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Hi,

My application for naturalisation has now been delayed for longer than a year and a half since submitting the biometrics and it's starting to really worry me. It's incredibly frustrating that I haven't received a decision on the application yet. I think my application is fairly straightforward, so I can't think of any reason why this delay would be justified.

So far:
- I've submitted 3 complaints to HO, 3rd complaint included a final response
- I've submitted a complaint to the IEC (currently in progress)
- I've contacted my MP a few times, they tried to chase HO, but without much success and told me they will refer me to the Ombudsman
- I've spoken to a solicitor about serving a PAP letter to HO, they told me to first follow through with all the other complaint avenues

Any advice would be welcomed, thank you in advance.

Did you receive a review of your initial complaint? You need to request one before escalating to the IEC.

I can suggest:
- trying to get a SAR and see if that helps in any way
- emailing the HO secretary and undersecretary of migration/nationality with your full history and text of the complaints/responses
- review this thread and the links inside it https://www.immigrationboards.com/month ... 43483.html to see if there is anything else to potentially try.

I hope this helps.

Thank you!

I have received a review to the complaint from HO and IEC has accepted the case.
I will also write an email to the Home Secretary.

Good luck. Getting the review accepted by the IEC happens to very few, I hope they understand what went wrong with your application.

Hi! IEC got in touch with UKVI, who advised that a decision was taken on the application yesterday.

Weirdly, they did not provide what the decision was, but UKVI also accepted to provide an apology letter.

It's a bit nerve wracking to wait for the outcome, knowing a decision has been taken, any idea how long I will be waiting?

Thank you!

That sounds like progress - I would imagine UKVI will be in touch fairly soon, maybe a couple of weeks at most, but hard to know. Check your spam folder and your physical mail, you never know. Fingers crossed for you.

Hi ccka, do you know please the reason why it took the HO such a long time?

No, unfortunately I don't. In my two complaints submitted to HO they kept saying that in some cases the checks they run take longer, but I found it to be a fairly general excuse, without getting into detail about what exact checks have not come back in time.

I don't know if their apology letter will include any of it (probably not), but I haven't received it yet. IEC did not request access to the case, because HO took a decision on the citizenship as soon as IEC got in touch with them.

This is something we don't have many instances of, but it looks like once a case manages to get to the IEC, UKVI all of a sudden produce an outcome. Well done for persevering, though you shouldn't have had to wait this long. Now waiting for hopefully positive news.

ccka wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 12, 2025 5:48 pm

No, unfortunately I don't. In my two complaints submitted to HO they kept saying that in some cases the checks they run take longer, but I found it to be a fairly general excuse, without getting into detail about what exact checks have not come back in time.

I don't know if their apology letter will include any of it (probably not), but I haven't received it yet. IEC did not request access to the case, because HO took a decision on the citizenship as soon as IEC got in touch with them.

Okay, all the best, hopefully you receive a good outcome.

Can anyone point out what checks they normally do? thanks.

We don't exactly know for sure, as we are not caseworkers. I imagine they will check criminal records, your trips abroad, your data with HMRC/DVLA/NHS and similar.

Also, they claim to check data with other governments, presumably from the countries you've lived in the past.

Apologies for my ignorance but what is IEC? And how does one get in touch with them?

It is the Independent Examiner of Complaints. One can only contact them if they have already complained, received a response, asked for a review of the complaint and still could not resolve it. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-comp ... complaints