Phoning the home office Re- naturalisation app

[azimx]

is it worthwhile phoning the home office regarding my wifes naturalisation application?
we applied via ncs at the beginning of july it has been approx 3 months and have not heard anything from them except the letter saying they have received the applicxation.
searching through the forums it seems the average time for approval is 1.5 to 2 months.
was thinking of phoning them up.. to see if i could speed up the process.
i think it would be unlikely..knowing the civil service..i would most likely get a reply like:- "its in progress sir" or "we are still processing the application..we cannot give any more details" etc etc etc.
just wondering if anyone has ever managed to get anything more out of them?
and any ideas/help to progress things would be appreciated
we planned on going abroad for november..looking unlikely now we will get the naturalisation - ceromony -passport through in time.. will have to apply for a visa for the missus. more money........

[John]

Have a look at this BIA webpage. About 70% of the way down that page you will read that currently a Naturalisation application is currently taking 2.95 months on average. But as your wife applied less than that ago, I really would not chance them at this moment in time.

Indeed if you are going abroad "for November" wait until you get back before chasing the application, but hopefully well before then the "application successful" letter will arrive.

But even after it does arrive, do appreciate that there is still the matter of going to the Citizenship Ceremony, and after that applying for the British passport, and applying for a first British passport now involves an interview.. So dependent upon exactly when you fly out, maybe best to get that visa that you mention.

[azimx]

thanks john..
think like you say i will to get a visa....
at the time of applying the waiting time was posted as 2 months average...but i guess it takes however long it takes....i dont think there is anything whatsoever i can do to speed things up...just very frustrating.

[Dawie]

As discussed before in other posts on this board, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that an applicant's nationality can play a big part in how long it takes for their naturalisation application to be processed. This is particularly so when it comes to the character checks part of the process.

The Home Office maintains a "warnings index" of countries they deem to be high-risk and applicants from these countries are scrutinised in more detail than citizens of other countries. I'm sure you can imagine which countries are on this list.

[azimx]

The missus is from bangladesh..which as far as i know shouldnt be on any warning lists..but dont really know...a freinds cousin a(also from bangladesh) applied about 2 weeks before me and he has received his approval back in july (took them about 4 weeks)!! go figure.

[SYH]

Try to refrain from calling the HO, they are overwhelmed
Patience is a virtue