British passport - Indian passport = difficulty in travel?

[drjabberwocky23]

Dear all,

I would appreciate the forum's advice with respect to my situation. I am an Indian citizen who is currently in the process of applying for British citizenship. In fact I submitted my application a couple of days ago. Since submitting my application, I have discovered that I unavoidably need to travel to Hong Kong before July 2011 (if only for a week). I used to live in Hong Kong and have permanent resident's status there, which means I enter and leave the country using my Hong Kong Identity Card. Leaving and entering the UK, of course, would require a valid passport.

My questions are as follows:

1) Is there a realistic chance that I could obtain my citizenship (assuming it is granted) and successfully apply for a passport before early July?
- I am aware that the UKBA can take up to 6 months to make decisions re. citizenship....but wondered if it happens much sooner than that?

2) Having used the NCS, I still hold my Indian passport and could conceivable travel on that, however:
- I am aware that there are risks of travelling while my application is under consideration( e.g. if they need any further documents from me and I am out of the country)
BUT what happens if I am awarded citizenship while I am out of the country? Does this automatically and immediately invalidate my Indian passport (given that dual-citizenship is taboo as per Indian law)?

3) When does the Indian passport become invalid? Is it when I am awarded citizenship? Or is it after I attend a ceremony? Or even when I receive a British passport? I am conscious that I do not want to incur a penalty for travelling on an Indian passport when I am ot allowed to. More than the financial concerns, I would not want a black mark against my name for mimmigration related stuff.

I hope that makes sense - apologies for the long(ish) post and again am grateful for any advice!

[krazydude]

Based on my experience, it took me about 2 months to get my passport after I submitted my citizenship application. I would like to add here that I went for a private ceremony and had to travel outside London for my passport interview (both of which were additional costs). If you are okay with the additional cost and your application is straightforward, I think you should have your UK passport before July 2011.

Your Indian Passport becomes invalid the day you get your naturalisation certifcate. Naturalisation certificate has the date written on by hand when you attend the ceremony (public or private). Till this time, your Indian passport remains valid. You submit a copy of the naturalisation certificate to VFS when you apply for a surrender certificate and they then look for any immigration stamps post the date mentioned on your naturalisation certificate to check if you travelled on your Indian passport after you got naturalised.

If you have submitted your application now, you can travel outside the country after 7 days (that is what they told me at NCS). By that time, if there is anything missing, they would have contacted you already.

[drjabberwocky23]

Thank you for your advice.

I'd be willing to use a similar approach to you and I'll hold out some hope that things may well be all sorted in time. If not, it's good to know that I'll be able to travel 7 days after submitting my application even up until I attend a citizenship ceremony. I suppose, in a worst case scenario - I should be able to travel in between my application being approved and a booked citizenship ceremony.

That's assuming that I get approved, of course!!

Many thanks again.