Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[uuee6543]

I have not yet received an invitation, but it appears my council (Camden) has received my certificate just now. They previously told me to keep trying to book through their website and it just went through.

I emailed them and they told me it is fine to book even though I don’t have the letter yet. It’s unclear whether they will let me attend the ceremony though should I turn up without a letter.

My application was approved on the 12 June. Ceremony date at the moment is set to 15 October (it’s a private ceremony) so I still have plenty of time to hopefully receive the letter.

Would you mind sharing the date on the invitation letter once you have received it?

Sure I will post here once I receive the letter (or should I say IF lol).

[Learning18]

Hi,


My certificate arrived today and I was able to book in a ceremony at Brent. I was booked in for the 29th of October 2020, nothing before that unless I pay £135 for a private ceremont during week days or £175 for a weekend which is outrageous.

I guess I have to wait 3 more weeks for the certificate.

Congrats! Would you mind sharing your approval date, as well as the date written on the ceremony invite letter? Thanks in advance.

Thank you
You were right, your algorithm worked.

My approval date was the 3rd of June.
Date on invitation letter is the 19th of September 2020.
And I received the letter by the 3rd of October.

[baybars1]

Thank you
You were right, your algorithm worked.

My approval date was the 3rd of June.
Date on invitation letter is the 19th of September 2020.
And I received the letter by the 3rd of October.

Many thanks.

[baybars1]

Sure I will post here once I receive the letter (or should I say IF lol).

Much appreciated.

[Raihanul]

So people that got approved o 4th of June got their approval on 5th of Novemeber. Wondering if we get on the date we were approved on June, i.e. I got approved on 16th of June so I might get mine on 16th of November ? humm,,

[Runner12345]

I am also still waiting, approval 26/05/2020 but no letter yet. Emailed the HO almost 1.5 month ago about change of address, no reply at all. I have forwarding from the old address just in case anyway but who knows where they will send it to (if they ever will anyway)...

Update, I emailed Southwark council to see if they have my certificate and they responded within like 2 hours that they do and just offered a zoom ceremony for Thursday immediately. This was the second time contacting the registrars office there and they have been very pleasent and responsive for me so far. I used the general registrars email address

Thanks for the update, I think we had similar timelines. I just dropped them a line as well. I do not have my letter yet though. Do you?

I don't, that's why I emailed them. I did not even ask for the ceremony without the letter, they offered to book me in themself so definitely worth trying your luck!

Looks like you were lucky. They got my certificate but I was told they can only book me in, once I have this stupid letter... sigh

[baybars1]

So people that got approved o 4th of June got their approval on 5th of Novemeber. Wondering if we get on the date we were approved on June, i.e. I got approved on 16th of June so I might get mine on 16th of November ? humm,,

You probably meant October, not November. As for June 16 approvals, my model would suggest that your letter should have been printed on 24 September and should reach you by 14 October, or thereabouts.

[Stef03]

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

[baybars1]

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Congrats, great news. It is possible that they are sending certificates via a more secure and a faster service than the one used to ship invitation letters. Be that as it may, please do share the date on the invitation letter once you have received it, even if it be after the ceremony has taken place. It helps with the model because the most recent combination I have is 9 June approval and 20 September invitation letter date.

[baybars1]

Below is the sample that I have managed to compile using info posted on this forum (albeit in different threads), listing members who have clearly stated the dates of both the approval email and the ceremony invite, including the two members whose certificates have arrived at the local authority, but whose ceremony invites are yet to be received.

There are other users who were approved in May and early June and who have advised on different threads that they had received their invitations and booked ceremonies, but they did they not mention the dates printed on invite letters. On the bright side, I would think that we get the picture as to what is happening with most approvals granted in May and early June and it is becoming more obvious that the model would benefit from further updates relating to more recent approvals, those granted from 10 June onward.

Finally, there are August and September approvals where ceremony invites have already arrived. However, on closer inspection, those do not seem to be August/September approvals after all. When one considers that the relevant members would have applied for citizenship well before the lockdown, decisions may have been made by early March, or just before the lockdown started, with approval emails or letters being sent much later, sometimes even after the ceremony invite has already been received. Evidently, this means that the approval email/letter date would not have been used for the purpose of placing the candidate in the queue for ceremony invitations and this is why I have excluded those from the model.

