Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[Cost Manager]

It’s a generic response I received the same email copy and paste. I don’t understand why they not printing certificate most of the Council saying the same thing they not receiving batch regularly. I suggest everyone to make complaint and put pressure on them.

I can’t believe I work full time in customer service, can go to every shop, eat in restaurants, see gyms being open, flights can be booked and people go on holidays, people who want to sell stuff knock on your door... but councils can’t open and therefore no certificates can get printed?

Birmingham is the second largest city and there might be a lot of people waiting, they haven’t even started with their March backlog yet and say since weeks they would shortly and there might be a few offers for private ceremonies priced £206-235.
That’s a 10 minute event. What justifies this big fee please?
Why put it on people’s shoulders when that’s not their fault?

At this point I agree.
I have just had a call from the Ukvcas due to the call I made to the home office last week about recieing a generic response. He said "There is no time frame and I can't tell you when you will recieve the invitation letter, you just have to wait for how long it takes. The responses you are getting from the support team are not generic, there are tailored to your case, it is actually a human responding to your case and not a robot". That's all he kept repeating that it is not a generic response, he seemed to be upset about that, that I informed the lady I spoke to that I was getting a generic
response which it was. I got only one response since February which is not generic where they informed me which council my certificate will go to. The rest were the same responses I received before my decision date which is a copy and paste response. I have sent in a complaint and I will be sending another. He called just to tell me not to say it is generic.

" Upon investigation I can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority.   Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased. 

In normal circumstances customers were required to book their citizenship ceremony within three months of being sent an invitation from the Home Office.  Due to the current circumstances we have extended this period to six months. We will keep this under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence)."

I have seen this response everywhere and so many times.

I will never understand HO in this matter. Send all the invitations and leave it with the applicant and the Council. Why you are withholding it. I have done my complaint 1 week ago

[hassanwaheed87]

Hi

My application was approved on 20th May.

I rang Bradford council a couple of weeks ago and they took my details and said someone will call back. No one rang so I rang them again today and their response was

We are working very hard to start ceremonies soon. There are a lot of complicated things to consider before they commence like social distancing etc. I then asked if they could let me know roughly when they plan on starting them again and I was told they will have a date in a week or two.

I will call them in two weeks time now if needed. They are very slow as I can understand this is not a priority at the moment but at least they are working.

On the other hand I also filed a complaint on UK Visas website.The main reason was they did not respond to my email I sent a few weeks ago. Hotels, gyms, restaurants are all open but there is no communication from them. I also said that you guys charge a lot of money for an application and your service does not match the price charged.

If I get a response I will share with you guys.

[Malikg123]

I agree with you no one knowS what Home office is upto. I made my complaint on 10th August is it worth involving my MP in this issue.

It’s a generic response I received the same email copy and paste. I don’t understand why they not printing certificate most of the Council saying the same thing they not receiving batch regularly. I suggest everyone to make complaint and put pressure on them.

I can’t believe I work full time in customer service, can go to every shop, eat in restaurants, see gyms being open, flights can be booked and people go on holidays, people who want to sell stuff knock on your door... but councils can’t open and therefore no certificates can get printed?

Birmingham is the second largest city and there might be a lot of people waiting, they haven’t even started with their March backlog yet and say since weeks they would shortly and there might be a few offers for private ceremonies priced £206-235.
That’s a 10 minute event. What justifies this big fee please?
Why put it on people’s shoulders when that’s not their fault?

At this point I agree.
I have just had a call from the Ukvcas due to the call I made to the home office last week about recieing a generic response. He said "There is no time frame and I can't tell you when you will recieve the invitation letter, you just have to wait for how long it takes. The responses you are getting from the support team are not generic, there are tailored to your case, it is actually a human responding to your case and not a robot". That's all he kept repeating that it is not a generic response, he seemed to be upset about that, that I informed the lady I spoke to that I was getting a generic
response which it was. I got only one response since February which is not generic where they informed me which council my certificate will go to. The rest were the same responses I received before my decision date which is a copy and paste response. I have sent in a complaint and I will be sending another. He called just to tell me not to say it is generic.

" Upon investigation I can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority.   Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased. 

In normal circumstances customers were required to book their citizenship ceremony within three months of being sent an invitation from the Home Office.  Due to the current circumstances we have extended this period to six months. We will keep this under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence)."

I have seen this response everywhere and so many times.

I will never understand HO in this matter. Send all the invitations and leave it with the applicant and the Council. Why you are withholding it. I have done my complaint 1 week ago

[user5877]

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

[Lopand]

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

It's not 6 months count from the day they send the invitation letter, but 6 months from the date printed on it. One of this forum members received their invitation letter in August and the date printed on the invitation letter was from March.

