Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

baybars1 · Post by **baybars1** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:54 pm

dtmann wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 11, 2020 6:14 pm
Well done baybars1,
You have been an immense help and encouragement to many (if not all) here including myself.

I have been approved on 24th August 2020 and still waiting for the invitation letter. According to your model I am within the time that I should have received the Invitation Letter by now, but you can never tell considering how unpredictable the times have been (as we have seen some September and even October approvals receive their invitations).
I am still keeping my hopes high and being optimistic hoping the Invitation Letter arrives within November.
Cheers.

Many thanks for your kind note and I hope that you receive your letter soon.

saupen · Post by **saupen** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:54 pm

Newham Council update -

I had below on email :

The Home Office are working through the backlog of certificates and are gradually sending them to us. When you receive your letter it means they would have set your certificate to us for your ceremony to take place.

below on twitter:

Due to Government guidelines, all marriage and citizenship ceremonies are now cancelled for the period of 6/11/2020 until 2/12/2020 at this time. Please contact registrars at register.office@newham.gov.uk with your full name, address and home office reference number for advice.

Szrsrts · Post by **Szrsrts** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:02 pm

_q

Frou01 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:44 pm
OMG!

Birmingham has sent me an invitation for a ceremony!

Date of Approval 10 August.

No HO letter yet.

Happy days!! So happy.

Congratulations!

nnn15 · Post by **nnn15** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:53 pm

HamiltonNZ wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:38 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:15 pm

No updates at all.
I realised I had a direct email from my case worker dated June, she said I would get the paperwork once citizenship ceremonies resume. As I still haven't got anything and the council doesn't have my certificate and I'm getting desperate, I emailed the case worker in hope they need to trigger something to put the application in the queue for printing. I haven't got any response.
Although my wait has been more than twice longer than 12 weeks stated by the HO, I haven't found a way to get any case-specific information from them.
Ditto, same here. I am also employing similar tactics. The two minimal updates I have are the following. One, I also emailed by case worker in desperation. They reacted quickly but not very helpfully saying that my application was with the Ceremony Team and that I would get an invitation in "a few weeks". Two, Westminster called me this morning in response to multiple emails I sent and told me I would get the letter when they get my certificate, so no reason to harass them. My objection that I was approved in May and they are now doing ceremonies with September approvals caused the phone equivalent of a shrug.

I was really hoping to get over the line before Brexit - very annoying. A couple of Home Office emails still outstanding, but very limited hope on those.

Reminder: May approval, Westminster Council, zero info.

Unfortunately the council can't do much if they don't have our certificates.. But their private ceremony booking form is back on their website, that can be used to check if the certificate has arrived - I tried today, but no luck for me.

I got another update - I just called the helpline to ask if they received any guidance for applicants who were approved before August and haven't received a ceremony invitation letter yet. The lady asked me when I first received an email that the decision on my application was made. I said end of April, then she said it doesn't look right and asked me for my caseID and said I should expect to receive a clarifying email from the Home Office. I don't have my hopes too high, but the only option left for me is to keep reminding them my paperwork still hasn't been dispatched.
You should probably try calling them as well, just in case they had some policy change and can flag cases that have been in the backlog for a very long time.

carna · Post by **carna** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:02 pm

HamiltonNZ wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:38 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:15 pm

No updates at all.
I realised I had a direct email from my case worker dated June, she said I would get the paperwork once citizenship ceremonies resume. As I still haven't got anything and the council doesn't have my certificate and I'm getting desperate, I emailed the case worker in hope they need to trigger something to put the application in the queue for printing. I haven't got any response.
Although my wait has been more than twice longer than 12 weeks stated by the HO, I haven't found a way to get any case-specific information from them.
Ditto, same here. I am also employing similar tactics. The two minimal updates I have are the following. One, I also emailed by case worker in desperation. They reacted quickly but not very helpfully saying that my application was with the Ceremony Team and that I would get an invitation in "a few weeks". Two, Westminster called me this morning in response to multiple emails I sent and told me I would get the letter when they get my certificate, so no reason to harass them. My objection that I was approved in May and they are now doing ceremonies with September approvals caused the phone equivalent of a shrug.

I was really hoping to get over the line before Brexit - very annoying. A couple of Home Office emails still outstanding, but very limited hope on those.