Actual Approval Date ----- Actual Letter Date --------- Username
14/05/2020 ------------------ 07/09/2020 ------------------ 38j
14/05/2020 ------------------ 07/09/2020 ------------------ madihaali_304
20/05/2020 ------------------ 08/09/2020 ------------------ Anatol
20/05/2020 ------------------ 14/09/2020 ------------------ hassanwaheed87
20/05/2020 ------------------ 08/09/2020 ------------------ atam91
21/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ apostrophe 
21/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ Ade1111
22/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ dapto10
26/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ ummalido
27/05/2020 ------------------ 09/09/2020 ------------------ user5877
29/05/2020 ------------------ 01/09/2020 ------------------ Humble123
29/05/2020 ------------------ 14/09/2020 ------------------ Lopand 
01/06/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ AlexGo 
01/06/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ Pinkoojee17
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ I'mInMyPJ's 
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ slavipg
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ serg_ko
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ b41
03/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ Learning18 
04/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ beaujam90
05/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ jovaknokovich
05/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ zcranso
08/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ Xmz12x 
08/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ Doc2020
09/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ adubeys2020 
10/06/2020 ------------------ ??/??/???? --------------------- Stef03
12/06/2020 ------------------ ??/??/???? --------------------- uuee6543

[fanta]

you are correct about the fact that only people who have applied and have done the biometric before the lockdown and got approved August/September have got the invitation letter.

I applied just after the lockdown at the beginning of April and got approved in August. So I am still waiting for the invitation that I will receive in the date order.

[Frou01]

Can someone please post the phone number of home office and what extension to dial?

[mrduplicity]

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Hello can you let us know when you get your invitation letter please. I have the same approval date as you but my council are being unhelpful and refusing to let me know if they have my certificate . Hopefully we get our invitations this week.

[baybars1]

Can someone please post the phone number of home office and what extension to dial?

You can get contact details on this link https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk

As for extension, they have the usual multiple-choice intro message, but don't expect to reach your caseworker directly via any of those options. At best, they'll connect you to an outsourced call centre who admit that they know less than people following fora such as this and at worst you will hit the dead end of an outdated automated standard message. At any rate, if you are calling from the UK, the number is 0300 123 2253 and I would normally choose options 1, 4 and 2, which bring to you general enquiries, but, again, don't expect to learn much from them, unless you have grounds to escalate your case.

[baybars1]

you are correct about the fact that only people who have applied and have done the biometric before the lockdown and got approved August/September have got the invitation letter.

I applied just after the lockdown at the beginning of April and got approved in August. So I am still waiting for the invitation that I will receive in the date order.

Yes, you are probably looking some time in November for the invite to be with you, based on my projections at least.

Approval Date - Letter date - - - Letter arrives
01/08/2020 - - - 20/10/2020 - - - 09/11/2020
08/08/2020 - - - 22/10/2020 - - - 11/11/2020
15/08/2020 - - - 27/10/2020 - - - 16/11/2020
22/08/2020 - - - 29/10/2020 - - - 18/11/2020
29/08/2020 - - - 03/11/2020 - - - 23/11/2020

[IrobotZ]

Below is the sample that I have managed to compile using info posted on this forum (albeit in different threads), listing members who have clearly stated the dates of both the approval email and the ceremony invite, including the two members whose certificates have arrived at the local authority, but whose ceremony invites are yet to be received.

There are other users who were approved in May and early June and who have advised on different threads that they had received their invitations and booked ceremonies, but they did they not mention the dates printed on invite letters. On the bright side, I would think that we get the picture as to what is happening with most approvals granted in May and early June and it is becoming more obvious that the model would benefit from further updates relating to more recent approvals, those granted from 10 June onward.

Finally, there are August and September approvals where ceremony invites have already arrived. However, on closer inspection, those do not seem to be August/September approvals after all. When one considers that the relevant members would have applied for citizenship well before the lockdown, decisions may have been made by early March, or just before the lockdown started, with approval emails or letters being sent much later, sometimes even after the ceremony invite has already been received. Evidently, this means that the approval email/letter date would not have been used for the purpose of placing the candidate in the queue for ceremony invitations and this is why I have excluded those from the model.

