New citizenship form UKF

Yes from the UK Birmingham

Congrats to everyone scooting through!

It's nice to see some movement happening. Even Antsmall was able to finally do biometrics. I personally have no news to offer, though am hoping (like most, I'm sure) that this latest flurry of activity means the backlog is being sorted out. That said, looking over a few of the timelines, I still can't sense any rhyme or reason to things. uk_applicant shot through from November till now. I think JJL applied only about a week before me in late Sept, but did their biometrics about 5 weeks before me and already has their decision. Moreover, SK413 only applied in late October, nearly a month after me (and JJL), did their biometrics a month sooner, and got their decision on the same day as JJL. Sooooo... it's hard to make heads or tails of any of it. Even though I certainly haven't had the ordeal (yet) of some of the longer-waiting applicants, it does feel like such a blind, unaccountable (they've still got some of my documents), and helpless process. I've got no idea whether something's wrong, everything is fine, I might expect news soon, nor whether it'll be months more... and the fact the process itself (on their end) is a mystery doesn't help much. Aren't they just ticking boxes? What more is there to it?

Anyone have any insight to what their actual internal process is? And for those who have been successful- is there anything beyond just sending your app in the mail that you did, which you felt might have helped? (emails, consulate, litigator, etc). Just out of curiousity.

I guess the people I'll be watching closest are bfrenchfry and NJprofessor. Bfrench did their biometrics a week before me in Toronto, and NJ did theirs on the same day in December. Hopefully considering a few November biometrics people have gone through means we'll expect to hear something soon. But obviously, it's a bit of a crap shoot.

btw, I'm by no means worked up about any of this (it isn't meant to sound like a rant). I'm more thinking aloud. I just figure others might be thinking the same, or might have some insight.

Cheerio, fingers crossed all around. Congrats again to those making it through!

Hi to all.
Just an update.
It will be 6 weeks since I got my letter stating my application was successful. Still waiting on the letter of invitation to attend Citizenship ceremony. I went to the British embassy to ask a question. The lady there said that the letter of invitation and the citizenship certificate both are sent by HO to the embassy and till now they haven't received anything from HO yet.
The letter I received states that if I haven't received invitation letter in six weeks then e-mail them so first thing Monday morning I wil be e-mailing them.
Has any of the overseas applicants had to wait the full 6 weeks for invitation letter? I Would appreciate hearing your experience.

Cheers

Hi All

Just a quick update

I have recieved a letter in post it states the date of my ceremonal - which is the end of this month.

All the best guys

Take care

So I have some good news! I received my approval letter this past weekend. Woohoo!
It was dated 27th January, which is two days short of the 6 month mark.

The Citizenship ceremony invitation should arrive within 2 weeks.

I applied from within the UK, and I'm from Nigeria. No MP or lawyers involved.

lagos1980 wrote:So I have some good news! I received my approval letter this past weekend. Woohoo!
It was dated 27th January, which is two days short of the 6 month mark.

The Citizenship ceremony invitation should arrive within 2 weeks.

I applied from within the UK, and I'm from Nigeria. No MP or lawyers involved.

Congrats to you and the others! I wish those of us outside of the UK would have some luck but happy for you nonetheless! Can you list your timeline so we have an idea of when you did biometrics? I'm at 9.5 months of waiting, and 2 months since biometrics so I'm just curious. Thanks!

lagos1980 wrote:So I have some good news! I received my approval letter this past weekend. Woohoo!
It was dated 27th January, which is two days short of the 6 month mark.

The Citizenship ceremony invitation should arrive within 2 weeks.

I applied from within the UK, and I'm from Nigeria. No MP or lawyers involved.

Congrats lagos1980, am from Nigeria too, but i applied from outside. am now 6days short of 6months..your successes gives us still waiting hope

bfrenchfry wrote:

lagos1980 wrote:So I have some good news! I received my approval letter this past weekend. Woohoo!
It was dated 27th January, which is two days short of the 6 month mark.

The Citizenship ceremony invitation should arrive within 2 weeks.

I applied from within the UK, and I'm from Nigeria. No MP or lawyers involved.

Congrats to you and the others! I wish those of us outside of the UK would have some luck but happy for you nonetheless! Can you list your timeline so we have an idea of when you did biometrics? I'm at 9.5 months of waiting, and 2 months since biometrics so I'm just curious. Thanks!

Thanks guys!
I sent off my application on the 28th of july. It was received by the Home Office on the 29th of July. Ceremony fee deducted 12th August. Biometrics done 13th August.

Hey guys,

just received a letter from home office saying my application "raises exceptionally complex issues", so it will take more than 6 months to be processed!!?? I read it is not uncommon, but I am worried and can't understand which complex issues my application raises.

