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Hello Friends,

My wife's application was approved on 31-03-2016. As per the letter, she must book for citizenship ceremony with local council within 21 days from the date on the letter. Due to some unexpected change in circumstances, she now has to travel abroad next week and will be back mid of June. I heard that the ceremony must be booked within 21 days and must be attended within 90 days from the approval date. We called the council and they said she can travel and call them once she is back to the country in mid of June for booking the citizenship ceremony and that they had made a note of it in their system. She had called twice today to double check and avoid any misunderstanding and both times council staffs mentioned that she can travel and schedule the ceremony once she is back but not within 21 days as it is way too early for them. Note that our local council conducts the ceremony every Monday.

Does this make sense? Is this against any home office rules? Do you think my wife should get something in writing from the council that she can book the ceremony once she is back mid of June?

Wondering if anyone have been through this situation.

She should book the ceremony before she travels to ATTEND once she returns.

If she doesn't attend the ceremony within 90 days, she risks having her certificate returned to HO and she will have to apply and pay again.

Something so important that she has worked towards and she wants to risk it.

Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to mention that the ceremony was booked on 18-04-2016 for both of us but due to the unexpected travel, my wife had called the council to reschedule the ceremony.

We did insist our council to book around mid of June 2016 prior to her travel but they said they are not booking ceremony that much in advance but they clearly replied they made a note of this in their system with the details supplied from the HO letter and they will book once my wife calls them back upon return.

Your risk to take. I personally would not.

NCS are not HO employees or immigration/nationality specialists/advisors. They are a third party agent.

I m in the same situation LTR and wanted to book my ceremoney in the month of may and they tell me exactly the same thing that i can book my ceremoney from abroad or when i return to UK. 21 days policy is not a law its just to clear a backlog.so no worry.

fbutt50 wrote:I m in the same situation LTR and wanted to book my ceremoney in the month of may and they tell me exactly the same thing that i can book my ceremoney from abroad or when i return to UK. 21 days policy is not a law its just to clear a backlog.so no worry.

+1, They said the same to me. As long as you managed to attend the ceremony in 90 days, you are good.

Thanks a lot guys. After my ceremony on 18-04-2016, I am going to call council on the 19th to triple check. Hope that I don't get blasted for the same.

Booked my ceremony after 4 weeks of invitation letter with no issues at all. As long u book it within 90 days it's ok.

Thanks again mate.

+1 @tripping Wise advice.

Casa wrote:+1 @tripping Wise advice.

Not sure if you implied ignoring CR001's advice but what can I do if council doesn't do ceremony bookings months in advance. They have assured my wife many times over phone and I will anyways check with them after my ceremony coming Monday.

leavetoremain wrote:

Casa wrote:+1 @tripping Wise advice.

Not sure if you implied ignoring CR001's advice but what can I do if council doesn't do ceremony bookings months in advance. They have assured my wife many times over phone and I will anyways check with them after my ceremony coming Monday.

I wasn't in any way ignoring CR001's advice!...and I see that tripping deleted their own post!