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Nationality -- New Service being Offered

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Joseph
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Posts: 349
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:01 am
Location: London

Nationality -- New Service being Offered

Post by Joseph » Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:24 pm

On the brighter side, after the announcement of fee increases, there is a new service just launched that will enable nationality applicants to have their documents checked by a local council (i.e. not have to send in their passports to Liverpool for a few months).
Nationality Checking Service
I am here: Home > Applying > British Nationality > Nationality Checking Service

Introducing the Nationality Checking Service

The Nationality Checking Service is a partnership between the Home Office Nationality Group and local councils in England and Wales. It is intended to make it easier to submit applications for British citizenship. The pilot for the Nationality Checking Service (NCS) will commence on 31 January with six local authorities taking part. These are Brent, Haringey, Hertfordshire, Newcastle, Redbridge and Wandsworth.

The participating councils will offer an optional service to those applicants who wish to take advantage of it. For a modest fee, they will check that applications for British nationality are completed correctly and have been submitted with all the necessary supporting documents and the correct fee. They will photocopy and certify valuable documents such as passports and will forward applications to the Home Office by special delivery post. Applications containing all necessary details can be dealt with more quickly than those that are incomplete and those using the service will be able to keep their passports rather than sending them to the Home Office.

The contact details for the local authorities taking part are:

Brent

Brent Council Citizenship Team
Kingsbury House
468 Church Lane
Kingsbury
London
NW9 8UA

Tel: 0208 200 2324
Fax: 0208 200 2301

citizen@brent.gov.uk

Haringey

Superintendent Registrar Haringey Register Office
Civic Centre High Road
Wood Green
London
N22 8LE

Tel: 0208 489 2604

E-mail: citizenship.enquiries@haringey.gov.uk


Hertfordshire

Citizenship Unit
The Old Courthouse
St Albans Road East
Hatfield

Tel: 01707 897 396
Fax: 01707 897379

E-Mail: citizenshipunit@hertscc.gov.uk

Newcastle

Citizenship Section
The Register Office
Newcastle City Council
Civic Centre
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE1 8PS

Tel: 0191 232 8520

Redbridge

First Stop Shop
Lynton House,
High Road
Ilford
IG1 1NN

Tel: 0208 554 5000

E-mail: customer.cc@redbridge.gov.uk

Wandsworth

Wandsworth Register Office
The Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
London
SW18 2PU

Tel: 0208 871 6136/6186
We're looking forward to getting feedback from those of you who can take advantage of this service. Unfortunately, I have to wait a few months.

Joseph

Ajay Kumar Singh
Member
Posts: 234
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:01 am
Location: London

Post by Ajay Kumar Singh » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:05 pm

Good news is that I live in one of those counties ;) bad news is that I have to wait for around 4 years.
It's really a good news. Specially when you have been a victim of Royal Mail. I didn't know that they use Automatic Machines to sort out letters. And machines do SHRED letters some times. Imagine your passport going through it :roll:
I was lucky it was not my passport but a simple letter sent to IR which got the Royal Hospitality.

pills
Newly Registered
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2002 1:01 am
Location: London

Re: New service for Nationality

Post by pills » Wed Feb 16, 2005 4:02 pm

Hi there,

Thanks for posting that mail re the new service.

Saw it yesterday and called up the Wandsworth no. immdtly and got an appointment for today (someone had fortunately cancelled their appt and I got the slot).

Submitted my forms (wife and child's also) and after taking photocopies of my passport and other documents, and actually verifying the entries in the forms against the documents (Passport, ILR letters, Education degree certificates, Marriage Certificate, Birth certificates) the whole process was done. Took less than an hour and that only bcos this is a new service so I guess they were also new to the whole thing.

I got back all my original documents except for the degree certificates, which they retained and gave me a copy of for my records. The degree certificates I understand will be sent back asap as also a formal acknowledgement of my application.

Well, now the wait - hopefully this should be quick and from what they said, should not involve any back & forth's on missing information.

Two things which I wanted to point out for the benefit of the members here -

1. the charges for this services is £20 per application and (so cost 40 quid for me, wife & child)
2. there is no requirement currently that you should be staying within the participating council (I dont reside in Wandsworth)

I was pulling out names of notaries etc when I saw this and applied. This is actually an excellent service and gives you some human interaction, instead of submitting applications to an impersonal, faceless address & then wondering about the giant Govt machinery which is processing it!

Cheers,

pills

Joseph
Member of Standing
Posts: 349
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:01 am
Location: London

Post by Joseph » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:53 pm

Pills

Great stuff! Thanks for the thorough update. It looks like a great deal when compared to getting a solicitor to certify copies and paying for special delivery postage.

I assume the council collected the application fees on behalf of the Home Office as well. Hopefully your application will go through a streamlined process in Liverpool (similar to the way the UK passports are handled through the High Street Partners).

Good luck, and keep us updated with your progress.

Joseph

pills
Newly Registered
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2002 1:01 am
Location: London

Update

Post by pills » Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:20 pm

Hi all,

Just got my citizenship approval letter today - for a bit of background, I had applied on the 16th Feb using the new service being offered by the councils and got it well within 2 weeks - now waiting for the invitation letter to the ceremony.

(For further background, the application was based on 4 years Work Permit (with 1 change of job), ILR after that and subsequent citizenship application filed on date of eligibility.)

Many thanks to this board for all the help & information I have got from the posts and the members (sp. Kayalami & Chess) for both myself and others, and let me wish you all the very best of luck.

Cheers,

pills

John
Moderator
Posts: 12320
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:54 pm
Location: Birmingham, England

Post by John » Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:32 pm

pills, congratulations on the successful applications! :D

The new service ... wow ... you heard after just nine days! Amazing! :shock: I thought my wife's five week wait for her postal application last April was fast but ...... wow ... nine days!

What an incredible advert for the new checking service! Having learnt of your experience, why would anyone living within reasonable distance of one of the six pilot areas even consider using the ordinary postal application route?
John

bbdivo
Member of Standing
Posts: 264
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:49 pm

Post by bbdivo » Sat Feb 26, 2005 11:04 am

Congrats pills!

One question, which area do you live and which office did you apply?

pills
Newly Registered
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2002 1:01 am
Location: London

Post by pills » Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:07 pm

Hi there,

I live in west london but applied in Wandsworth - I asked the specific question on whether I had to live within the borough to avail of this service and was told categorically that "at the present time, the service is open to all comers". I obviously asked this specifically because I do not live within the Wandsworth council limits. So it does not matter where you live - whichever council offering this service is closest to you, you can apply there.

It looks like this state of affairs could change based on either

a. more/all councils offering this service or
b. if the current councils are deluged by the numbers applying
but thats pure speculation.

Cheers and best of luck,

pills

davidm
Junior Member
Posts: 78
Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:09 pm

Post by davidm » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:26 am

And cheap too- my solicitor charged me 30 pounds for certifying the photocopies of my and my wife's passports. I applied on 9th January and am yet to hear from the Home Office other than the letter acknowledging my application :shock:

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