Reminder: May approval, Westminster Council, zero info.

Just wanted to share there are similar (and worse cases) out there. i.e. mine

Never got approval letter. Only got a response to an email I sent (my email and their response in June) with the "we can confirm that a decision has recently been made on your application." and "Upon investigation we can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority. Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased."... this in an email from JUNE...

Since then:
Sent several emails after this one --> no response
Called the helpline --> no action from them, told me to respond to the June response I got (which I had obviously already done)

Summary: Never got an approval letter. Only got a response to an email promising me my citizenship paperwok and then ... nothing

Mo6193 · Post by **Mo6193** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:14 pm

Anyone received invitation letter for late july early August. I have been waiting for nearly 14 weeks.

Frou01 · Post by **Frou01** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:18 pm

baybars1 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:52 pm

Frou01 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:44 pm
OMG!

Birmingham has sent me an invitation for a ceremony!

Date of Approval 10 August.

No HO letter yet.

Happy days!! So happy.
Congratulations! All the best.

It feels really good to know there’s a certificate existing with my details, that it has arrived and a date is booked to receive it.

I will update for your list as soon as the HO letter has arrived and the date of it.

I’m not sure if it’s already sent as my street didn’t have any mail for a whole week.

jasmine89 · Post by **jasmine89** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:22 pm

Hi all. Is anyone here from
Manchester council? We got approved mid october but no update since then.

mrmo93 · Post by **mrmo93** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:52 pm

jasmine89 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:22 pm
Hi all. Is anyone here from
Manchester council? We got approved mid october but no update since then.

Im in the same boat but in Kent, I think we will get our ceremonies between mid december and mid to late January the latest , I reckon by december they would have mostly cleared the backlog

nnn15 · Post by **nnn15** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:15 pm

carna wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:02 pm

HamiltonNZ wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:38 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:15 pm

No updates at all.
I realised I had a direct email from my case worker dated June, she said I would get the paperwork once citizenship ceremonies resume. As I still haven't got anything and the council doesn't have my certificate and I'm getting desperate, I emailed the case worker in hope they need to trigger something to put the application in the queue for printing. I haven't got any response.
Although my wait has been more than twice longer than 12 weeks stated by the HO, I haven't found a way to get any case-specific information from them.
Ditto, same here. I am also employing similar tactics. The two minimal updates I have are the following. One, I also emailed by case worker in desperation. They reacted quickly but not very helpfully saying that my application was with the Ceremony Team and that I would get an invitation in "a few weeks". Two, Westminster called me this morning in response to multiple emails I sent and told me I would get the letter when they get my certificate, so no reason to harass them. My objection that I was approved in May and they are now doing ceremonies with September approvals caused the phone equivalent of a shrug.

I was really hoping to get over the line before Brexit - very annoying. A couple of Home Office emails still outstanding, but very limited hope on those.

Reminder: May approval, Westminster Council, zero info.
Just wanted to share there are similar (and worse cases) out there. i.e. mine

Never got approval letter. Only got a response to an email I sent (my email and their response in June) with the "we can confirm that a decision has recently been made on your application." and "Upon investigation we can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority. Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased."... this in an email from JUNE...

Since then:
Sent several emails after this one --> no response
Called the helpline --> no action from them, told me to respond to the June response I got (which I had obviously already done)

Summary: Never got an approval letter. Only got a response to an email promising me my citizenship paperwok and then ... nothing

I also got these emails in April-June and no approval letter. After a while, in July, I asked for the decision in pdf (just emailed in response and asked for a decision in pdf as other people were getting it) and they sent an approval letter to me! But then the paperwork for my application (and also yours) hasn't been included in the queue when the HO printed a lot of certificates in August - October.

It is evident the HO hasn't cleared all the backlog, I'm hoping they are aware of this and this is being fixed, this is why I call/email to enquire once in a while, unfortunately to no avail so far.

Have you called the helpline? As your case is outside of their service standard of 6 months, they could hopefully provide an update (especially given the decision on your application was made so long ago).

MelonyMelody9 · Post by **MelonyMelody9** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:24 pm

Hi everyone,

I've been a fly on the wall but thought I would share my recent update. I received my invitation letter today. I applied in June and was approved the first week in August.

