Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

Hillingdon council update

Citizenship ceremonies
Our Registrars Service is currently operating a reduced service.
Citizenship ceremonies are now resuming with the understanding of those attending that this is a reduced event for those approaching the six month deadline to undertake a ceremony. If you wish to attend a full ceremony, you will be required to wait until government guidance changes and at present there is no further information.

If you received a Home Office letter prior to March or had been booked into a ceremony cancelled in March, you will receive a letter from the Hillingdon Registrars Office.

The maximum number of attendees for each ceremony is 25, who will be those undertaking the ceremony itself. The reduced number of attendees allows for people to be safely seated around the Council Chamber, following current social distancing guidelines. Due to the reduced number of attendees, ceremonies will be held more frequently. Attendees will be required to give their contact details to staff upon arrival in line with the Track and Trace scheme. Unfortunately at present there will be no facility for guests to attend.

The ceremony will start at 10am, with doors opening from 9.30am. The checking in process may take longer than usual, so attendees should arrive with plenty of time. If you arrive too close to the ceremony start time, you will have to rebook as it is not possible to join the ceremony once it has started.

The Mayor's formal speech will be shorter than usual as will that of the Registrar conducting the ceremony.

Your certificate will be given when you arrive at the venue. There will unfortunately be no opportunity to receive the certificate from the Mayor and have a photo taken. Attendees are required to stay and participate in the ceremony until its conclusion.

There is a legal requirement for attendees to repeat the words of the Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen, and the Pledge of Loyalty to the United Kingdom. This will require the removal of any face masks during this time. They may be worn when you are not required to speak.

These conditions will remain in place until further government guidance is provided. If you do not wish to participate in the shortened ceremony, you can choose to wait for the full ceremonies to resume. You should however be mindful of the six month deadline to attend a ceremony from the receipt of the Home Office letter.

Good news: UKVI will start dispatching the certificates from 20th July 2020.
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Citizenship ceremonies
Covid-19
We are currently contacting those new citizens whose ceremony was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic to offer them an individual ceremony in the coming weeks.

We are aware that the government guidelines advise that you are now able to attend a public citizenship ceremony. We are working hard to make sure we are able to offer this type of ceremony in line with government guidelines.

UKVI will begin dispatching certificates from 20th July 2020 if you receive your certificate after this date please do not contact us to book your ceremony until after 16th August 2020.

https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/births-mar ... ceremonies

This is EXACTLY what I received too lol. Still waiting xd

mharoon79 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 2:32 pm

Dear Members,
hope all are doing well

I applied for naturalization on 6th March 2020 which has been approved on 24th June 2020. Neither me nor council received a ceremony letter yet today. I have emailed to HO serveral times but there is no reply till today.
Below extracted from home office email dated 24th June 2020

"However, due to Government advice relating to Coronavirus (COVID 19),
ceremonies are not currently taking place. I am sorry for the delay this will
cause to you acquiring British citizenship and ask for your patience at this time.

We are keeping the situation under constant review and will provide updates on
gov.uk when advice is updated: https://www.gov.uk/citizenship-ceremonies.
When citizenship ceremonies resume, we will send out your invitation and you
will then be able to book a ceremony with your local authority. At your
ceremony, you will be presented with your certificate of British citizenship. "



Advice please

Many thanks

11 months how? I thought I was bad at maths xd

Sous49 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 4:17 pm

Hello there

Just contacted my Council in North Wales
They have started having ceremonies and receiving certificates but not mine yet although it is approved on May 2020 based on HO

I dont know how long I should wait .it has been 11 months

All the best

Raihanul wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:19 pm

11 months how? I thought I was bad at maths xd

Sous49 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 4:17 pm

Hello there

Just contacted my Council in North Wales
They have started having ceremonies and receiving certificates but not mine yet although it is approved on May 2020 based on HO

I dont know how long I should wait .it has been 11 months

All the best

I believe he adds the time to get the decision too. From day one of the application.

tudor2020 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:52 am

Raihanul wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:19 pm

11 months how? I thought I was bad at maths xd

Sous49 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 22, 2020 4:17 pm

Hello there

Just contacted my Council in North Wales
They have started having ceremonies and receiving certificates but not mine yet although it is approved on May 2020 based on HO

I dont know how long I should wait .it has been 11 months

All the best

I believe he adds the time to get the decision too. From day one of the application.

