Is Citizenship Approve Letter also the ceremony ?

hi all, i got my citizenship application approved but on the approved letter, it just said my application is approved, it did not say it is also an invitation letter.

some of my friends told me, the application approve letter is also the invitation, i really dont understand this, they can talk rubbish.

Here is my letter from HO :

Dear Mr Xuan,

Thank you for submitting the enclosed documents in support of your application for British citizenship. All the information has been noted and we will not need to see them again.

I am pleased to say that the application has been successful and you will shortly receive a letter inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony. When you attend a ceremony you will be presented with a certificate of British Citizenship.

Please note, this letter is not an invitation to a ceremony. You should not contact your Local Authority until you have receive your invitation. If you have not received you invitation within 2 weeks of the above date, you should email the Nationality Enquires team at .....

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Is this not the standard HO Citizenship approve letter?
Does HO send approve letter with the invitation together ? or what?

wait for your invitation letter

awdrys1 wrote:wait for your invitation letter

thank you for your reply but why there are people saying that the approve letter is the inviction letter

It depends on the local council that you will be having your ceremony at. Some provide both at the same time and others do them separately.

So don't panic mate and be patient - the long journey is almost over. And congrats!

macjackbauer wrote:
I am pleased to say that the application has been successful and you will shortly receive a letter inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony. When you attend a ceremony you will be presented with a certificate of British Citizenship.

Please note, this letter is not an invitation to a ceremony. You should not contact your Local Authority until you have receive your invitation. If you have not received you invitation within 2 weeks of the above date, you should email the Nationality Enquires team at .....

The answer to your query is in your query itself. I have highlighted some text to help you understand.

Simple answer: there are two different letters. One comes from HO and the other one from the council

However, to complicate matters.. It differs council by council. E.g. if you live in Islington then the approval letter tells you that YOU should contact the council on 020xxxxxx to schedule your ceremony - hence, you can almost say that the approval letter is also the invitation letter for Islington council. Sure enough when you excitedly call islington council to schedule your ceremony, you get a recorded message asking you to wait for your invitation letter from the council .. Which arrives the very next day in the mail

To be fair your HO approval letter is worded differently to the ones sent to people in Islington ... Clearly stating that the approval letter is not the invitation letter.

niteshj wrote:Simple answer: there are two different letters. One comes from HO and the other one from the council

However, to complicate matters.. It differs council by council. E.g. if you live in Islington then the approval letter tells you that YOU should contact the council on 020xxxxxx to schedule your ceremony - hence, you can almost say that the approval letter is also the invitation letter for Islington council. Sure enough when you excitedly call islington council to schedule your ceremony, you get a recorded message asking you to wait for your invitation letter from the council .. Which arrives the very next day in the mail

To be fair your HO approval letter is worded differently to the ones sent to people in Islington ... Clearly stating that the approval letter is not the invitation letter.

Actually my borough is Islington and my approval letter said the same thing as the one in the OP, that it is not an invitation to the ceremony and to NOT contact my council until I receive the invitation letter. Then I received the invitation letter from HO about a week later telling me to contact the council.

I got the official approval and invitation letter from the UKBA some 2 weeks ago and the next day called my local council as directed (details attached in letter) and was able to get things processed by the relevant official who checked my details, arranged a ceremony date and guest numbers. Then, an email confirmation was issued several days later confirming date/details and what I needed to bring.

All rather painless really. Assuming the ceremony works out anyway!

Astrid24 wrote:
Actually my borough is Islington and my approval letter said the same thing as the one in the OP, that it is not an invitation to the ceremony and to NOT contact my council until I receive the invitation letter. Then I received the invitation letter from HO about a week later telling me to contact the council.

My borough is Islington also, and my very first approval letter from HO said to contact the council as mentioned by me above. And then as per what I mentioned above, the events unfolded. Strange we both live in the same council but we got different letters.

niteshj wrote:

Astrid24 wrote:
Actually my borough is Islington and my approval letter said the same thing as the one in the OP, that it is not an invitation to the ceremony and to NOT contact my council until I receive the invitation letter. Then I received the invitation letter from HO about a week later telling me to contact the council.

My borough is Islington also, and my very first approval letter from HO said to contact the council as mentioned by me above. And then as per what I mentioned above, the events unfolded. Strange we both live in the same council but we got different letters.

Yeah that is strange! Lucky you got the invitation letter straight away. I had to wait another week.

The process differs from one Borough to the next. My approval letter advised me to contact my local town hall to book a ceremony.

Just understand what your approval letter says and follow the instructions.

Plum70 wrote:The process differs from one Borough to the next. My approval letter advised me to contact my local town hall to book a ceremony.

Just understand what your approval letter says and follow the instructions.

Just had a talk with my lawyer who handle my citizenship, the response is:

everybody who appied for UK citizenship and successfully, will be sent out 2 separate letter, one said:

first one :

your application has been successfully and wait for invitation.

second one:

you application has been approved and you need to contact your local au....

Also, on immgration system, if the invictation is printed, then, the UKBA will not send out the 1st successfully letter. This is how their system is deisgned.

no matter who, they were sent out 2 different letter, but the letter is from 2 different department from 2 different location, therefore somebody can get first letter quicker than the other.

macjackbauer wrote:

Plum70 wrote:The process differs from one Borough to the next. My approval letter advised me to contact my local town hall to book a ceremony.

Just understand what your approval letter says and follow the instructions.

Just had a talk with my lawyer who handle my citizenship, the response is:

everybody who appied for UK citizenship and successfully, will be sent out 2 separate letter, one said:

first one :

your application has been successfully and wait for invitation.

second one:

you application has been approved and you need to contact your local au....

Also, on immgration system, if the invictation is printed, then, the UKBA will not send out the 1st successfully letter. This is how their system is deisgned.

no matter who, they were sent out 2 different letter, but the letter is from 2 different department from 2 different location, therefore somebody can get first letter quicker than the other.

Well, your lawyer is misinformed. Following the standard acknowledgement letter following an application I only received one further letter saying my application had been approved and to contact my local authority to arrange a citizenship ceremony.

Some boroughs are different but it's as simple as following the instructions contained in the approval letter.

macjackbauer wrote: Just had a talk with my lawyer who handle my citizenship, the response is:

Plain and simple - your lawyer is CLEARLY WRONG! end of story ...