General discussion after BC and Passport application

I arranged my ceremony for this afternoon (Private).Dont worry you will be approved if you satisfy good character and residence requirements.

In my last letter to UKBA i explicitly said that my last step to be British Citizenship is turning to be embarassing considering the timelines.

Attended my ceremony yesterday and applied my passport straightaway. It was really nice experience. I am feeling so relaxed now. I want to take this oppurtunity to thank everyone on this forum and also wish good luck to everyone who are waiting.

Crincifo....

My ceremony is slated for tomorrow afternoon and I plan to apply for British passport immediately as well. See you on the British passport timeline thread.

I also will like to thank everyone on this forum for the invaluable and timely information provided. Good luck to all those still waiting on HO.

Congrats to you both

Has NOVEMBER been cleared or not yet ? Handyman, Gonzilla and so on...are you still waiting?

Still waiting unfortunately.

Like I mentioned, I'm worried that applications which aren't addressed within the usual time range are the ones which take ages (more than 6 mths)

I am still waiting, but less intense now.

You know, there is more than 15.000 application monthly for naturalisation and very few of those are active in this website.

Although this website is very informative and helpful when waiting for approval letter, our numbers here is very insignificant comparing to applicants numbers and subsequently the calculation of average waiting time and etc is not true reflect of fact.

Of course, there are small number will receive approval letter very soon or very late but most of us will receive it in normal sort of time.

The lucky people who received the approval in short period of time made us a bit worried, however the fact is most of applicants don’t come to this website or at least some of them just put information when approval letter received.

I set my mind for 6 month waiting and as a result not nervously looking to my mails anymore and life is much nicer this way.

Good Luck everyone!

I'm another November application still waiting. Today is four months since my NCS appointment.

I'm trying my best to be patient – there's nothing unusual about my application so I'm sure it will come in due course – but that doesn't stop me getting my hopes up a little every day when I check the post.

I also applied Nov 26th, but I didn't get my acknowledge letter until Jan 6th. So I don't know if I should count from November or January.

thanks to everyone here for all your help. my approval letter came in today. applied on the 12 january, debit/acknowledgement letter dated 17 january. approval letter dated 28 february.... had a name change, so thought the application might seem a bit complex. i'm happy is here ceremony on the 27 march .. to all of you still waiting i empathise. thanks again for all your help

My wife applied her naturalisation on 30th nov 2011.After waiting of over 3 months she rang ukba on 6th of march requesting them to send her passport back as she needs it for id purpose.She asked them about her application status. the lady said it is still waiting to allcate to caseworker. today she got her all documents back with the letter saying that her application is successfull and she should not contact her local council before receiving an invitation letter.
Good luck for all those who are waiting for their responce.

Hi ub0314

congrat!

which number did you call? when I called them before it did terminate the call after saying there was no report on application progress.

HANDYMAN wrote:Hi ub0314

congrat!

which number did you call? when I called them before it did terminate the call after saying there was no report on application progress.

Thanks, we rang on this number 01516725626.After listening the recorded message, slect option 2 then again option 2. the advisor will ask you home office reference.
Best of luck.

Thanks ub0314

Why would you pay extra for a private ceremony? Got an approval on 18/02/2012 my ceremony is 31/03/2012. I was told it will cost £120 for a private ceremony. My God i just finishing pay for £836 for the whole thing

My application was sent on 14th Nov, got my approval end of Jan 2012 but have to wait for 6 weeks for my ceremo which is tomorrow. I was told by Newham Council that had to pay i think the same figure if i want private ceremo, but what is the point to rush and pay this money after paying £836 to UKBA

don't you guys think that Postal application are usually processed quicker than NCS ones ? If it's true, then why should we pay NCS to wait longer....thoughts ?

I doubt that differences in processing times come down to NCS v postal applications. The application method doesn't change the documents the caseworker sees. The advantage with NCS isn't quicker processing, it's about verifying your application is complete and letting you keep your original documents.

Like Sam and others in this thread I've wondered if some applications are delayed by slow background checks. But in the end we're trying to make guesses at the inner workings of the process without much information, so I suspect we'll never get too far.

Don't think applying through NCS or by post makes any difference time wise but still there are some pros and cons in applying either way. I had my appointment with NCS on 8th of Nov but my application was received by HO on 15th of Nov (after 7 day) but if i would have sent my appliction through special delivery it would have received by HO next day. Also some people who applied through post and called HO after 3 months or so asking for their original documents to be sent back, received their decision alongside their documents.

But if you apply through NCS then you can obviously keep your original documents with you so you can travel to your home country or somewhere else in case of emergency. So it's a choice you have to make depending on your circumstances i guess.

jonnyb wrote:I doubt that differences in processing times come down to NCS v postal applications. The application method doesn't change the documents the caseworker sees. The advantage with NCS isn't quicker processing, it's about verifying your application is complete and letting you keep your original documents.

Like Sam and others in this thread I've wondered if some applications are delayed by slow background checks. But in the end we're trying to make guesses at the inner workings of the process without much information, so I suspect we'll never get too far.

Trying to decipher the inner sanctum of the naturalisation process is like trying to understand the working of our Universe i.e. we shall always be lost no matter what unless they publish the information for public domain. The call centres people really enjoy giving us false hope without a shred of truth on phone.
When my family applied by post, they got approval in a record two weeks while I had to wait for nearly 3 months before asking my docs back and I got approval.
Using NCS will not make approval process faster but you have your Passports and other vitals docs with you which you need.

One thing I have learnt in the whole process is “PATIENCE is virtue that one must embrace” as the long wait & wrong answers when you call for any update will push one to the limit of waiting tolerance but since citizenship a privilege and not a right... what can one do!!.

ub0314 wrote:My wife applied her naturalisation on 30th nov 2011.After waiting of over 3 months she rang ukba on 6th of march requesting them to send her passport back as she needs it for id purpose.She asked them about her application status. the lady said it is still waiting to allcate to caseworker. today she got her all documents back with the letter saying that her application is successfull and she should not contact her local council before receiving an invitation letter.
Good luck for all those who are waiting for their responce.

Congrats...

chocho wrote:don't you guys think that Postal application are usually processed quicker than NCS ones ? If it's true, then why should we pay NCS to wait longer....thoughts ?

No preference is given to postal applications over those made through NCS. The only difference the latter makes, as far as I know, is that you're able to hold on to your documents, especially your passport(s) in case you urgently need it/them. Of course, asking for them to be returned after it's been with the UKBA for over three months, could hasten a decision as some have reported here.

Blackhole
HANDYMAN

Hi Guys

Any good news yet ?

Interesting news from at least one November application. It turns out mine was approved on 23 January, but the invitation letter never reached me. The first I heard was a letter I got from Southwark council wondering why I hadn't attended a ceremony yet.

It's annoying to think that my certificate has just been sitting in a council office since January, while I was going home and checking my post every day for news. Especially annoying that it was sitting in the wrong council office – I'd requested a ceremony with Islington council. (The UKBA are apparently trying to sort that out now.)

I don't know if others in the 'November gang' may be in the same boat, but it's worth checking. Now that application processing times are often under three months, while the UKBA phone operators aren't able to access information for cases under six months, I guess it's possible for the validity period of a certificate to pass entirely before an operator can check on the application.

PS - I feel I should say that in the end I am very happy it's all been approved, even if that post seemed a little grumpy. But now that I am almost a citizen, I feel it's appropriately British of me to moan about things.