Naturalisation and Passport Pilot Scheme

legend786 wrote:Hi guys,
C
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

I've seen a few pilot scheme approvals on his forum since your initial post (including mine), but I think you may be the only one who has already attended the ceremony - so would be in the position to receive your passport. Was just wondering whether you've either already received your passport or whether you've heard anything else from the passport office since your last update above.

cs95tdg wrote:

legend786 wrote:Hi guys,
C
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

I've seen a few pilot scheme approvals on his forum since your initial post (including mine), but I think you may be the only one who has already attended the ceremony - so would be in the position to receive your passport. Was just wondering whether you've either already received your passport or whether you've heard anything else from the passport office since your last update above.

Hi Guys,

Spoke with lady on friday as she advised my passport has been sent for printing and should be with me in coming week so finger crossed. More importantly here i had to send my other nationality passport
with naturalized certificate for verification purposes plus £3 postal order in order to get these documents back in secure delivery by royal mail because british passport will be delivered by DX courier. If everybody remembers when applying your british passport at later stage once citizenship is approved then post office do offer check & send service which allows PO to send your other nationality documents in secure delivery but in my case and as well as regarding others cases, at the point of applying citizenship, paid passport fee but didn't pay any extra for secure delivery to get documents back otherwise it'll be sent in 2nd class post by royal mail and chances are, to lose documents in post so be careful at this stage of you case

Hyde

legend786 wrote:More importantly here i had to send my other nationality passport
with naturalized certificate for verification purposes plus £3 postal order in order to get these documents back in secure delivery by royal mail because british passport will be delivered by DX courier. If everybody remembers when applying your british passport at later stage once citizenship is approved then post office do offer check & send service which allows PO to send your other nationality documents in secure delivery but in my case and as well as regarding others cases, at the point of applying citizenship, paid passport fee but didn't pay any extra for secure delivery to get documents back otherwise it'll be sent in 2nd class post by royal mail and chances are, to lose documents in post so be careful at this stage of you case.

Thanks for sharing that. It appears that in this particular instance, the only advantage of using the pilot scheme is that you didn't have to attend an interview (& possibly a slightly quicker AN application processing time based on current timelines). From a cost perspective you had to pay the £10 fee to the NCS for checking the passport application and sending it off. But now on top of that you've had to incur an additional cost & slight inconvenience to send the supporting documents separately - this would have ordinarily be covered as part of the normal fee if the standard post office check and send service had been used. It's like a two step passport application process, that you've had to go through.

As for the fee for returning the supporting documents, I remember asking the NCS advisor whether I would need to select the additional payment option for this on the form, but she said that as no original documents would need to be sent, there would be no supporting documents to return - hence I was advised to leave the option unchecked.

Will watch this space to see how other pilot scheme applicants fare, over the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping the process is streamlined (with certified copies of documents being passed from the home office to the passport office directly) over the coming weeks/months, so that the passport is directly sent after the ceremony, rather than having to send supporting documents again.

Congratulations cs95tdg for a super quick approval. It is unforunate to note legend786's experience of having to send the docs again and I sure hope that it gets streamlined so that there is no need for us sending docs. I was actually under the impression that HO will have a separate office producing passports for such applicants as ourselves, but doesn't look like it.

Please keep us posted of updates.

Thanks. I hope so too, as I'd rather not have to send supporting documents out in the post. I've just seen another pilot scheme applicant who has attended their ceremony last week, who was told that the passport will be sent directly within the next 4 weeks. Lets see what happens.

I've also attempted to track my passport application through the HMPO website to see if it's in the system. No response yet, but suspect that's because it's the weekend.

I think passport office will ask original foreign passport even from pilot scheme users as in other thread one member confirm that.

Apparently my council has received my citizenship certificate so looks like an approval is on its way. I am banking on your experience to work out the best way. Hopefully don't have to send any docs to HO again.

