Post
by balles » Sun Nov 11, 2018 3:34 pm
I received confirmation today (7 November 2018) that my application for British citizenship had been approved. This has been a 6-month journey starting on 21 May 2018 when my application was submitted. My claim to British citizenship was based on my British born maternal grandfather. It is my hope that my experiences and learnings will assist others as they embark on their own journeys.
I was born in The Republic of South Africa in 1965 to a mother who was born British by descent. South Africa at the time of my birth had voluntarily left The Commonwealth of Nations and therefore was “foreign” in its relation to Britain. The aforementioned resignation from The Commonwealth by the South African government of the day is important in defining who may or who may not register as a British citizen insofar as SA applicants go.
Legislation at the time of my birth did not permit my mother to register my birth at the British Consulate. My application therefore was identical to that of Romein case ( The Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) v Romein (Respondent) (Scotland) [2018] UKSC 6 On appeal from [2016] CSIH 24), save for my date of birth, and which is now subject to a remedial order before parliament.
I used an agent for my application but in retrospect I would have done it myself. Unless you find “form filling” & answering a set of questions about your family tree intellectually challenging my advice would be to do it yourself and, in the process, save yourself some money. The financial loss in a failed UKM registration process are zero as in such instance you would be refunded the GBP80 by the Home Office. Sadly, many of these immigration advisors scare you into believing that double descent applications are non-standard and require their magical powers to “educate” a caseworker at The Home Office on your unique set of circumstances. Personally, I think it is an insult on their (caseworkers’) ability. Sure, I don’t doubt for one moment that there may be complex cases to consider but for 95% of these such as mine I would think that they are straightforward. The caseworker guidance notes were updated on the 8 February 2018 (the same date that the supreme court judgment was given) to alert caseworkers to ignore the requirement of the applicant’s birth to be registered within a year.
Timeline summary was as follows:
• Country of application: South Africa
• Application couriered to UKVI in Liverpool: 21 May 2018 (manual submission)
• Credit card payment deduction: 26 June 2018
• Biometrics request letter: 27 June 2018 but received on 10 July 2018
• Biometrics submitted: 23 July 2018
• Notification of citizenship approval: 7 November 2018
• Citizenship ceremony: scheduled for 28 November 2018 at British High Commissioner’s residence in Pretoria (NOTE – Only received notification of successful application directly from Foreign & Commonwealth Office and not from Home Office)
Timeframe from application submission to citizenship ceremony would be just over 6 months.
