Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!

Citizenship.support mailbox doesn’t have any service standard as far as I’m aware. Some people get replies from them within a week while some wait for months and months and never get a reply. If you want a mailbox with 20 day reply deadline I’d advise you to make a formal complaint to the home office. Just google that. Alternatively you can email them directly at complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk - it goes to that mailbox as well if you go through the website complaint. I think it’s better to do it through their website as they will then stick to the 20 working days deadline for sure.


Edit: I think since your situation is very difficult I’d also email my MP in addition to complaining to the Home Office if I were you.

uuee6543 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:02 pm

Stef03 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 12:26 pm

Stef03 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:50 am

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Just to follow up with the post above, I called the register office and they booked me for private ceremony tomorrow morning, without the invitation letter

Interesting. Did you have to say anything to convince them to have the ceremony without a letter? I have booked mine for the 15th October but don’t have the letter either yet. If it doesn’t arrive by then, I’m not sure whether they will let me have the ceremony. Even though they told me to book the ceremony “before I get the letter” it sounds like I will still need the letter to attend it. Not sure why some councils are able to do it without it.

Edit: just to clarify if someone didn’t read my previous post. The council did receive my certificate yesterday and I was able to book a private ceremony on their own advice for the earliest available date which is 15 October.

Absolutely nothing, I called this morning to follow up the email reply I got from them, the lady kindly confirmed that they do have my certificate. I told her I don’t have the invitation letter and she said that is fine, just to bring my ID

N1234 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:15 am

Zigzag1100 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 06, 2020 4:20 pm

N1234 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 06, 2020 12:57 am

Doc2020 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:17 pm

Has anyone had a ceremony in Nottingham Council recently guys?

If it is Nottingham city council, I have ceremony on the 13th of October. They said they are doing it based on how many certificates they receive each month. For eg. They only doing group ceremony and 15 people at a time and this month they have 3 of them.

To give you an idea how long it took, they received my certificate on the 21/09 (the lady who does the booking was out for the week apparently so no contact that week). My invitation from home office arrived on the 25/09 They booked me on the 28/09.

So you are looking at 2-3 weeks wait. Goof luck!

Send an email or call them to let them know you have received your invitation letter.

Nottingham next on tighter restrictions mate. Sad!!!

Majority of cases seem to be coming from university of Nottingham halls and they will be isolating. Not sure what the purpose of locking down the whole city will do. But I can’t imagine they will cancel the ceremony, any lockdown introduced it will be like manchester, Liverpool and Leicester. They have been doing ceremonies according to This forum so we will see how it goes.

Yes. According to what they said to me, they will let us know if any changes come into place. I hope it doesn’t until after next week. I’m worried though.

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!

Let me tell you what I did, for what it's worth... Back in 2010, I wanted to expedite my citizenship application process after I had applied because I needed to travel or work and a British Citizen passport would give me a visa-free access to that country.

A letter certifying that I needed to travel overseas was signed by my boss at the company where I worked at the time. I shipped that letter by Royal Mail special delivery to the Home Office contact address for citizenship application queries. The letter was sent 22 days after the application date. A Home Office case worker gave me a call to my mobile one day after the letter had been received (24 days after the application date) to say that he had already approved the application and had sen the ceremony invite to me. Indeed, the invite arrived the following day (25 days after the application date).

Whilst the letter I sent by Royal Mail special delivery was redundant, because the invitation had already been on the way to me via 2nd class post - and it probably would not have made any difference anyway, because, to be fair, my reason for asking them to speed things up was not very strong - it is interesting that the case worker replied so promptly.

Therefore, perhaps you can do the same, i.e. send your request by post (special delivery), not least because it concerns a serious issue, i.e. you appear to have effectively failed to meet the deadline for arranging the ceremony and you now need the deadline to be waived retrospectively so that you can acquire British Citizenship. It's a decision that the Home Office need to make, so I would send the letter and explain why you had not been able to return to the UK sooner (no flights, too expensive, would have caused hardship, etc).

Finally, if I were you, I would also consider taking professional legal advice.

Good luck!

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!

Further to my post above, you might want to consider the following:

"If you do not attend the ceremony within 90 days without good reason, your application for citizenship will be refused and you will need to re-apply."
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... uly_20.pdf

This is why your situation seems to go beyond mere formalities and may require immigration advice, for which this forum might not be the best place.

baybars1 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:01 pm

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!