That's great news fielddrive! Yours was certainly a super quick approval! I take it that you received your citizenship ceremony invitation letter from the council before the HO approval letter? Let's hope we all have our passports processed in a similar efficient manner.

I received an automated response on my passport application tracking request stating that my enquiry has been sent onto the passport office, & that I should hear from them within 3 working days. Will see what they come back with.

Thanks, cs95tdg I received my approval letter today as well. Date of decision 2/1/16 which means the decision took less than a month. Very excited and looking forward to the ceremony next week.

fielddrive wrote:Thanks, cs95tdg I received my approval letter today as well. Date of decision 2/1/16 which means the decision took less than a month. Very excited and looking forward to the ceremony next week.

Thats great news fielddrive as my wife applied on the same day as you through wandsworth council. Did you call council to check if they have recieved the certificate ? and what time in the post did you receive your approval today ?

Thanks

Hi FieldDrive,

That was a fantastic and surprising time line ,( considering the Christmas and new year holidays ) Biometrics on 16/12 and approval on 02/01 , 17 days in between your time line was absolutely amazing .

Seems HO was working hard in the Christmas & New Year time . As I will be applying for AN next week , will be watching this space and Dec/Jan timelines .

Can you please give a quick brief of your application ( Any issues you resolved , hurdles , PCN's/NIP's or convictions ) so that we can get help from you .

Regards,
Narsii

solospy wrote:
Thats great news fielddrive as my wife applied on the same day as you through wandsworth council. Did you call council to check if they have recieved the certificate ? and what time in the post did you receive your approval today ?

Thanks

Thanks solospy, I find Wandsworth council are great with the way they deal with things. I have recommended 3 other people and they have also had good experiences. Yes, council has received the certificate and I got the certificate in a brown envelope second class.

narsii wrote:Hi FieldDrive,

That was a fantastic and surprising time line ,( considering the Christmas and new year holidays ) Biometrics on 16/12 and approval on 02/01 , 17 days in between your time line was absolutely amazing .

Seems HO was working hard in the Christmas & New Year time . As I will be applying for AN next week , will be watching this space and Dec/Jan timelines .

Can you please give a quick brief of your application ( Any issues you resolved , hurdles , PCN's/NIP's or convictions ) so that we can get help from you .

Regards,
Narsii

Thanks Narsii I too feel it is a fantastic time line (I wasn't expecting it this quick) but I do think they have a separate team working with joint applications from the others.

I have never had any issues, tickets, penalties etc, but I do hold a perm resident card from another western country. for ref:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 92720.html

Few of mine familiar ones too used Wandsworth who were given the pilot scheme option but they didn't use but it was before when no one of us knows that HO will unofficially process faster the pilot scheme users than others. As there is no guidance and it won't last long because everyone will start using it from now

fielddrive wrote:Thanks, cs95tdg I received my approval letter today as well. Date of decision 2/1/16 which means the decision took less than a month. Very excited and looking forward to the ceremony next week.

Yes, that was extremely quick. Do keep us updated on the passport process if you find out anything new once you've attended the ceremony as well.

by legend786 » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:31 pm

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

Here is my timeline, I just wondering if some have used this new pilot scheme and have receive passport? If do so how long it took after ceremony?Both Naturalisation & Passport Application together

Eligibility criteria : 3 Years spouse of BC
Language criteria met : LIUK + Cambridge KET B1 was valid until 5th Nov
Nationality : Pakistani
Method of application : NCS Kent Bexly
Date of application for Naturalisation & Passport : 30-10-15
Payment method : Debit Card
Date of receipt by UKBA : 02-11-15
Date of acknowledgement via letter & requesting biometrics : Received a letter on 07-11-15 Dated: 04-11-15
Date of fees debited from the account for Naturalisation : 04-11-15
Date of fees debited from the account for Passport : 09-11-15

Biometrics done : 09-11-15
Date of approval : 05-01-2015 received letter 13-01-2016
Date of ceremony : Called today for booking ceremony but did not succeeded as Registrar line was busy.
Date passports received : waiting

I will surely update mine too.I will be grateful for any advice too. Thanks a lot

The only post I've seen is by legend786 under the passport timeline topic. Passport received on Jan 11th 2016.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1291295

Hey cs95tdg

Booked ceremony today for the 20th as well. I guess we will both go through the pilot passport process on exactly the same times. I have not queried my application but did you get a reply back?

