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Hello All,

Today when I called to book the citizenship ceremony I have been told that kids are not allowed unless they are accompanied by the adult who is not participating in the ceremony. We have to register the adult, who will be coming with us and taking care of the child, before coming to ceremony. If we turn up with child without accompanying adult then we would not be allowed to enter the hall and we will have to come back for the ceremony at the later date.
When asked for the reason, I have been told that it is very dignified ceremony and at times children makes noise to which some citizen (or to be citizen) have objection. Now this is not very practical for people like me where my wife and I both will have to attend ceremony and we do not have anyone to take care of my daughter. The timings are also not in school hours. The friends we have, with which my daughter is comfortable, also have kids so do not know whether we can take them with us. Effectively that would mean that there would be two kids in the hall who knows each other well and more likely to make a noise.

The purpose of writing this on this forum is to get the feedback from the people who already have attended the ceremony and to know what the respective experience was? Can people who attended the ceremony please share their experiences especially with children? Has anyone taken a child with them for ceremony? What do we do during ceremony (other than taking an oath obviously)? Will there be a point where both my wife and me will be away or engaged in something where we may have to leave our daughter? Say for example we have to go on stage together or something?

Obviously the other option is to book private ceremony but there is a cost associated with that so want to avoid as far as possible. I would be very grateful if people can share their experience.
For information my ceremony will be happening in the Kingston.

I would be interested in clarifying this as well. I am planning to attend the ceremony with my wife and 1year old. I'm the only one being naturalised so my wife will be able to stay with the baby. He can be fairly active and its hard to keep him still, so any details of the ceremonywould be helpful i.e how long, whether there are any solemn periods when its essential to remain silent out of respect, would my wife be able to take him outside if he causes too much disruption and bring him back in when he's quiet?

u cud attend separate ceremonies.... if i understand right, they have to be within 3 month of u getting the approval letter

addh wrote:u cud attend separate ceremonies.... if i understand right, they have to be within 3 month of u getting the approval letter

Not denying this as one possibility but then it would mean that it will delay rest of the things that we need to do like surrendering Indian passports and OCI for both of us. Also as ours was joint application, on the approval letter we have same reference number so I am not sure whether these are treated as separate applications. This was also reflected in the fact that when I called to book the ceremony the lady did not ask whether it was for me or for my wife as I think the assumption was that it was for both. I will check the possibility of attending ceremony individually.

PG1983 wrote:I would be interested in clarifying this as well. I am planning to attend the ceremony with my wife and 1year old. I'm the only one being naturalised so my wife will be able to stay with the baby. He can be fairly active and its hard to keep him still, so any details of the ceremonywould be helpful i.e how long, whether there are any solemn periods when its essential to remain silent out of respect, would my wife be able to take him outside if he causes too much disruption and bring him back in when he's quiet?

At my ceremony there was a wife with two kids, as guests of one of the new citizens.

Younger kid was misbehaving [talking loud] during the speeches, and she was asked by one of the officials to take the kid out. Older daughter stayed in, sitting quietly.

We could hear occasionally mum trying to talk to the toddler, but they didn't come back in the room until the ceremony was finished...

At my ceremony there was woman getting naturalised and her husband and three children were there. One of the children was crying and whining. After a while the husband finally took the little boy out but for the 50 of us who were reaching this very important milestone in our lives, it was not a pleasant experience. The advice given to you was appropriate. Imagine you were in a cinema and a crying child was ruining the rubbish for you? This is far worse.

I believe in the group ceremony all participants take oath/pledge one by one and after all have taken their turns, finally the national anthem will be played.

So in your case if you both taking oath/pledge then at the time of standing and attending the anthem, who will look after kids?

Even if you both take turn each at a time for different group ceremonies, you lose out time as you say for passports and OCI etc.

So the cost of convenience is not that bad, as compared to the fees you or I have paid for the last 6 years!

Disclaimer: I have taken individual ceremony for obvious convenience reasons.