Further to my post above, you might want to consider the following:

"If you do not attend the ceremony within 90 days without good reason, your application for citizenship will be refused and you will need to re-apply."
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... uly_20.pdf

This is why your situation seems to go beyond mere formalities and may require immigration advice, for which this forum might not be the best place.

REMEMBER > The Home Office extended the 3 months to I believe its now 6 months .. I advice you to visit > https://www.gov.uk/citizenship-ceremonies "Usually you must attend a citizenship ceremony within 3 months of receiving your invitation from the Home Office. Because of coronavirus, this time has been extended".

TheTraveller wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:27 pm

baybars1 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:01 pm

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!

Further to my post above, you might want to consider the following:

"If you do not attend the ceremony within 90 days without good reason, your application for citizenship will be refused and you will need to re-apply."
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... uly_20.pdf

This is why your situation seems to go beyond mere formalities and may require immigration advice, for which this forum might not be the best place.

REMEMBER > The Home Office extended the 3 months to I believe its now 6 months .. I advice you to visit > https://www.gov.uk/citizenship-ceremonies "Usually you must attend a citizenship ceremony within 3 months of receiving your invitation from the Home Office. Because of coronavirus, this time has been extended".

Also in the approval letter it is stated that you are not citizen before ceremony and if circumstances change your citizenship will be refused. Being 90 days outside the UK is a change of the circumstances. That's why I'm not traveling until my ceremony as with covid you don't know when you will be able to come back. I'm also afraid I might not have ceremony before my PR become invalid because of the end of Brexit transition period. I definitely suggest to take a professional legal advice.

TheTraveller wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:27 pm

baybars1 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:01 pm

numero1111 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:27 pm

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
...

...

REMEMBER > The Home Office extended the 3 months to I believe its now 6 months .. I advice you to visit > https://www.gov.uk/citizenship-ceremonies "Usually you must attend a citizenship ceremony within 3 months of receiving your invitation from the Home Office. Because of coronavirus, this time has been extended".

Based on the above, numero1111 had gone beyond the extended deadline that applies to all prospective citizens. This is why the local council advised them to contact the Home Office.

Hi guys !
My ceremony is due this Friday 09/10/2020.
Approved 04/06/2020, letter date 20/09/2020 arrived 03/10/2020

Good luck to everyone

Stef03 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 12:26 pm

Stef03 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:50 am

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Just to follow up with the post above, I called the register office and they booked me for private ceremony tomorrow morning, without the invitation letter

Great news! Congratulations.
Hope it all goes well. I am a Hertfordshire constituent too so glad to see that the registrars office is acting in a pragmatic manner and proceeding with the ceremony without an invitation letter. Let us know how it goes

Hey guys! Is anyone here is awaiting for the citizenship ceremony at Newham Council? Were you able to book the ceremony with them? I received my invitation almost two weeks ago, letter dated 20/09/2020 and says that all necessary paperwork (I assume it's a naturalisation certificate) will arrive to the council within two working days , hence Newham should have it by 22-23/09/2020. Absolutely unprofessionals all of them. When I phone them up they hang up the phone or leave me for hours on hold just to find out what happened with my certificate and don't reply to my emails at all. Their website where everyone should book the ceremony says that my "Home Office reference has not been found". The saddest thing is that there might be the second wave of lockdown and if that happens only god knows when council services such as citizenship ceremony will resume .Thank you!

does anyone know how the process works when I am waiting for my invitation letter but I've changed my address couple weeks ago ?
According to the dates in this thread my letter is probably printed / in post (approval date 1st of July).
I have arranged for royal mail forwarding but not sure if that will be enough ?

Hi Everyone, here is my timeline:

Biometric Appointment: 12 June 2020
Approval letter date: 18 June 2020
Letter from local council (Bucks) received on 07th October to propose a ceremony date of 3 November 2020
Invitation Letter from HO received on 08th October (letter dated 23rd September)

The timeline prediction table is pretty accurate. Happy to have a ceremony date but I wouldn't be surprised if it is cancelled due to another lockdown A lot can happen in 4 weeks!

Good luck to everyone who is still waiting for letters and a ceremony date.

Good morning,

Finally received news from my council that they have received my certificate!!

Brief timeline:
Applied: 2nd March '20
Biometrics: 1st June
Approval: 10th June

I have not yet received my invitation letter however my council said I should receive it today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed that's correct.

The only annoying thing in my opinion is that the earliest available group ceremony is on the 19th November. I will probably go for a private ceremony because I feel like it's worth shelling out £110 when waiting 6 weeks for a ceremony seems so uncertain these days. Anyways I will make that decision when I receive my invitation letter.