My father was British from birth and also his parents. He died some years ago in Brazil, he had a permanent visa. My mother is Brazilian. They were not married. I applied for British citizenship some years ago, but it was refused due my dad "domicile of choice". Although I have no idea what it means, they said it could be solved if they was married.

So I guess I am the case of UKF, no?

When I got this letter, I got really nervous and afraid of being rejected again. =(

Should I worry? Should I hire a lawyer? Anyone in same situation? More important: did anyone get this letter and was approved as a BC in the end?

I am applying from Brazil.

With this letter, I got the biometrics letter. No acknoledgement e-mail.

My timeline is the following:

Country: Brazil
Application arrived Liverpool: 12/1/16
Ceremony fee debited: 14/1/16
Received biometrics letter: 2/2/16 (date 22/1/16)
Received exceptionally complex issues letter: 2/2/16 (date 22/1/16)

Cheers!

bright_star wrote:Hey guys,

just received a letter from home office saying my application "raises exceptionally complex issues", so it will take more than 6 months to be processed!!?? I read it is not uncommon, but I am worried and can't understand which complex issues my application raises.

My father was British from birth and also his parents. He died some years ago in Brazil, he had a permanent visa. My mother is Brazilian. They were not married. I applied for British citizenship some years ago, but it was refused due my dad "domicile of choice". Although I have no idea what it means, they said it could be solved if they was married.

So I guess I am the case of UKF, no?

When I got this letter, I got really nervous and afraid of being rejected again. =(

Should I worry? Should I hire a lawyer? Anyone in same situation? More important: did anyone get this letter and was approved as a BC in the end?

I am applying from Brazil.

With this letter, I got the biometrics letter. No acknoledgement e-mail.

My timeline is the following:

Country: Brazil
Application arrived Liverpool: 12/1/16
Ceremony fee debited: 14/1/16
Received biometrics letter: 2/2/16 (date 22/1/16)
Received exceptionally complex issues letter: 2/2/16 (date 22/1/16)

Cheers!

If you get close to the 6 month window they automatically send that letter to everyone to buy themselves more time. I even think they come from an office that has no clue about your application status because many people get them, and then get their acceptance dated before the complex issues letter.
And yes, you're UKF if your parents weren't married and your father was born in the UK. Sadly those of us applying for it from outside the UK are just waiting a long time for answers

Yes, quite a few people have received these frightening "exceptional issues" letters when there weren't any exceptional issues at all. It seems that first of all these people use form letters even when those letters don't really fit the situation at hand (for instance I received a letter claiming that I had requested my documents back, when in fact I had made no such request), and secondly, the departments don't talk to each other. For example, I'm still now receiving emails about the problems that I had booking a biometric appointment from various people in the Home Office who haven't been informed that I completed my biometrics two weeks ago. So don't let the scary wording worry you. They are indeed just buying themselves more time and then apparently can't be bothered to write a specific letter for each person but just fit the closest letter they have.

Hello Suzie. Quick note: since your daughter is still under 18, you could in fact fix her nationality problem by getting married (i.e. her parents marrying each other), if that is an option. As long as the parents marry before the child turns 18 and the British parent is British 'otherwise than by descent' (for some reason they think that those who are British merely by bloodline are an inferior category of citizen), the child is automatically British and need not apply for registration or any of these other tiresome and humiliating procedures that we are saddled with, but can simply apply for a passport by supplying their birth certificate and their parents' marriage certificate and possibly a few other documents: a far simpler task.

Also, people under 18 still have the possibility of 'discretionary registration'. This used to be the only way to register children of civilly unmarried British fathers as British before our hard work paid off and the UKF citizenship route was created. I have no idea if this 'discretionary registration' is any easier than UKF registration because it never applied to me since it appeared after I turned 18, so I didn't exert myself to find out, but have a look at this: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 150402.pdf
Also, you might wish to contact the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), which is an excellent organisation staffed by volunteer lawyers who also played a crucial role in bringing about the UKF citizenship route: http://ealinglawcentre.org.uk.gridhosted.co.uk/prcbc/
https://prcbc.wordpress.com/ Solange Valdez works there and is really a star.

As for timing in UKF applications, the Home Office is vastly disorganised and some people who applied in November have already received their ceremony invitation letters while far earlier applicants are still kept waiting for no apparent reason. For example, I applied in May and have only just had my biometrics done (I'm at 8.5 months of waiting), while at least one April applicant is still waiting two months after biometrics and 9.5 months after applying. In general, applicants within the UK are processed faster and applicants abroad (particularly in the USA, where they still haven't managed to open biometric facilities) are treated as second-class applicants and kept in limbo interminably even though their claim to citizenship is identical to that of UK residents.

