Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[Enigma-Machine]

Good Morning Everyone,

Were anyone able to book a Private Ceremony recently with Westminster Council? Their website says they will continue to do Private Ceremonies, but when I try to book it takes me a page which says ceremonies are not available and that I need to call them.

I called many times but it is impossible to get through to the registerer.

Can you please share your experience and explain how you managed to book your ceremony with Westminster?

Many thanks & good luck to everyone!

[dragon098]

Hi both,

Yes you can search for your certificate on Wandsworth Council website, just follow this path:
https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/births-de ... -ceremony/

and click on "make a booking"

Then just use your Full name exactly as its on your application and your home office reference number that you can find on the approval letter. if it doesn't work try without the first 0.
if it proceeds to the next page then it means the council has your certificate.

However, I called the council again today to ask if I can book a private ceremony without the letter and the lady was very clear that I need to wait for the letter first.

On the website it says that group ceremonies have been postponed due to the lockdown restriction but you can pay £100 for a private one(virtual)

Hope. this helps

Thanks for your swift reply, All the best to your londuk1
I wish Wandsworth Council let you and others do the ceremony without invitation letter. Not sure why this is happening some let you and some don't.

[coolrockspart2]

Has anyone approved in October received their invitation letter ? Or anyone has any idea roughly when can we expect invitation letter for October approval ?
Thanks

[dragon098]

Nope nothing for me, my timeline: -

Applied: 07/Sep/2020
Confirmation: 09/Sep/2020
UKVCAS: 19/Sep/2020
Approval: 21/Oct/2020
Invitation: pending.....
Ceremony: pending.....
Council: Wandsworth

According to Baybars prediction Mid December looks like time I will be getting. So I guess most October should be getting around Dec, Jan

[Misty1]

Me too.
Approved Oct 6th & not heard anything since. Hopefully mid Dec to early Jan, or earlier if lucky...

[CheshireKnight]

Update from my side

My solicitor confirmed receiving the invitation letter, dated on the 4th of Nov.

Ceremony booked with council for 30th of Nov.

My application approval was on the 11/09/2020.

Almost there

Hope everyone whose waiting gets theirs sorted soon

Big thank you for the group and the moderators. Baybers1 you’re a star

[Szrsrts]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

[mrmo93]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

When were you approved im in Kent too?

[SamcoSamco]

Looking at the posts confirming the receipt of invitation letter, majority of them are from the south (Mainly London). I wonder if the northern half of the country is receiving invitations at the same rate!?

My application was approved end of July 2020 and still have not received my invitation yet. I tried to reach the citizenship team by phone but I was kept on waiting until I was sick of the automated message/music and decided to hang up.

Is there anyone else still waiting since July?

[Szrsrts]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

When were you approved im in Kent too?

Hi in mid of August.

[nnn15]

End of May approval, I am still waiting for the invite.

But your certificate arrived at the council, right? Have you tried calling the HO and asking about the letter? Some other councils don't require a ceremony invitation letter, only the approval letter. If the council doesn't allow you to attend the ceremony without the ceremony invitation letter and the letter doesn't arrive in reasonable time, you could try asking your MP to convince the council to let you attend the ceremony, it might be faster than trying to deal with the HO.

I'm a spring approval, mine certificate hasn't arrived and neither did the letter, so I just have to wait and bother the HO from time to time to remind them about my application...

My particular council doesn't allow ceremony without Home Office invite.

I've tried calling, sending emails, complaint and now have sent them a written letter.

No response/engagement since May, unfortunately.

And they didn't respond even on the complaint? Did you send an email complaint or a complaint via the website? For the website complaints they have a 20 working days response service standard.

[Belle01]

I have sent an email to my CT department.
In our approval letters are the numbers which CT department they respond from and to this one I have sent an email this week.

It was said it was sent on 11/11. That was Wednesday.
As on Thursday my council confirmed they have received my certificate I assume that the certificates are sent 1st class (that’s why the next day arrival) and as invitations are sent 2nd class it hasn’t arrived yet.

Btw I was looking up, 2nd class letters take 2-4 working days (including Saturdays) and not 10 working days.

