Naturalisation Certificate - Expiry

Hello,

I was scheduled to attend the UK Citizenship Ceremony earlier this year (2021) but due to the UK lockdown, this ceremony did not go ahead. I had to then travel out of the UK owing to a death in the family and unfortunately managed to contract Covid along the way - I haven't been able to travel back to the UK as yet.

I've kept the citizenship registrar appraised of my situation, I have now received a note from them that says that my naturalisation certificate would expire on the 1st of July and that I had to attend the ceremony prior to this date.

I will definitely try my best to travel back to the UK in time but wanted to check if anyone had faced something similar? I had assumed that once your application for naturalisation had been approved, it was in perpetuity and had no expiry date. Does anyone know if I would have to apply for naturalisation once again if the certificate does expire?

Thanks
A

Your approval does not infer any particular status to you. It is merely an approval letter, nothing more than that.

You are only British once you have attended your ceremony and there has always been a time limit by when you have to do that (3 months pre covid and 6 months during covid).

If your certificate is sent back to UKVI for failing to attend the ceremony, you would have to start the whole naturalisation process again from scratch, meeting all the requirements and paying the fee again.

Thanks a lot for the quick response @CR001. Understood, that makes sense.

I hope I am able to travel in time without any obstacles, its been an eventual few months.. fingers crossed.