Good morning All

I just updated the October timeline and wanted you to know that following my update below, my husband got a text from the passport office today advising that his passport should arrive within the next few days. This was just as Brent advised. So it seems the service is working as it is supposed to. Will update once passport is in hand but certainly good news

Cheers


[quote="suzym79"]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.[/quote]

fielddrive wrote:Hey cs95tdg

Booked ceremony today for the 20th as well. I guess we will both go through the pilot passport process on exactly the same times. I have not queried my application but did you get a reply back?

Yes fielddrive, it appears we will, as approval and ceremony dates are the same. Overall it took approximately 6 weeks for approval and it should hopefully all be done in 8-10 weeks. I didn't receive a response back and it's now been 3 working days. I've decided that I'm not going to bother following up on that until after I attend the ceremony, as HMPO will not do anything with my application until that anyway.

It appears we have one applicant who applied through Brent council, who has attended the ceremony on January 9th and now also received a text message informing them that their passport should be on the way. So definitely positive news. http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1292007

Thanks for that update. It's certainly positive news! Now we all have an idea of what to expect, when it comes to the passport application aspect of the combined pilot scheme.

Thanks for the update.. looks promising then

Thanks to Allah finally I got approval letter. I wish best of luck to all my fellows who are waiting, I really understand what does this waiting mean. I pray for everyone they they their get approval soon.
And thanks a lot seniors & friends who helped during this citizenship journey, what a wonderful place to share experience and learn updates:
Here is timeline is as follow

Both Naturalisation & Passport Application together

Eligibility criteria : 3 Years spouse of BC
Language criteria met : LIUK + Cambridge KET B1 was valid until 5th Nov
Nationality : Pakistani
Method of application : NCS Kent Bexly
Date of application for Naturalisation & Passport : 30-10-15
Payment method : Debit Card
Date of receipt by UKBA : 02-11-15
Date of acknowledgement via letter & requesting biometrics : Received a letter on 07-11-15 Dated: 04-11-15
Date of fees debited from the account for Naturalisation : 04-11-15
Date of fees debited from the account for Passport : 09-11-15

Biometrics done : 09-11-15
Date of approval : 05-01-2015 received letter 13-01-2016
Date of ceremony : Booked today private
Date passports received : waiting

I spoke to Passport today, first lady could not find my application took my number, and later I received the call from Passport Adviser, She said there is no application. I explained her in details, then finally she took all my details and checked it. Finally she said there is application and my passport in Printing process, will get update next week. I even told her that I booked my ceremony today, Shall I send my Certificate or passport. She said we do not not need any further documents all checks have done, Passport in printing process. She was quite positive. But it confuse me after reading (legend 786), that he did sent his certificate along with passport and bank draft for secure delivery post. Any advice got confuse here..Thanks in advance.....

London_king wrote:She was quite positive. But it confuse me after reading (legend 786), that he did sent his certificate along with passport and bank draft for secure delivery post. Any advice got confuse here..Thanks in advance.....

Congratulations on your approval! I wouldn't worry, as the passport office has given you confirmation that they are processing your passport. legend786's case appears to have been different; I suspect because he was one of the first who applied through the pilot scheme, and the communication channel between the HO and HMPO were probably not in place during the early stages. Let us know when you receive your passport so that we can get a clear view of the pilot scheme passport delivery timelines are like.

thats a great update London_king, what number did you call to get all this info about passports?

fielddrive, the automated reply I received for my online passport application tracking request did have a contact number to use if I wanted to get a quicker update. It's 0300 222 0000 - Customer Advice Line