Hi guys, I know you're waiting for positive replies here, that new posts should be related to new approvals. This is related to recent posts i.e. the lousy service of the Home Office.
After several failed attempts to getting an accurate update or any piece of information that is meaningful, I have reached the reasonable conclusion that the Home Office deliberately lies to all inquiries made in personal capacity and doesn't check properly before giving you the non-answer answers.
This is a big claim, I know. But I propose you guys carry out a simple check the next time you ring them to find out if their replies to you so far aren't standardised lies. The check is, deliberately change a digit or two in your application reference number and see what they'd say regarding the progress of your application and if they'd know anything about your application.
I say this because I have no doubt whatsoever that the people who replied to me on the email and on the phone haven't got the faintest idea of what's going on.
I share with you the following emails between me and them.
Dear Fats
Please check your email and you will find as shown below you asked about British citizenship which is quite different from British passport.
I am writing to request an update on the progress of my application for approval for British citizenship.
As we do not process passports in this Dept I’m afraid I’m not able to help you with your query.
Advice about the passport application process, and relevant forms, can be obtained at: http://www.gov.uk/british-passport-eligibility
or by calling Her Majesty’s Passport Office on 0300 222 0000. If outside the UK you should explore this option via the British High Commission in your locality.
Liverpool@HMPO.gsi.gov.uk
Regards,
AO8NW Correspondence team
Customer Service Operations
Home Office, UK Visas and Immigration
This is a reply I got a few moments ago to the following email of mine:
"Dear sir/madam
Regarding your email below [Thank you for your enquiry. Applications such as yours take at least six months processing time. Yours is now in queue for consideration and your caseworker should be in touch shortly. Regards,]
The information you have given me is wrong and this is not the first time.
If my inquiry had been taken seriously, dealt with appropriate care and you have bothered to check your own records before coming back to me, it would have become apparent that I am a British citizen now -- and indeed, in the process of applying for my first passport.
I find your customer service poor and unacceptable. Therefore, can you please explain to me why you have provided me with wrong information and whether you had carried out appropriate checks to ensure accuracy.
Regards,
Fats"
I don't claim to know a lot but as a drop-out law student I know what the HO is doing goes against Citizen's Charter and the wider polices introduced in 1990s to making every governmental department customer-orientated. The Home Office does none of the sort and their feeble Personal Information Charter (
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... on-charter) doesn't cut the mustard and only pays lip service to the Charter.
This is the more reason for you to go to your MPs and never waste your time with the Home Office because it's not going to give you correct information and like in my case might keep sending you standardised replies after having had your app approved just to pretend they're doing anything useful or meaningful.
----
Below this is my final email to them:
Dear sir/madam
Thank you for your reply. It stands to reason you're trying to be helpful since you are replying back to me.
I wish to bring to your attention that I am fully aware of what I had sought your assistance with, though I couldn't possibly say as much for your department.
To repeat myself, I wanted an update on my then outstanding citizenship application.
This, approached with due care and professionalism, is not related to British passport.
Therefore, I find it bizarre for you to refer to it as if it were what I had sought your assistance with and not what I had referred to as a logically impossible stage for me to be at before having my citizenship application approved by you.
My reference to my being in the process of applying for my first British passport in my reply to your reply was to highlight to you the fact that my application for citizenship had been approval when I received your earlier email.
This practically means the content of your email on (below) -- that says my application for citizenship was in the queue for consideration; that the caseworker were to be in contact with me shorty -- was wrong information and as such, I expressed my dissatisfaction with your service.
I had received the approval letter a week before your earlier reply and by the time I got your email I have had my citizenship ceremony. I hope this is not very difficult for you to understand as I tried my best to make what is at issue and what is, in passing and thus, not.
I therefore request you apologise for giving wrong information. Please inform me what steps you will take to treat inquiries with due care and professionalism as you have so far failed to do so. I also would like to request you include, in your reply to this, information on filing a formal complaint to your department.
I look forward to receiving a reply that is germane and pertinent.
Kind regards
Fats