My only concern is that my invitation lists my council as Nottinghamshire County Council. However, my actual council is Nottingham City. I know Nottingham City is continuing with ceremonies as I've been checking in with them...However, I don't know anything about Nottinghamshire County Council. Does anyone know if they are holding ceremonies during lockdown and how often? The staff at Nottingham City are very friendly and they always respond very quickly by phone or email so I'm a bit nervous about going with another council! I'm unable to get hold of Nottinghamshire County by phone but I've emailed them to see if they've received my invitation.

By the way, for those who may find this info useful - Nottingham City said they just received about 100 certificates and will process it this week so they should be contacting those applicants next week

carna · Post by **carna** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:31 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:15 pm

carna wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:02 pm

HamiltonNZ wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:38 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:15 pm

No updates at all.
I realised I had a direct email from my case worker dated June, she said I would get the paperwork once citizenship ceremonies resume. As I still haven't got anything and the council doesn't have my certificate and I'm getting desperate, I emailed the case worker in hope they need to trigger something to put the application in the queue for printing. I haven't got any response.
Although my wait has been more than twice longer than 12 weeks stated by the HO, I haven't found a way to get any case-specific information from them.
Ditto, same here. I am also employing similar tactics. The two minimal updates I have are the following. One, I also emailed by case worker in desperation. They reacted quickly but not very helpfully saying that my application was with the Ceremony Team and that I would get an invitation in "a few weeks". Two, Westminster called me this morning in response to multiple emails I sent and told me I would get the letter when they get my certificate, so no reason to harass them. My objection that I was approved in May and they are now doing ceremonies with September approvals caused the phone equivalent of a shrug.

I was really hoping to get over the line before Brexit - very annoying. A couple of Home Office emails still outstanding, but very limited hope on those.

Reminder: May approval, Westminster Council, zero info.
Just wanted to share there are similar (and worse cases) out there. i.e. mine

Never got approval letter. Only got a response to an email I sent (my email and their response in June) with the "we can confirm that a decision has recently been made on your application." and "Upon investigation we can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority. Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased."... this in an email from JUNE...

Since then:
Sent several emails after this one --> no response
Called the helpline --> no action from them, told me to respond to the June response I got (which I had obviously already done)

Summary: Never got an approval letter. Only got a response to an email promising me my citizenship paperwok and then ... nothing
I also got these emails in April-June and no approval letter. After a while, in July, I asked for the decision in pdf (just emailed in response and asked for a decision in pdf as other people were getting it) and they sent an approval letter to me! But then the paperwork for my application (and also yours) hasn't been included in the queue when the HO printed a lot of certificates in August - October.

It is evident the HO hasn't cleared all the backlog, I'm hoping they are aware of this and this is being fixed, this is why I call/email to enquire once in a while, unfortunately to no avail so far.

Have you called the helpline? As your case is outside of their service standard of 6 months, they could hopefully provide an update (especially given the decision on your application was made so long ago).

Thanks for sharing more.

Called helpline 2 times in last 2 weeks, heard the (home office) department working with ceremonies is no longer working (due to lockdown - unsure if this is correct) and that they (helpline) can't act on anything. They told me to respond to the email I had received in June (which I had already done) and wait.

Kadey123 · Post by **Kadey123** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:47 pm

I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day

Szrsrts · Post by **Szrsrts** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:50 pm

Kadey123 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:47 pm
I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day

Hi quick question where do you find caseworker email? Thank you

Kadey123 · Post by **Kadey123** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:56 pm

Szrsrts wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:50 pm

Kadey123 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:47 pm
I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day
Hi quick question where do you find caseworker email? Thank you

My caseworker emailed me directly throughout my application to ask questions so maybe check if you saw anything in your emails from an actual caseworker. He was lucky he got a lovely lady who updated him and and also called him and told him to check his emails cause he was panicking and the approval letter was there and when he recently emailed last week she called him and told him not to panic they are clearing thi backlog and some people approved later in the year may revive it before but not too worry as you would receive it this year . So stay strong everyone you will all get there, I totally understand the frustration as I was frustrated for him and came acros this thread and realised there were worse situations than his and he is quite lucky in his process and Havering is white helpful aswell they would email us to say whether they received it yet or not. So yeah

docfever · Post by **docfever** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:12 pm

Hello guys

My timeline

Application submitted - March 2020
IDV Biometrics - 21 August 2020
Citizenship Approval email - 7th Sept 2020
Invitation letter by post - 12 Nov 2020

Council Edinburgh - Will conduct virtual ceremony online.