@Lopand We're in the same council. Did you opt for a private ceremony too since you had yours so quickly? Or did you somehow manage to get a group ceremony?

Good luck to all waiting!

mrduplicity wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:05 am

Good morning,

Finally received news from my council that they have received my certificate!!

Brief timeline:
Applied: 2nd March '20
Biometrics: 1st June
Approval: 10th June

I have not yet received my invitation letter however my council said I should receive it today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed that's correct.

The only annoying thing in my opinion is that the earliest available group ceremony is on the 19th November. I will probably go for a private ceremony because I feel like it's worth shelling out £110 when waiting 6 weeks for a ceremony seems so uncertain these days. Anyways I will make that decision when I receive my invitation letter.

@Lopand We're in the same council. Did you opt for a private ceremony too since you had yours so quickly? Or did you somehow manage to get a group ceremony?

Good luck to all waiting!

Update my invitation letter arrived just now! The date on the letter is the 21st of September so @baybars1 your formula was spot on as usual. Good luck to all

Hi all, I've just received my citizenship invitation letter today, issued 22/09/20. There's little mistake in my certificate in place of birth section. But I have suggested to go ahead with the ceremony and amend the mistake after. Thanks for all your support and good luck to all. Haider

mrduplicity wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:29 am

Update my invitation letter arrived just now! The date on the letter is the 21st of September so @baybars1 your formula was spot on as usual. Good luck to all

Congratulations!

Haider wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 12:02 pm

Hi all, I've just received my citizenship invitation letter today, issued 22/09/20. There's little mistake in my certificate in place of birth section. But I have suggested to go ahead with the ceremony and amend the mistake after. Thanks for all your support and good luck to all. Haider

Congratulations! Do you mind sharing your approval date?

Hi everyone,

Just had a call from Sefton council and they advised that they received my certificate, so ceremony booked for next Friday. I was approved on 16 June.

I told the lady I spoke to on the phone that I haven't received the invitation letter yet, and she said that this is not a problem and I just need to bring a form of ID with me.

Finally received an invitation letter as well today (my council received it on Tuesday). Dated 22 September.

uuee6543 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:29 pm

Finally received an invitation letter as well today (my council received it on Tuesday). Dated 22 September.

Congratulations
Can you please tell us when were you approved

Just an update for the model:

Approval: 26th May 2020
Date on Invitation: 10th September 2020
Date Invitation received: 8th October 2020

Zigzag1100 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:58 pm

N1234 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:15 am

Zigzag1100 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 06, 2020 4:20 pm

N1234 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 06, 2020 12:57 am

If it is Nottingham city council, I have ceremony on the 13th of October. They said they are doing it based on how many certificates they receive each month. For eg. They only doing group ceremony and 15 people at a time and this month they have 3 of them.

To give you an idea how long it took, they received my certificate on the 21/09 (the lady who does the booking was out for the week apparently so no contact that week). My invitation from home office arrived on the 25/09 They booked me on the 28/09.

So you are looking at 2-3 weeks wait. Goof luck!

Send an email or call them to let them know you have received your invitation letter.

Nottingham next on tighter restrictions mate. Sad!!!

Majority of cases seem to be coming from university of Nottingham halls and they will be isolating. Not sure what the purpose of locking down the whole city will do. But I can’t imagine they will cancel the ceremony, any lockdown introduced it will be like manchester, Liverpool and Leicester. They have been doing ceremonies according to This forum so we will see how it goes.

Yes. According to what they said to me, they will let us know if any changes come into place. I hope it doesn’t until after next week. I’m worried though.

Do you have your ceremony booked ?

Soo123 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:25 pm

uuee6543 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 3:29 pm

Finally received an invitation letter as well today (my council received it on Tuesday). Dated 22 September.

Congratulations
Can you please tell us when were you approved

Thanks. Sure I already posted about it on Tuesday when my council received the certificate but the dates are:
- Applied 8 February
- Approved 12 June
- Council received Certificate 6 October
- Ceremony Booked on 6 October
- Invitation received today (8 October)
- date on the invitation: 22 September.
Council: Camden.

Ceremony date is currently 15 October (private) but I emailed them to see if they have any earlier ones given I now have the certificate.

bppartnerclub wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:45 pm

Just an update for the model:

Approval: 26th May 2020
Date on Invitation: 10th September 2020
Date Invitation received: 8th October 2020

Congrats! Many thanks.