Spotted.yes that is what i meant.the wait from the submittio day.27 Augusg 2019

I can confirm that Kent County Council has resumed its citizenship ceremonies.

I had my invitation letter in March before the lockdown, with the ceremony booked in late April. I had a letter from the council yesterday asking me to attend a ceremony in August.

There are limitations due to Covid tho.

There won't be guests allowed and there won't be pictures taken. The number of people taking the ceremony are limited to 20 people.

Its was a long wait and despite the restrictions, I'm so pleased. Kudos to the council for making it happen.

I called my council today and they said they haven't started receiving any new certificates yet but the HO have definitely started dispatching them so they've asked me to call back end of next week week to check if they've received mine. Hopefully I may also receive my invitation letter over the next few weeks.
For information my application was approved in March 2020 and received confirmation of approval in May 2020.

Just received email from my council.

We have not received any certificates from the Home Office yet, but are expecting them any day now.

We have started doing ceremonies again and are currently offering those people who had ceremonies booked during the lockdown period places in the first instance to ensure they have a ceremony before their expiry date. We will be offering ceremonies to new citizens as soon as we can after that. We are not currently offering virtual ceremonies but may do in the future.

Once you have your Home Office invitation letter, complete an online enquiry form and we will book you on to a ceremony just as soon as we can.

I’ve contacted Nottingham Council and they have just started the ceremonies this week.

No idea if they’ve received my certificate yet though!

Hopefully soon!

In my experience I've found the information over a call to my council is much more recent and reliable than the standard responses they provided me on email.
For example when I emailed about virtual ceremonies, they sent me a standard response of "we're considering it and will contact applicants accordingly" but when I spoke over the phone they were more helpful and said they're offering virtual ceremonies as well.

Further if you wait for the council to respond you'll be waiting longer since they're trying to adjust people into group ceremonies by default which are free. However if you're planning to do a private one like I am, keep contacting them and specifically saying you want to be booked into a private ceremony. They cost extra but the likelihood is you'll get to do your ceremony earlier than if you were waiting for a group ceremony. Just my thoughts.

Moa7 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:11 am

but the HO have definitely started dispatching them

No evidence for that so far!

At least among this forum, no single council received any certificate since the lock down!

Just trying to be realistic.

Absolutely, I always speak to them on the phone ! They're very helpful and understand what we're going through

Moa7 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:20 pm

In my experience I've found the information over a call to my council is much more recent and reliable than the standard responses they provided me on email.
For example when I emailed about virtual ceremonies, they sent me a standard response of "we're considering it and will contact applicants accordingly" but when I spoke over the phone they were more helpful and said they're offering virtual ceremonies as well.

Further if you wait for the council to respond you'll be waiting longer since they're trying to adjust people into group ceremonies by default which are free. However if you're planning to do a private one like I am, keep contacting them and specifically saying you want to be booked into a private ceremony. They cost extra but the likelihood is you'll get to do your ceremony earlier than if you were waiting for a group ceremony. Just my thoughts.

Just decided right now to call Westminster council. They said they will not be holding virtual ceremonies

rozearo wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 3:09 pm

Moa7 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:11 am

but the HO have definitely started dispatching them

No evidence for that so far!

At least among this forum, no single council received any certificate since the lock down!

Just trying to be realistic.

My council in North Wales started receiving some certificates and they started Ceremonies with no guests . Not mine yet through

So far no one in this forum received invitation letter,
Received email from Home office regarding issuing certificate.

Thank you for your email.



