JCAP Citizenship experience
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:39 pm
Just wanted to share my husband's story, hoping it helps someone. My husband applied via JCAP about a week after ILR granted since he was using the spouse route and had already spent 5 years in the UK. After application was submitted there was no response from the HO for several months. On researching we saw that many others had received their Citizenship Approval within 2 to 3 months and worse case scenario, nearer 6 months. We contacted the HO and they kept responding with 'character check' for months. Eventually at 1 year in we contacted our MP and his office began to write and pile pressure, suddenly within 2 weeks the approval was sent to my husband. We chose a ceremony date and returned the ILR biometric card. We had a holiday booked which was in about 3 weeks from the ceremony date. We also couldn't wait longer than 3 months to book a ceremony date (which is the rule), so we just had to go ahead with the ceremony but needed husband's british passport asap for our holiday. Soon as we attended the ceremony we called the council the next day to check they had passed the information about attendance to the HO. They said they had sent everyone's to the HO but cannot confirm for any specific individual. We called the HO and emailed and did the same with the passport office. We did this daily until the passport office confirmed they had received the necessary info to print his passport. They agreed to expedite because we said he had to travel soon. HO also wrote after about 4 or 5 days to confirm they had received confirmation from the council that he attended the ceremony. In total we received my husband's passport about 12days after the ceremony, but this took calling and emailing the council, HO and passport office to push things. So if you are on the journey, I hope you learn a thing or 2 from this that helps you. All the best!