[Wahidwadid]

Today I’ve got a response from Bromley council:

Good morning,
Thank you for your email.
The Home Office have suspended sending any certificates for the time being.
When they start sending them again – I will be in touch as soon as possible.
Kind regards

My application has been approved on 20 of May.

If you don't mind to share, When did u apply ?

[Learning18]

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

It's not 6 months count from the day they send the invitation letter, but 6 months from the date printed on it. One of this forum members received their invitation letter in August and the date printed on the invitation letter was from March.

I agree with you

[Learning18]

I agree with you no one knowS what Home office is upto. I made my complaint on 10th August is it worth involving my MP in this issue.

It’s a generic response I received the same email copy and paste. I don’t understand why they not printing certificate most of the Council saying the same thing they not receiving batch regularly. I suggest everyone to make complaint and put pressure on them.

At this point I agree.
I have just had a call from the Ukvcas due to the call I made to the home office last week about recieing a generic response. He said "There is no time frame and I can't tell you when you will recieve the invitation letter, you just have to wait for how long it takes. The responses you are getting from the support team are not generic, there are tailored to your case, it is actually a human responding to your case and not a robot". That's all he kept repeating that it is not a generic response, he seemed to be upset about that, that I informed the lady I spoke to that I was getting a generic
response which it was. I got only one response since February which is not generic where they informed me which council my certificate will go to. The rest were the same responses I received before my decision date which is a copy and paste response. I have sent in a complaint and I will be sending another. He called just to tell me not to say it is generic.

" Upon investigation I can confirm that your citizenship ceremony documents have not yet been printed or despatched to the local authority.   Your citizenship paperwork will be generated in coming weeks when current restrictions due to Coronavirus are eased. 

In normal circumstances customers were required to book their citizenship ceremony within three months of being sent an invitation from the Home Office.  Due to the current circumstances we have extended this period to six months. We will keep this under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence)."

I have seen this response everywhere and so many times.

I will never understand HO in this matter. Send all the invitations and leave it with the applicant and the Council. Why you are withholding it. I have done my complaint 1 week ago

I will be involving my MP again. The first time I involved her, they gave me my decision. I will will contact again for an update. As being given the same response which is " you can get your invitation letter whenever" is not good for me anymore. I even said I have a 6 months period and i am past half of that, he said I can't guarantee you that you will get it within that time .

[Sous49]

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

Hi User5877

Many congratulations for you

May i kindly ask , have you received a seperate decision letter or you only got informed that the application is approved when Home office replied to you email query ?.

Thank you

[Wahidwadid]

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

CONGRATULATIONS
Tnx for your sharing, Would you mind to tell, Was your application successful today or before?And I think this is the actual time frame mention in the letter we can trust, Sometimes confused when council say totally different, Is there anyone from mcr council?

[lleksi]

Today I’ve got a response from Bromley council:

Good morning,
Thank you for your email.
The Home Office have suspended sending any certificates for the time being.
When they start sending them again – I will be in touch as soon as possible.
Kind regards

My application has been approved on 20 of May.

If you don't mind to share, When did u apply ?

Hi Wahidwadid
I did apply on 29 of January

[sunny007]

Hi everyone

My british Citizenship application has been approved in March and after that I am waiting for my Citizenship Ceremony, I have contacted my council many times but they have suspended the ceremony till further notice, Today I have contacted my council and asked me to contact the home office because they have not received my certificate, After that I contacted the  0300 123 2253 Which i get from the following link
https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside- ... ationality

After contacting this number the agent told me that you need to contact the Home office. This number is just for general enquiries, I,ve asked her to give me the correct number please she replied there is no such number exists, you need to email them.

I have emailed them on the following email addresses but no response recieved till today
04 August 2020
FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk,
nationalityenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk,
FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

11August 2020
citizenship.support@homeoffice.gov.uk

My council also send email today to following email , cc me
14 August 2020
Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk

Can anyone confirm / share their experience of how i need to contact the home office to chase my Certificate please? Any phone number and email addresses?

[user5877]

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

CONGRATULATIONS
Tnx for your sharing, Would you mind to tell, Was your application successful today or before?And I think this is the actual time frame mention in the letter we can trust, Sometimes confused when council say totally different, Is there anyone from mcr council?

I received an email stating my application was approved on 27th of May so it was no news to me. I've just emailed them asking if they've sent my certificate yet. I was chatting with lady from my local council yesterday and she told me they haven't received my certificate yet but expect it in coming weeks and that they will call me straight away when they get it.

