Is there a delay in HO approving British Naturalisation?

[drcpenter]

Hi there everyone,

Love this forum and thought I would ask a question. Long story short, my beloved wife (South African) finally decided to apply for her British Citizenships despite the fact that she has been eligible to apply for the last 17 years! So, she did all the tests (English and life in UK) and we filled in the application online on the 24 January 2020, did the Biometrics on Valentines day (14 Feb 2020 - a pretty easy process). A week later got an email from someone asking us to scan in one of her passports which we did immediately and was acknowledged by this person. Then, everything went quiet. COVID 19 came along around the beginning of March and now no news, no update, nada.

So the question is this, has HO stopped everything for the moment? Should we email someone to find out? Or sit tight and wait for the 6 month period to pass before making enquires? Let me know please. Thanks in advance for your help and expertise in this matter.

Chris

[secret.simon]

Also see naturalisation timeline thread. There have not been many approvals being posted since mid-March.

Naturalisation is an optional application that does not impact one's right to live in the UK (as all applicants must already have ILR/PR before applying). So it is possible that the Home Office staff are concentrating on immigration applications.

We also know that some staff may have been diverted to other departments. Passport Office staff are assisting DWP with Universal Credit applications, for instance.

So it is likely that there may be a significant slowdown in naturalisation application processing.

[drcpenter]

Thanks Secret Simon for your reply. Makes a lot of sense! Have a great day!

[TheDon]

This is useful.

I also only just decided to submit my naturalisation application with quite bad timing really.

I did my biometrics mid-Feb and have not heard a peep since. Just tried calling UKVI off a number from google and after following the prompts in relation to what my query was it basically hung up so I guess I'm not a priority. I get the impression they've put everything on hold and secret.simon's response puts context/background around it.

[drcpenter]

I agree!