Hi Frou01.
Could you please tell me how long it took the CT dept. to respond to your email?
Was it your caseworker who responded?
Thank you.

Less than 24 hours. Yes from caseworker.
Didn’t expect that this fast as I sent in the past an email to citizenship support and took them over two months to sent me a reply.
A friend has emailed to her CT which is a different number and got no response. And another person I know has sent one the week before only brief response like you will receive it shortly and in fact it was there 2 days later.
Let us know when you have received something. Good luck!

HI Frou, I tried to send and email to the CT mailbox and kept getting an error message saying address not found. Is this the right format- CT6caseworkenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk ? Thanks. I even tried writing ct6 in lower case and it bounced back. I got my approval email from the nationality casework decision mailbox so maybe CT6 doesn't have a mailbox?

[mrmo93]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

When were you approved im in Kent too?

Hi in mid of August.

Ah I see, my friend in Grenwhich around the same time, i think in the next two weeks since there close/doing august and september now.

Im approved Early october so mid december for me

[Kadey123]

I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day

Hi quick question where do you find caseworker email? Thank you

My caseworker emailed me directly throughout my application to ask questions so maybe check if you saw anything in your emails from an actual caseworker. He was lucky he got a lovely lady who updated him and and also called him and told him to check his emails cause he was panicking and the approval letter was there and when he recently emailed last week she called him and told him not to panic they are clearing thi backlog and some people approved later in the year may revive it before but not too worry as you would receive it this year . So stay strong everyone you will all get there, I totally understand the frustration as I was frustrated for him and came acros this thread and realised there were worse situations than his and he is quite lucky in his process and Havering is white helpful aswell they would email us to say whether they received it yet or not. So yeah

Hi all,

Good news today the post my just delivered my boyfriends Brown envelope.. the council had already booked him in for a ceremony without invitation letter but its great to have actually finally received it- please see below for final update:

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter@ Council: (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: 17.11.2020 exactly 12 weeks from the date he was approved.LITERALLY
Date on the ceremony invitation was:09.11,2020 which means they are printing, have hope my lovely people
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Based on @Baybars1 timeline - my partners came within his created timeline- so thank you for giving us all hope throughout these dark times. You really are heaven sent.

I am happy he can finally become British and I can attempt to somewhat have a holiday in the nearby future as we haven’t travelled for ages due to this application.

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport. Xx

[minikube]

End of May approval, I am still waiting for the invite.

But your certificate arrived at the council, right? Have you tried calling the HO and asking about the letter? Some other councils don't require a ceremony invitation letter, only the approval letter. If the council doesn't allow you to attend the ceremony without the ceremony invitation letter and the letter doesn't arrive in reasonable time, you could try asking your MP to convince the council to let you attend the ceremony, it might be faster than trying to deal with the HO.

I'm a spring approval, mine certificate hasn't arrived and neither did the letter, so I just have to wait and bother the HO from time to time to remind them about my application...

My particular council doesn't allow ceremony without Home Office invite.

I've tried calling, sending emails, complaint and now have sent them a written letter.

No response/engagement since May, unfortunately.

And they didn't respond even on the complaint? Did you send an email complaint or a complaint via the website? For the website complaints they have a 20 working days response service standard.

Sent it through the website, they are still within the 20 working days timeframe.

[Frou01]

I have sent an email to my CT department.
In our approval letters are the numbers which CT department they respond from and to this one I have sent an email this week.

It was said it was sent on 11/11. That was Wednesday.
As on Thursday my council confirmed they have received my certificate I assume that the certificates are sent 1st class (that’s why the next day arrival) and as invitations are sent 2nd class it hasn’t arrived yet.

Btw I was looking up, 2nd class letters take 2-4 working days (including Saturdays) and not 10 working days.

Hi Frou01.
Could you please tell me how long it took the CT dept. to respond to your email?
Was it your caseworker who responded?
Thank you.

Less than 24 hours. Yes from caseworker.
Didn’t expect that this fast as I sent in the past an email to citizenship support and took them over two months to sent me a reply.
A friend has emailed to her CT which is a different number and got no response. And another person I know has sent one the week before only brief response like you will receive it shortly and in fact it was there 2 days later.
Let us know when you have received something. Good luck!