[sunny007]

Can you please share the email address which you are using to enquire your certificate communication with home office

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

CONGRATULATIONS
Tnx for your sharing, Would you mind to tell, Was your application successful today or before?And I think this is the actual time frame mention in the letter we can trust, Sometimes confused when council say totally different, Is there anyone from mcr council?

I received an email stating my application was approved on 27th of May so it was no news to me. I've just emailed them asking if they've sent my certificate yet. I was chatting with lady from my local council yesterday and she told me they haven't received my certificate yet but expect it in coming weeks and that they will call me straight away when they get it.

[TheTraveller]

What about all of us be united and ask a lawyer to take legal action in way of JR? JR is very important legal path to stop government of acting unlawfully.

I think if all of us act together, I’m sure we will a clear timely manner solution and even compensation!

I feel the government is discriminating against us as a new citizens.

All of us are working hard and paying a lot of taxes .. and therefore they must show us some respect and not treating us as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the country.

Best of luck all.

[user5877]

What about all of us be united and ask a lawyer to take legal action in way of JR? JR is very important legal path to stop government of acting unlawfully.

I think if all of us act together, I’m sure we will a clear timely manner solution and even compensation!

I feel the government is discriminating against us as a new citizens.

All of us are working hard and paying a lot of taxes .. and therefore they must show us some respect and not treating us as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the country.

Best of luck all.

or just wait another few weeks to receive your invitation in the post as promised

[CR001]

What about all of us be united and ask a lawyer to take legal action in way of JR? JR is very important legal path to stop government of acting unlawfully.

I think if all of us act together, I’m sure we will a clear timely manner solution and even compensation!

I feel the government is discriminating against us as a new citizens.

All of us are working hard and paying a lot of taxes .. and therefore they must show us some respect and not treating us as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the country.

Best of luck all.

There is no discrimination here. UKVI, as with all governments around the world, could not possibly have anticipated the pandemic situation and the massive knock on effect and repercussions of all sorts of things we consider under normal circumstances. They might be a bit slow in getting things going, but that is what it is and they are trying and have been providing updates.

Citizenship is a privilege, not a right. You are not being prevented from continuing with life in the UK as you hold ILR already.

[preetham2103]

We are in a slightly complicated situation. My wife's citizenship was approved in Feb but the HO made a mistake by sending the ceremony letter to a wrong council (I live in Essex, they sent to Birmingham). I was able to redirect it to Essex and it took 4 weeks and the ceremony was set on 1st April. 2 days before that it got cancelled due to COVID. 2 weeks ago, got an email from Essex saying we are recommencing the ceremonies BUT our 6 month letter extension got expired because the initial letter was issued in Feb. Now they don't know what to do next.
To add to the complication, my wife's Indian passport expired in April and we can't renew it because high commission is not accepting renewals right now. So she currently has no passport and no idea what to do next?
Has anyone had such an experience & any guidance on how to proceed please?

[user5877]

We are in a slightly complicated situation. My wife's citizenship was approved in Feb but the HO made a mistake by sending the ceremony letter to a wrong council (I live in Essex, they sent to Birmingham). I was able to redirect it to Essex and it took 4 weeks and the ceremony was set on 1st April. 2 days before that it got cancelled due to COVID. 2 weeks ago, got an email from Essex saying we are recommencing the ceremonies BUT our 6 month letter extension got expired because the initial letter was issued in Feb. Now they don't know what to do next.
To add to the complication, my wife's Indian passport expired in April and we can't renew it because high commission is not accepting renewals right now. So she currently has no passport and no idea what to do next?
Has anyone had such an experience & any guidance on how to proceed please?

Email FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk and ask, however keep in mind that I waited a month for my response. If you are in the country legally and don't plan on travelling anytime soon I can't see it being a problem.

Edit: I've just realised, they have 20 working days to respond and the answer I've received today to my email is exactly 20 working days after I've sent my question.

[Wahidwadid]

received response from my local council.

We have received just one batch since march and your certificate was not among them.

anyone please advised my decision was made on 24 march so 8/12 weeks start from decision date or when i actually received it.

thanks

I have received the following reply from the Home Office today.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 19 July about about your citizenship application. Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying.

Your application for British citizenship has been successful. Please be assured that a citizenship ceremony invitation will be issued to you by post within the next 8 – 12 weeks. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation.

We are currently working with Local Authorities throughout the UK and with overseas diplomatic posts as they begin to resume Citizenship Ceremonies. Service has not yet returned to normal due to continuing adherence to Government advice on social distancing – which is subject to some local and international variance.

When you receive an invitation inviting you to attend a citizenship ceremony please contact your local authority office to book an appointment. You are required to attend a citizenship ceremony within 6 months of the date printed on your ceremony invitation. Your Local Authority will confirm the ceremonies available.