Good luck everyone. Hopefully this may help the model as well by Baybars.

nnn15 · Post by **nnn15** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:45 pm

carna wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:31 pm
Thanks for sharing more.

Called helpline 2 times in last 2 weeks, heard the (home office) department working with ceremonies is no longer working (due to lockdown - unsure if this is correct) and that they (helpline) can't act on anything. They told me to respond to the email I had received in June (which I had already done) and wait.

Why would someone need a helpline that can't act on anything?..

Anyway, apparently different departments within the HO are responsible for decision-making and printing the paperwork. The team that responded to you probably doesn't have control over printing your paperwork, but they could download a decision on your application in pdf and send it to you as they did it for me - try asking them. There is a difference between getting it in pdf or in the body of the email - the pdf has the case worker details, official Home Office logo and most importantly the full text. The email response I got in June basically had the text of the approval letter, but they removed the first sentence "I am pleased to confirm that your application for British citizenship has been successful"). After having waited for a month, in July I asked for a pdf, and it had a confirmation that my application was approved.

Probably the HO is doing this deliberately - consideration of a case can take however long they want, so by not communicating that a decision was made or what the decision was they can justify any delays. But inability to print the paperwork on already decided applications or digitise the entire procedure in so many months is abysmal quality of service.

Also you could try emailing Citizenship.support@homeoffice.gov.uk (apparently they deal with all nationality enquiries, but are very slow), FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk (also slow, I never got any response, but some members of this forum did).

Dorota01 · Post by **Dorota01** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:53 pm

Tirinti wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:02 pm

Dorota01 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:42 am
At last, the good news.
I haven't received the invitation letter from the HO yet but Croydon Council got my certificate today .
The lady on the phone was very polite and friendly and said I could attend the ceremony without the invitation letter as long as I bring my passport with me.
Croydon has resumed all ceremonies, including the group ceremonies. That may be something to do with the bankruptcy that hit the council.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... s-22994875
I have been booked for the group ceremony in two weeks.
Thank you to everybody for the updates and all the help.
I was waiting for the ceremony from 31st July (approval date). I started to worry a bit but I also trusted Baybars1 model.
@Baybars1 – you are brilliant and your model very much accurate. Thanks for that!
Hi Dorota,
Which number have you called?

The one on the webpage https://new.croydon.gov.uk/births-death ... eremonies is wrong. It is someone's private number. I called number from the invitation, with differs by one digit 020 8726 6300. I selected options 2 1 and then waited 10 minutes and nobody answered.
Yesterday I send them email to CitizenshipCeremonies@croydon.gov.uk and only received generic reply that they will reply in 10 working days.

@Tirinti - Yes, I called 0203 7266300 and selected the same options you mentioned. Yeah.. they do that. You have to be patient as the wait time can be very long from time to time. There were 9 people before me when I called today. Also, you cannot book the Private Ceremony over the phone, you need to email them on the email you used. The lady on the phone couldn't give me the date for Private Ceremony so I decided to go with the free Group Ceremony.

I speny enough money already ha ha.. If you emailed them already I would call them tomorrow to double-check if they looked at your request. Unfortunately you may be on the phone for some time. Good luck and I may see you at the ceremony

Dorota01 · Post by **Dorota01** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:03 pm

Mo6193 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:14 pm
Anyone received invitation letter for late july early August. I have been waiting for nearly 14 weeks.

@Mo6193 - Yes, I have been approved 31st July, first my Council received my certificate this morning and then this afternoon the invitation came in the post. Before this council has agreed to for me to attend the ceremony without the invitation. My invitation is dated 22 Oct and received only today. I am pretty sure you will get yours very soon.

Dorota01 · Post by **Dorota01** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:15 pm

@Tirinti - 0208 726 6300

lmannova · Post by **lmannova** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:20 pm

I am happy for everyone receiving their invitations but unfortunately it's sad mine approved on 20th July still didn't arrive yet.

Council emailed me back this morning not having my certificate yet. :[

Frou01 · Post by **Frou01** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:28 pm

lmannova wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:20 pm
I am happy for everyone receiving their invitations but unfortunately it's sad mine approved on 20th July still didn't arrive yet.

