Post
by mvrck » Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:06 pm
@victor 1980
Many thanks for the detailed account of your experience. I am experiencing something similar and planning to follow in your footsteps. Would be grateful on any additional recommendations on my situation:
Apologies in advance for the lengthy post.
I received my naturalization certificate in Nov 2015 and I flew out the day of the ceremony to Sri Lanka on a return ticket. I had quit my job and moved out of my rented apartment to start a business and was travelling to Sri Lanka to develop the product line. I couldn't return in Feb 2016 as planned but came back in Apr 2016 (using my BRP). I then started working actively in the business and my wife took a job because I wasn't able to draw a salary. Sixth months later when I returned from a trip to Canada my BRP was confiscated and I was told by IO to apply for a British Passport.
I had already booked a visit to Sri Lanka a few days from then, so I opted to submit my application from Sri Lanka in Nov 2016 (biggest mistake of my life), a year after being naturalized. They collected payment in Dec 2016 and requested additional documents in Jan 2017 and then nothing for a few months despite my calls to HMPO Helpline. I couldn't represent the business in the UK and fell out with my business partner forcing me to resign and pretty much lose over a year worth of effort and much more. In June I was interviewed at the local VFS office and advised that I would receive my passport in 6-8 weeks.
By this point I was sought for contract work in the UK and started calling the helpline virtually every day for an update to see if I could return to the UK and be considered for the role. I escalated it to the DG via my MP but no avail - they were told that the application was being processed. Eventually I received an e-mail response from a team who was supposedly handling my file. They too maintained that they were carrying out mandatory checks and there was nothing else to update. After asserting a great deal of pressure for them to find a way for me to return to the UK, they finally (a year after my application date) told me they could send my naturalization certificate back. By the time I received it, my wife's visa had expired and we'd just had a baby so weren't able to travel.
I wrote to this team from time to time, but always got the same response: mandatory checks. I wrote to HMPOs complaints team and they said the same thing. I wrote to the Prime Minister who wrote back saying that they'd be forwarding my letter to the Home Office.
Then on New years day (two years after my application date), I get a letter claiming that I had obtained BC by fraud as I had left the UK the day after the citizenship ceremony and only returned to the UK for a "brief visit in 2016" (a time when I was a active working director of a UK company). It also called into question my intention to make the UK my home as I was employed in Sri Lanka and settled with my family and maintained no ties to the UK.
Planning to come to the UK ASAP and re-submit passport application as recommended.
Question: Do you withdraw your Passport application before your submit in the UK?