We will keep ceremony deadlines under constant review. Please be assured that no adverse decisions will be made on your application because of delays caused by Coronavirus (unless there is a material change in your circumstances, for example, you are convicted of a criminal offence).

Please do not contact UKVI or your Local Authority until you have received your invitation as they will not hold the documentation for you to book a ceremony and this can only be sent in the above timeframe.

During this time UKVI are receiving a high volume of enquires that may take longer than usual for a reply. Please do not contact Visas and Citizenship department to request your ceremony be held in another location based on ceremony date availability as such requests cannot be accommodated and will be declined

Should you require further information or guidance, you may wish to contact the UK Visas and Immigration at:

www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

So in other words:

1. 6 months counts from the day they send you ceremony invitation letter
2. Please don't email Home Office, they're working through the backlog
3. Please don't contact your council, they're busy enough as it is

CONGRATULATIONS
Tnx for your sharing, Would you mind to tell, Was your application successful today or before?And I think this is the actual time frame mention in the letter we can trust, Sometimes confused when council say totally different, Is there anyone from mcr council?

I received an email stating my application was approved on 27th of May so it was no news to me. I've just emailed them asking if they've sent my certificate yet. I was chatting with lady from my local council yesterday and she told me they haven't received my certificate yet but expect it in coming weeks and that they will call me straight away when they get it.

Tnx user5877

[Small]

Hi

My application was approved on 20th May.

I rang Bradford council a couple of weeks ago and they took my details and said someone will call back. No one rang so I rang them again today and their response was

We are working very hard to start ceremonies soon. There are a lot of complicated things to consider before they commence like social distancing etc. I then asked if they could let me know roughly when they plan on starting them again and I was told they will have a date in a week or two.

I will call them in two weeks time now if needed. They are very slow as I can understand this is not a priority at the moment but at least they are working.

On the other hand I also filed a complaint on UK Visas website.The main reason was they did not respond to my email I sent a few weeks ago. Hotels, gyms, restaurants are all open but there is no communication from them. I also said that you guys charge a lot of money for an application and your service does not match the price charged.

If I get a response I will share with you guys.
What a laf, not laugh, from HO. I have been told same. Beauty parlours, gym, shops, Barbour, even the public toilets are open. Footballs . Cricket , rugby going on. Hospitals, nurses , doctors all working. There maybe very few or none COVID patients. People are flying to holidays. which category in HO stands. Absolute joke!
I am totally agree with one of members here whose idea about lodging a formal complaint the way HO treats us after taking huge fee. Totally agree it’s a privilege but people have so many problems and it problems can only be solved if HO issues letters. Things are not as bad as HO says and this delay is not due to COVID it’s HO nature to delay before the epidemic . I would suggest a formal complaint against HO.

[LiverpoolYNWA]

What about all of us be united and ask a lawyer to take legal action in way of JR? JR is very important legal path to stop government of acting unlawfully.

I think if all of us act together, I’m sure we will a clear timely manner solution and even compensation!

I feel the government is discriminating against us as a new citizens.

All of us are working hard and paying a lot of taxes .. and therefore they must show us some respect and not treating us as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the country.

Best of luck all.

It would be better if we all contact the media, especially the Guardian/Mirror.

[Frou01]

A lot of complicated things to consider?

So how can it be that my company could educate us on health & safety and social distancing quite quick?
I work in customer service and being all day with customers.

So what is so “complicated” to put chairs apart, wear masks and put out the hand sanitizer?!

For me it sounds like an excuse, sorry!

[CR001]

A lot of complicated things to consider?

So how can it be that my company could educate us on health & safety and social distancing quite quick?
I work in customer service and being all day with customers.

So what is so “complicated” to put chairs apart, wear masks and put out the hand sanitizer?!

For me it sounds like an excuse, sorry!

Many of the chamber's where group ceremonies are held are in an amphitheatre style with fixed benches/chairs in tiers and a small circular centre area. It is not as easy as simply putting in distanced chairs.

[Frou01]

A lot of complicated things to consider?

So how can it be that my company could educate us on health & safety and social distancing quite quick?
I work in customer service and being all day with customers.

So what is so “complicated” to put chairs apart, wear masks and put out the hand sanitizer?!

For me it sounds like an excuse, sorry!

Many of the chamber's where group ceremonies are held are in an amphitheatre style with fixed benches/chairs in tiers and a small circular centre area. It is not as easy as simply putting in distanced chairs.

Ok, I understand. Thank you.
I have had my lunch in a restaurant the other day on fixed benches, they just put signs which tables and seats have to stay clear so no one was sitting to my left and my right.
Maybe they can do that too. We will see.