relesaed to you.

fielddrive, I know! I am still amazed at how quick mine got approved! I have not yet booked a ceremony as I am still waiting for an invitation from my local council. I'm away now for 2 and a half weeks so I'll need to do it when I get back.

cs95tdg wrote:

sirina wrote:I have received my approval letter today. (yayy!)

BUT in the letter, it says 'Please be aware that you need to apply directly through the passport office for a British passport'

I have to admit I am a little bit irritated to hear that ....I am going to call Passport Office tomorrow to enquire.

That's great news, congrats! Good to see the initial pilot scheme applicants getting their approval letters. So far it appears to be around 2 months from the time biometrics are submitted.

Do let us know the next steps once you speak to them about your passport application.

cs95tdg, I rang the passport office this morning. I spoke to a helpful gentleman who advised about my new barcode number. He made it clear to me that I MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT need to attend the passport interview as there currently isn't a clear guidelines. He told me my passport application is going through the examination process. It will be up to the examiner to decide whether or not I need an interview and whether or not my passport will be in the post as soon as I have attended a ceremony. Again, the examiner will decide what date my passport will be issue. Looks like I'm going through another waiting game but at least I'm more than half way there! He gave me direct number for customer contact centre - this number will bypass the main advice line, FYI 0300 123 1973.

sirina wrote:
fielddrive, I know! I am still amazed at how quick mine got approved! I have not yet booked a ceremony as I am still waiting for an invitation from my local council. I'm away now for 2 and a half weeks so I'll need to do it when I get back.

cs95tdg, I rang the passport office this morning. I spoke to a helpful gentleman who advised about my new barcode number. He made it clear to me that I MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT need to attend the passport interview as there currently isn't a clear guidelines. He told me my passport application is going through the examination process. It will be up to the examiner to decide whether or not I need an interview and whether or not my passport will be in the post as soon as I have attended a ceremony. Again, the examiner will decide what date my passport will be issue. Looks like I'm going through another waiting game but at least I'm more than half way there! He gave me direct number for customer contact centre - this number will bypass the main advice line, FYI 0300 123 1973.

Thats quite some positive news. Hopefully most issues should be ironed out once the this pilot prog has been running for a few weeks/months. Keep us posted and happy holidays / christmas / travels

sirina wrote: cs95tdg, I rang the passport office this morning. I spoke to a helpful gentleman who advised about my new barcode number. He made it clear to me that I MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT need to attend the passport interview as there currently isn't a clear guidelines. He told me my passport application is going through the examination process. It will be up to the examiner to decide whether or not I need an interview and whether or not my passport will be in the post as soon as I have attended a ceremony. Again, the examiner will decide what date my passport will be issue. Looks like I'm going through another waiting game but at least I'm more than half way there! He gave me direct number for customer contact centre - this number will bypass the main advice line, FYI <a href="tel:0300 123 1973">0300 123 1973</a>.

That's certainly positive news! Looks like we are making progress & heading in the right direction, with the advise you were given. It's definitely better than the response legend786 received. Let's hope the guidelines get clearer along the way and we all get to experience what was intended as part of this pilot scheme. I'll be watching this space again in the new year to see how you get on.

Your approval couldn't have been timed any better - just before Christmas. Enjoy the holidays!

Things will settle in due course... however... I do not expect to hear much in the next week or two for obvious reasons!

It gon be quiieeettt

Enjoy your holidays!

Hi guys,

Here is latest on my passport app,

Spoke with lady (Passport advisor) directly after the guy over the phone directed me to her and she claimed she was my personal passport advisor, anyway I asked her about my application's progress, she replied as "I have applied through pilot scheme that's why I no need to attend interview, passport will come in post directly as soon as they finish examining my application" so that's how it is, at least they recognising it but let's see how it goes then i'll update accordingly

Hyde

Panic over... lets get back to our lives ... lol

But seriously legend786, thanks for the update what a relief to know that... all the best and keep us posted

Yes, that's great news! Thanks for sharing the latest update.

The joint citizenship and passport applicants seem to be getting their approvals very quickly.

fielddrive wrote:The joint citizenship and passport applicants seem to be getting their approvals very quickly.

Yes, they do appear be, based on the latest timeline updates on the forum. The first one in the November timeline appears to have only taken a month from the time biometrics were submitted. Will be interesting to see what the norm is once more approvals come through.

From the timelines in other threads it appears that applications for joint passport and naturalisation are getting processed more quickly than the stand alone naturalisation applications. If that's the case it seems a bit unfair that the service is only available in certain local authorities. I applied for naturalisation in early December and they haven't even taken the money from my account yet, while others who applied a couple of weeks after me, but for a passport as well, have already been through biometrics.