I do not have any expertise about applying for settlement or work permits. Perhaps other contributors know something about that. You might, however, wish to post about those issues in different threads, because this one is about the UKF citizenship route. I suggest checking other parts of the forum to find the best area in which to ask those questions.

suzieG wrote:I'm hoping for some advice re UKf applications, and suggestions for our predicament. I am Australian and my husband is British. We have been in a de facto relationship for 30 yeArs and living in Australia. We have a 17 year old Australian born daughter who has just arrived in UK for her gap year (on a holiday visa) stopping with an aunt. Her aunt had lined up some part time work for her. We were devastated to discover soon after her arrival that her application for a British passport had been refused because we are in a de facto relationship. (Yes we should have read form more carefully but in 2 calls to PAssport Office to clarify about de facto we were told there would be no problem. Another follow up call and the employee had to ask a supervisor what de facto meant!) we have since located the UKF form and are about to lodge application. My questions are:

1. Home Office told us 3 to 6 months for a response - is that your experience?
2. Would applying for settlement in UK be a quicker option? (To allow her to work sooner.?) website shows a same day processing option - has anyone had any experience with this?
3. Any advice gratefully received as to how we get quickly establish our daughter to work legally in the UK.


cheers, Suzie

bfrenchfry and antsmall, thanks for your answers. I am less nervous now. It sounds a bit messy, but I hope we succeed in the end.

To God be thy glory, my letter of successful application came through today through d post.am to contact them if I don't get my ceremony letter by six weeks time.
Honestly its overwhelming and without the help and advices of people on this forum,I would not have known where to start from.I wish everyone a successful application and that noone will be denied

Congrats keji!!

It seems things continue to move along incrementally. Excluding those in the uk who seem to zip along a little faster, by my watch this means they're now up to dealing with applicants (outside the uk) who did their biometrics at the tail-end of November. I would thus wager (and hope for their sake) that bfrenchfry will be next. If that pans out, then I think it's a pretty clear indication that Home Office is finally moving along a bit more linearly and methodically with its backlog. All of which would be a good thing.

I guess we'll see!

Congrats again, keji

canabrit wrote:Congrats keji!!

It seems things continue to move along incrementally. Excluding those in the uk who seem to zip along a little faster, by my watch this means they're now up to dealing with applicants (outside the uk) who did their biometrics at the tail-end of November. I would thus wager (and hope for their sake) that bfrenchfry will be next. If that pans out, then I think it's a pretty clear indication that Home Office is finally moving along a bit more linearly and methodically with its backlog. All of which would be a good thing.

I guess we'll see!

Congrats again, keji

Thanks Canabrit, congrats on the way for everyone too.its being a long wait for some

Hi everyone, I received my documents back today and my application was successful. I hope those that have not received theirs to get it sooner. Im so happy

Happy for all the recent approvals! Keeping everything crossed in the hopes that I may finally get mine soon as well

Well, I haven't gotten on here for nearly two months because nothing has happened. Did biometrics in Toronto (I am USA based) in mid-December and have heard exactly nothing since then. So now at 10 months (mailed off UKM on April 8, 2015.) Oh well.

Congrats, Ceelocsta!

Can I ask- what date did you do your biometrics?

canabrit wrote:Congrats, Ceelocsta!

Can I ask- what date did you do your biometrics?

7th Dec mate

Great! Thanks. That's kinda what I figured...

So, fret not, NJProfessor. As I was saying in one of my last posts, it seems like Home Office is starting to move through things in a more orderly fashion. People in the UK tend to go through quicker regardless, but some of the other acceptances lately have seemingly correlated with the timing of people's biometrics (in a chronological manner). First, a couple people who did biometrics in mid-november got their acceptance letters, then keji, who had done theirs at the tail-end of Nov. Then Ceelocsta was the 7th of december. And if I recall, bfrenchfry did theirs a week before us in Toronto (we were the 15th of Dec), so that makes them the 8th. If this is indeed a pattern that's developing, I would reckon bfrenchfry will see something this week, and then hopefully us within 2...

But time will tell, obviously. Fingers crossed for bfrench...

update
consular called me couple of mins back to ask if i can come do my ceremony tomor and pick my cert cos they already have one scheduled for 2mor. so by 10am 2mor. will be British. it feels really good .

ceremony took approximately 12 minutes and it was over with. certificate of registration given. the consular said the passport application process will be short since the infor is still fresh.
i pray everyone equally gets their heart desire.

Congratulations Kenji!!!