Council emailed me back this morning not having my certificate yet. :[

I really hope yours comes soon!

Rabs · Post by **Rabs** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:18 pm

Kadey123 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:47 pm
I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day

Hello Kadey,
Just go with your approval letter and IDs should you not receive the invitation letter by the ceremony date. Havering council seem to be very reasonable based on other people's experiences posted here & also my partner's who had the ceremony @ Langtons house back in September. The lady was very helpful and booked us for a ceremony the very day we called. Wish u all the best.

Dreams101 · Post by **Dreams101** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:47 am

LoreleiB wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:40 pm
Quick update on Coventry City Council ceremonies. Just received a letter by email confirming that they are doing virtual ceremonies and phoning new citizens (of those they have the certificates of / received the invitation letter I can imagine) to arrange a date for the ceremony. Just ensure your email and phone number is up to date on the Coventry.gov.uk website. They are also giving the option to proceed with small group ceremonies (socially distanced, in person) at a later date after lockdown. You have to indicate if you would prefer to go with this group ceremony, otherwise they assume you will take the virtual ceremony option.

I got phoned about half an hour later after the email arrived and I was asked to pick a date and time next week w/c 16 Nov, so I picked the 16th Nov. They said it should take no longer than 20 min or so. I then received a Microsoft Teams calendar invite (with the meeting link) for the date and time slot I indicated. I need to show my photo ID and invitation letter from the Home Office on the webcam.

Great news. Really happy for you.
Thanks for sharing.
Hope it all goes well for you.
Please keep us updated.

en_ilegna · Post by **en_ilegna** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:17 am

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:15 pm

Szrsrts wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:55 pm

en_ilegna wrote: ↑
Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:41 pm

nnn15 wrote: ↑
Sat Nov 07, 2020 4:24 pm

@HamiltonNZ -- I know. totally agree with you. Don't know what else to do either.

Wonder how many people here are May approvals too. Seems like HO has forgotten about us.
I'm in the same boat (pre-lockdown application, approved during the spring lockdown, no progress since) and here are the options I've tried so far:

0) Phone helpline - fairly useless I'd say as they are an outsourced company, don't have access to the system and can't provide any case-specific information. Also you won't get any paper trail.

1) Email. Didn't get any reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries. I did get an initial response from citizenship.support in the end of October (it took them more than 3 months to reply and by that time I didn't even expect to get a reply anymore). They said a "relevant department" will look at my query. So I'm hoping that someone at the HO is at least looking into the issue with our applications now.

2) Complaints at the HO website (https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason). I'm not sure if my application got lost, in any case all the timelines the HO previously communicated have passed and I got no clear answer about the lack of progress with my application, so I think it's a valid reason to file a complaint. They have a 20 working days service standard and do respond. However, the response to the first complaint seems to be a generic copy-paste - all the members of this forum were told to wait 8-12 weeks regardless of their application and approval timelines. However, when that expires, it is possible to file a complaint about an existing complaint (as the response to the first complaint didn't provide an explanation and didn't resolve the issue). I filed the first complaint after 4 months wait. The response was to wait for 12 weeks which expires in a couple of weeks. If I don't get a letter by then, I'll have to file a complaint on a complaint. According to the website then a senior member of staff will look into the issue, and I hope if there is a problem with the spring lockdown approvals, at least they could acknowledge the issue and start working on resolving it.

3) Reaching out to a MP. I contacted my MP after 5 months wait. The MP submitted an enquiry but didn't get any response either. They said they would follow up on the issue though.

If you have any other ideas on what we could do, please share. It seems to be purely an admin issue from the HO side, so hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to resolve.
hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks
Hi I was approved in August still waiting it has been more 12 weeks now. I am thinking to write to home office in writing rather than emails. What do you think? Thank you

No updates at all.
I realised I had a direct email from my case worker dated June, she said I would get the paperwork once citizenship ceremonies resume. As I still haven't got anything and the council doesn't have my certificate and I'm getting desperate, I emailed the case worker in hope they need to trigger something to put the application in the queue for printing. I haven't got any response.
Although my wait has been more than twice longer than 12 weeks stated by the HO, I haven't found a way to get any case-specific information from them.
[/quote]

Same here, still no response for all my husband’s email to HO..council still has not received his certificate either..

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