Actual Approval Date ----- Actual Letter Date --------- Username
14/05/2020 ------------------ 07/09/2020 ------------------ 38j
14/05/2020 ------------------ 07/09/2020 ------------------ madihaali_304
20/05/2020 ------------------ 08/09/2020 ------------------ Anatol
20/05/2020 ------------------ 14/09/2020 ------------------ hassanwaheed87
20/05/2020 ------------------ 08/09/2020 ------------------ atam91
21/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ apostrophe 
21/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ Ade1111
22/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ dapto10
26/05/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ ummalido
27/05/2020 ------------------ 09/09/2020 ------------------ user5877
29/05/2020 ------------------ 01/09/2020 ------------------ Humble123
29/05/2020 ------------------ 14/09/2020 ------------------ Lopand 
01/06/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ AlexGo 
01/06/2020 ------------------ 10/09/2020 ------------------ Pinkoojee17
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ I'mInMyPJ's 
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ slavipg
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ serg_ko
02/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ b41
03/06/2020 ------------------ 19/09/2020 ------------------ Learning18 
04/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ beaujam90
05/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ jovaknokovich
05/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ zcranso
08/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ Xmz12x 
08/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ Doc2020
09/06/2020 ------------------ 20/09/2020 ------------------ adubeys2020 
10/06/2020 ------------------ ??/??/???? --------------------- Stef03
12/06/2020 ------------------ ??/??/???? --------------------- uuee6543

Thanks very much for providing such detailed info, I applied 02/2019 but only got my approval email 29/06/2020... would the long waiting time between my application date and approval date affect the arrival of my invitation letter.... been waiting for years for this now and I need to move on the 4th of Nov which means I need to change address if I did not get my letter before the moving date... really gives me anxiety attack when I think about the whole situation.

[N1234]

Great news guys!

Finally the wait is over!

I’ve received my invitation letter today (Nottingham Council) dated 20/09/20.
I got my approval email on 08/06/2020

Good luck to everyone waiting and thanks a lot for your help!

Has anyone had a ceremony in Nottingham Council recently guys?

If it is Nottingham city council, I have ceremony on the 13th of October. They said they are doing it based on how many certificates they receive each month. For eg. They only doing group ceremony and 15 people at a time and this month they have 3 of them.

To give you an idea how long it took, they received my certificate on the 21/09 (the lady who does the booking was out for the week apparently so no contact that week). My invitation from home office arrived on the 25/09 They booked me on the 28/09.

So you are looking at 2-3 weeks wait. Goof luck!

Send an email or call them to let them know you have received your invitation letter.

Nottingham next on tighter restrictions mate. Sad!!!

Majority of cases seem to be coming from university of Nottingham halls and they will be isolating. Not sure what the purpose of locking down the whole city will do. But I can’t imagine they will cancel the ceremony, any lockdown introduced it will be like manchester, Liverpool and Leicester. They have been doing ceremonies according to This forum so we will see how it goes.

[baybars1]

Thanks very much for providing such detailed info, I applied 02/2019 but only got my approval email 29/06/2020... would the long waiting time between my application date and approval date affect the arrival of my invitation letter.... been waiting for years for this now and I need to move on the 4th of Nov which means I need to change address if I did not get my letter before the moving date... really gives me anxiety attack when I think about the whole situation.

I don't know if you will get your letter before 4 November, because the model suggests that a mere additional two-week delay to the current pace of sending out the invites would put you on the other side of 4 November 2020, so I would arrange for address forwarding with the courier used by the Home Office (Royal Mail for invites? - they use TNT for passports). You should also send a letter to the Home Office advising them about the new address and the date from which that address will be valid.

As for your question whether the time it took to get the approval impacts on the timeline for the citizenship invite, I should think not. The approval is the point at which the Home Office says fine, you can acquire British Citizenship, and the ceremony is a formality in a sense that it is the same process for everyone who is approved. This date-order and long wait times between the date of approval and the date of the ceremony are mainly due the backlog of approvals accumulated during the lockdown and the continued requirement for social distancing, keeping the rate at which backlog is cleared relatively slow.

Most crucially, don't stress out too much over it. It's admin work and you should be able to sort it out, even if there are some minor complications to consider, like moving home.

[U Aziz]

Hi All,
Just spoke to my council (Hillingdon), they don’t have my certificate yet neither I’ve got the invitations from HO.
Application date: 22/02/202
Approval date: 22/06/2020
Not sure how long I will have to wait!!
Thanks

[baybars1]

Hi All,
Just spoke to my council (Hillingdon), they don’t have my certificate yet neither I’ve got the invitations from HO.
Application date: 22/02/202
Approval date: 22/06/2020
Not sure how long I will have to wait!!
Thanks

The HO target for the invite to reach you is the end of this month. Please let us know how it goes.