Although certain local authorities have started to commence some private ceremonies, our policy on individual certificates is they will not be printed and sent to local authorities.
Hopefully full citizenship ceremonies will commence shortly.

Moa7 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:20 pm

In my experience I've found the information over a call to my council is much more recent and reliable than the standard responses they provided me on email.
For example when I emailed about virtual ceremonies, they sent me a standard response of "we're considering it and will contact applicants accordingly" but when I spoke over the phone they were more helpful and said they're offering virtual ceremonies as well.

Further if you wait for the council to respond you'll be waiting longer since they're trying to adjust people into group ceremonies by default which are free. However if you're planning to do a private one like I am, keep contacting them and specifically saying you want to be booked into a private ceremony. They cost extra but the likelihood is you'll get to do your ceremony earlier than if you were waiting for a group ceremony. Just my thoughts.

May be but until I don’t received invitation letter I won’t be able to book ceremony I hope next week few people will get invitation letter.

Malikg123 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 4:28 pm

Moa7 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:20 pm

In my experience I've found the information over a call to my council is much more recent and reliable than the standard responses they provided me on email.
For example when I emailed about virtual ceremonies, they sent me a standard response of "we're considering it and will contact applicants accordingly" but when I spoke over the phone they were more helpful and said they're offering virtual ceremonies as well.

Further if you wait for the council to respond you'll be waiting longer since they're trying to adjust people into group ceremonies by default which are free. However if you're planning to do a private one like I am, keep contacting them and specifically saying you want to be booked into a private ceremony. They cost extra but the likelihood is you'll get to do your ceremony earlier than if you were waiting for a group ceremony. Just my thoughts.

May be but until I don’t received invitation letter I won’t be able to book ceremony I hope next week few people will get invitation letter.

Dont set ur expectation high, the Home office is one of the slowest org in the UK, I think the people who got approved during the lockdown will not get their invitation letter for at least a month or 2, if the second wave of the pandemic comes then God know when will we get out certificate print out.

IrobotZ wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:34 am

Dont set ur expectation high, I think the people who got approved during the lockdown will not get their invitation letter for at least a month or 2, if the second wave of the pandemic comes then God know when will we get out certificate print out.

Can not agree more!

Westminster council emailed me this morning with this .

" Yes we received our first batch yesterday. If you are in it you will get an invitation from the Home Office at the same time."

So the home office are finally sending the certificates to councils now, we should get ours shortly postal deliveries takes a little bit longer.
I will let you all know once I receive mine .

Southwark council has updated their website:

"On receipt of the invitation letter from the Home Office, call the number provided on the letter to arrange your ceremony date. Please note that due to COVID-19, you'll now have six months to attend a citizenship ceremony.

As an alternative to socially distanced group ceremonies, virtual individual or family ceremonies via video conferencing are now available. Due to social distancing requirements and limited space, guests at group ceremonies can unfortunately not be accommodated during the pandemic."

There's a light at the end of the tunnel

i called the the HO today, and the lady on the phone said if my council is conducting ceremony either private or virtual i can email Citizenship.support@homeoffice.gov.uk so that they can send your letter to your council and yourself. but your council must be doing ceremony.

Got an email from Islington Council today, saying they will start doing virtual citizenship ceremonies soon and they are in the process of figuring out the technical details with their IT team and management. Good news.

I called my council today and they confirmed that they have received my certificate. They will call me next week to arrange the ceremony. I still have not received the invitation though.

The inconsistencies between approaches of individual city councils are becoming frustrating.

Spoke to Coventry city council today and was told that ceremonies will not resume anytime soon. The lady openly told me that citizenship seekers are currently not a priority for them since they have 1000 new babies to register.

To my remark that other councils across the country are already resuming other services she just retorted that there are also councils which won't reopen until November.

Personally I dont see much of a difference between welcoming a baby citizen and an adult citizen. I understand that both processes are very different but one should not be given an open priority over another. Especially when you consider the time, effort and money all of us invested in this, it is really sad to hear that they dont currently care about us.