Naturalisation questions...

As of today I am now eligible to apply for naturalisation. I had planned on waiting till I got married in May so I could apply with my married name. However I am fed up beyond belief (as I'm sure many others are) with these new immigration rules in progress and the HO's refusal to say how they plan on dealing with people with ILR and I sure wouldn't put it past them to try and make ILR holders jump through yet more hoops if they can get away with it. So basically my questions are....

1. How much of a pain is it to apply and then submit my name change status?

2. At the moment they say it's taking 7 months to process applications. On the off chance that they get it approved before I have time to notify them of my name change, would I need to apply for a passport with my maiden name and then have it changed later?

My missis got her naturalisation before we got married, but applied for the Brit passport after we tied the knot, as far as I remember with the certificate and our marriage certificate. It's not a problem.

Remember to keep a note of your Home Office reference number, because their computer will show your acquisition of citizenship in your unmarried name. It could help in any future checks.

Hi Emma,

Yes I would agree do your naturalisation rather sooner than later, as I too don't trust the HO.
As far as the process goe's it very easy, but use NCS it make's life easier.
In fact I was told by them that the process takes around three months currently.
So I would'nt worry too much about a rumour of seven months.
The other thing to say, is name you put on your Nat form will be the name on your Nat Cert, so chat to the NCS about this.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, very helpful! I fully plan on using the NCS, I've always thought it would be money well spent.