[Stef03]

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Just to follow up with the post above, I called the register office and they booked me for private ceremony tomorrow morning, without the invitation letter

[U Aziz]

Hi All,
Just spoke to my council (Hillingdon), they don’t have my certificate yet neither I’ve got the invitations from HO.
Application date: 22/02/202
Approval date: 22/06/2020
Not sure how long I will have to wait!!
Thanks

The HO target for the invite to reach you is the end of this month. Please let us know how it goes.

Thanks Baybar1!
Really appreciate your efforts to setup the table for guidance..

[IrobotZ]

Thanks very much for providing such detailed info, I applied 02/2019 but only got my approval email 29/06/2020... would the long waiting time between my application date and approval date affect the arrival of my invitation letter.... been waiting for years for this now and I need to move on the 4th of Nov which means I need to change address if I did not get my letter before the moving date... really gives me anxiety attack when I think about the whole situation.

I don't know if you will get your letter before 4 November, because the model suggests that a mere additional two-week delay to the current pace of sending out the invites would put you on the other side of 4 November 2020, so I would arrange for address forwarding with the courier used by the Home Office (Royal Mail for invites? - they use TNT for passports). You should also send a letter to the Home Office advising them about the new address and the date from which that address will be valid.

As for your question whether the time it took to get the approval impacts on the timeline for the citizenship invite, I should think not. The approval is the point at which the Home Office says fine, you can acquire British Citizenship, and the ceremony is a formality in a sense that it is the same process for everyone who is approved. This date-order and long wait times between the date of approval and the date of the ceremony are mainly due the backlog of approvals accumulated during the lockdown and the continued requirement for social distancing, keeping the rate at which backlog is cleared relatively slow.

Most crucially, don't stress out too much over it. It's admin work and you should be able to sort it out, even if there are some minor complications to consider, like moving home.

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation and encouragement, A lots are going on in life at the moment and its been very difficult, hopefully things will gets better from this point, I will keep things updated in the forum, hopefully my data will make some contribution.

[uuee6543]

Morning all

Didn’t get my invitation letter yet (approved June 10th). However I emailed the registrars office last evening (Hertfordshire) and apparently they already have my certificate. See below email reply. I will give them a call to see if they can book me in the absence of the invitation letter

“Good Morning

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry, it does appear that we do have you on our system, if you would like to contact the office on 0300 123 4045 after 9am and we can then book your Citizenship Ceremony for you.”

Just to follow up with the post above, I called the register office and they booked me for private ceremony tomorrow morning, without the invitation letter

Interesting. Did you have to say anything to convince them to have the ceremony without a letter? I have booked mine for the 15th October but don’t have the letter either yet. If it doesn’t arrive by then, I’m not sure whether they will let me have the ceremony. Even though they told me to book the ceremony “before I get the letter” it sounds like I will still need the letter to attend it. Not sure why some councils are able to do it without it.

Edit: just to clarify if someone didn’t read my previous post. The council did receive my certificate yesterday and I was able to book a private ceremony on their own advice for the earliest available date which is 15 October.

[numero1111]

Hello everyone! Received the below from the council after having received the citizenship invitation from Home office in February.. I have been stuck abroad and with the 14 day quarantine period was unable to attend before 23rd September(expiry date of existing certificate)
----

As my colleague said in the previous email. The Home Office are only allowing us to extend expiry dates for existing certificates to 23rd September, no further. So you won’t be able to book the October dates for group ceremonies that we currently have available.

Email the Home Office at Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk or call 0300 123 2253 and ask for your expiry date to be extended. They will then instruct us to extended your expiry date., allowing you to book later. As my colleague said they have clearly stated that they do not intend anyone’s citizenship application to fail due to delays caused by Covid-19.

I am sorry but our hands are tied in this matter. We hope to see you sooner rather than later.

I wrote to the home office a month ago (20 working days as their service standard) and asked them to extend the dates so I could attends in October or November but to no avail.. I have rung that number but I just keep going round in circles. Do I just have to wait now then?

Any guidance/ advice really appreciated. Thanks a million in advance!