It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme.

cs95tdg wrote:

fielddrive wrote:The joint citizenship and passport applicants seem to be getting their approvals very quickly.

Yes, they do appear be, based on the latest timeline updates on the forum. The first one in the November timeline appears to have only taken a month from the time biometrics were submitted. Will be interesting to see what the norm is once more approvals come through.

It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme

seagul wrote:It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme.

I'm not sure about the overall processing time, but if you look at the December processing times thread it's very clear that people who apply for both naturalisation and passport together are progressing through the initial stages more quickly.

seagul wrote: It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme

I don't understand what you mean but I believe we are just observing a trend. No one is suggesting that joint applications are guaranteed to get approval sooner or later than regular ones. It comes down to personal choice and personally I would have chosen this scheme for its convenience even if it took a little longer.

Perhaps your choice of words is wrong and you want to mean something else?

fielddrive wrote:

seagul wrote: It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme

Perhaps your choice of words is wrong and you want to mean something else?

No mate its you taking it wrong and I pray that your desire may fulfill. What I mean that if we see the trend then a lot applicants without pilot scheme got success more rapidly almost 2 Months - 2.5 months. It's just depend on each caseworker and its load of work and it's own efficiency. I am not discouraging you or intervenening your desire rather just telling you that it's superstition based on short term trend which is absolutely variable.

I agree that it's certainly too short a time to get a realistic view of whether the overall pilot scheme process is more efficient than the standard NCS process. As fielddrive too has mentioned I too was just making a cursory observation based on the timelines so far. I do realise that there are those who applied using the normal NCS service and had there applications processed quickly as well. Given that not many would have used the pilot scheme (as its not widely available), and that not everyone would have the same immigration history it would anyway be impossible to compare. The initiate steps up until receiving the biometric letter, do appear consistently quicker, if you look at the September, October, November & December timeline threads.

It's a just a general sense from seeing/reading the timelines & experiences on this forum. I too only chose the pilot scheme as I felt it was more convenient for me personally, and not because I thought it would be any quicker.

anniecc wrote:

seagul wrote:It's all self made superstition that naturalization & passport application together make the process more quickly because ukba, council where ceremony takes and passport office all three are different entities although they are interconnected. Even I will not suggest new pilot scheme because it process involves several errors and staff unfamiliarity about this new scheme.

I'm not sure about the overall processing time, but if you look at the December processing times thread it's very clear that people who apply for both naturalisation and passport together are progressing through the initial stages more quickly.

I am not sure if this will be of any consolation. but I see your point. As am one of the first few who applied in the first week of Dec. I applied for both Nat and Passpt through NCS- Cheltenham (Gloucestershire) on the 2/12, on the 4/12 money for Naturalisation was taken, then I did my Biometrics on the 6th or 9th/12 and passpt money was taken out my account on the 8/12.
So am now just waiting for the outcome, coz everything has been done!

Hello
My husband applied Oct 23rd through this new scheme and got his approval on the 18th Dec. We only received the letter when we got back from holiday on 1st Jan. Today he did a private ceremony and was told his passport will follow automatically within 4 weeks. Will let you know if this is indeed the case.

Just an information from pilot scheme users that whether the original foreign passport the NCS staff send with naturalization & passport application or just photocopy??

seagul wrote:Just an information from pilot scheme users that whether the original foreign passport the NCS staff send with naturalization & passport application or just photocopy??

All original supporting documents (other than the LITUK Test result sheet) including passport & BRP are returned to you, same as if you were using the NCS service alone. They send certified copies (to the Home office) with your application form(s).

cs95tdg wrote:

seagul wrote:Just an information from pilot scheme users that whether the original foreign passport the NCS staff send with naturalization & passport application or just photocopy??

All original supporting documents (other than the LITUK Test result sheet) including passport & BRP are returned to you, same as if you were using the NCS service alone. They send certified copies (to the Home office) with your application form(s).

Thanks for your reply. Does it also means that by this pilot scheme the applicant even not need to send original foreign passport to passport office to get British passport which normally need to send if applying later after naturalization ceremony through post office click n send service??

seagul wrote: Does it also means that by this pilot scheme the applicant even not need to send original foreign passport to passport office to get British passport which normally need to send if applying later after naturalization ceremony through post office click n send service??

Yes, that's correct. Unless the passport office request it at a later stage for verification (if they have any questions), what I've been advised by the council is that the originals are not required. I've not seen any pilot scheme applicants who've received their passport yet, so would be best to see what happens in practice. I should find out towards the end of this month once I attend the ceremony, and will post what happens then.