Can Approval and Ceremony invitation letters BOTH go missing in the post

Hi there

I have a question about Naturalisation applications using UKVCAS and appreciate your comment(s).

First, a few point (found from the forum):

Point 1 - Both letters sent using ordinary post with no signatures required upon delivery:
UKVI Approval letter is posted in a brown A5 envelopes using Royal Mail 2nd Class mail (no signature needed).
Local council Ceremony invitation letter (as far as I know) is posted using ordinary post (no signature needed).

Point 2 - Approval/Ceremony letter have an expiration date (assuming 90 days):
If applicant not attend Citizenship Ceremony within 90 days of the issue date of Approval/Ceremony letter, Citizenship certificate is sent back to UKVI and presumably destroyed and applicant has to make a NEW Naturalisation application.

Point 3 - It is possible that Naturalisation applications get approved within a couple of month of application submission date

Point 4 - You cannot ask UKVI for a progress update on your application before 6 month of the submission date:
Automatic reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk -
“Please be advised that if you are seeking progress of your application for naturalisation and it has been with the Home Office for less than the published service standard of 6 months we will be unable to provide you with any further information or give you an update of your application.”

Point 5 - Using the new system, UKVCAS, no physical documents are sent or returned (using special/signed for delivery)

Now, with those 5 points considered, is it possible that:
you get approved within let’s say 3 months of submission date,
both Approval and Ceremony letters go missing,
you won’t have a clue what’s happened and cannot get an update before the 6 months,
certificate sent back to UKVI,
and eventually you would have to make a completely new application
??
Has that ever happened before? Would UKVI make any further attempts to contact you? What would you do in that scenario?

At least when there was that online system, we could check the status, if it was changed to “Decided” we waited 10 working days, if letter not received contacted UKVI. It only gave 3 simple statuses, Open, Awaiting a decision and Decided, but it was very helpful I thought.

Just to clarify, I’m not worried about the how long it takes to get a decision, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, it doesn’t bother me at all as long as I know I can get to see my decision letter (approval or otherwise).

I don’t want to ruin the forum’s atmosphere by this post so feel free to remove it if you feel it is too pessimistic/negative.

Thanks

There were some cases when both letters didn't reach destination. Some people just called to council to find out whether certificate was issued, some received call from council.
As I understand, after some time if you didn't book ceremony, council will send documents back to HO. Most likely HO will try to contact with you with question why ceremony wasn't booked. Lack of updates via email or online and sending letters by unreliable method doesn't make process smooth.

I dont think that both can go missing at the same time , that would be very unfortunate coincidence also council will remind by calling the applicant to book ceremoney asap if they dont hear from you as we have seen in other cases and furthermore you can ask them for an update from ukvi on FMT email and they will reply no “Automatic Reply” as you get in furthernationality email
I also applied on 28th Nov , biometrics done on same day and passport fee was deducted on 11 nov , i emailed them last thursday and got following reply

“ Thank you for your e-mail

Our records confirm that passport fee has been paid, your application is awaiting allocation, and will progress through the system as normal.

That was last thurday and i will email this monday again to check if there is any update now

Thanks so much romado and waqas734 for your replies.

That’s brilliant, good to know that if I was to be extremely unlucky and not receive either of the letters, HO and Council will take a further step to contact me.

Thought I’d also mention, in the email I sent to FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk I asked HO if they can email me after they issued and posted their decision (a substitute to that online updating system, which is disabled now). I emailed on 4th of February. I didn’t really expect a reply back!

And I emailed FMT too and requested an update, and this was their reply:
Hello
Citizenship applications are taking up to 6 months to complete from the date of application.
Thank you

I tried to read between the lines to find the update, but there was just that one line

Thanks again
All the best with your applications