HI Frou, I tried to send and email to the CT mailbox and kept getting an error message saying address not found. Is this the right format- CT6caseworkenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk ? Thanks. I even tried writing ct6 in lower case and it bounced back. I got my approval email from the nationality casework decision mailbox so maybe CT6 doesn't have a mailbox?

Yes, they must have done the same what CT4 has done. Someone told me they’ve had the same error.
I know that some one the first numbers were working.

As HO isn’t really responsive and even passed on to the helpline not to give email addresses (while many have them already) and to ask they only want to get contacted in writing.

I think it’s nowadays rather lucky to get a reply.

Maybe consider to sent it in writing?

[raij]

[/quote]

Yes, they must have done the same what CT4 has done. Someone told me they’ve had the same error.
I know that some one the first numbers were working.

As HO isn’t really responsive and even passed on to the helpline not to give email addresses (while many have them already) and to ask they only want to get contacted in writing.

I think it’s nowadays rather lucky to get a reply.

Maybe consider to sent it in writing?
[/quote]
I got told last week to email them and was given H.O. email to send my inquiry which i did , they havent replied on my august one as yet :/ - maybe it depends who one speak to ? , as everyone is given mixed info sadly
been waiting 24 weeks now , my mp finally sent an email to our local Operational Manager
Home Office Immigration , to hopefully get some response, as my local registry office also did not have my paperwork as yet

[Frou01]

Yes, they must have done the same what CT4 has done. Someone told me they’ve had the same error.
I know that some one the first numbers were working.

As HO isn’t really responsive and even passed on to the helpline not to give email addresses (while many have them already) and to ask they only want to get contacted in writing.

I think it’s nowadays rather lucky to get a reply.

Maybe consider to sent it in writing?
[/quote]
I got told last week to email them and was given H.O. email to send my inquiry which i did , they havent replied on my august one as yet :/ - maybe it depends who one speak to ? , as everyone is given mixed info sadly
been waiting 24 weeks now , my mp finally sent an email to our local Operational Manager
Home Office Immigration , to hopefully get some response, as my local registry office also did not have my paperwork as yet
[/quote]

Sorry to hear about your very long wait.
I think you did the best in involving your MP.

I remember it was back in Summer easy for so many and me included to contact the nationalitysupport email for example, you received an automated reply and then a day later or so an email by a person.
Now they don’t reply anymore and also there’s no automated reply first, they must have changed something.

I understand HO doesn’t want all these emails and I can only assume people have flooded them.
But I don’t understand the non communication.
They could at least acknowledge emails to see what is going on when people feel like they were forgotten.

And what I think they should have done for sure is to send an email to everyone of the backlog saying at least we are on it, or we cannot meet the 30 October deadline or 12 week deadline.
That would be at least some kind of communication and I’m sure that would make people feel better in general and know when to expect something.

I’m glad things were now finally moving for so many, but the situation with Spring approvals is still not sorted and frustrating.

[Belle01]

Hi Frou01.
Could you please tell me how long it took the CT dept. to respond to your email?
Was it your caseworker who responded?
Thank you.

Less than 24 hours. Yes from caseworker.
Didn’t expect that this fast as I sent in the past an email to citizenship support and took them over two months to sent me a reply.
A friend has emailed to her CT which is a different number and got no response. And another person I know has sent one the week before only brief response like you will receive it shortly and in fact it was there 2 days later.
Let us know when you have received something. Good luck!

HI Frou, I tried to send and email to the CT mailbox and kept getting an error message saying address not found. Is this the right format- CT6caseworkenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk ? Thanks. I even tried writing ct6 in lower case and it bounced back. I got my approval email from the nationality casework decision mailbox so maybe CT6 doesn't have a mailbox?

Yes, they must have done the same what CT4 has done. Someone told me they’ve had the same error.
I know that some one the first numbers were working.

As HO isn’t really responsive and even passed on to the helpline not to give email addresses (while many have them already) and to ask they only want to get contacted in writing.

I think it’s nowadays rather lucky to get a reply.

Maybe consider to sent it in writing?

Ok thanks. I'll try writing them and see if that works.

[Gioldn]

I have finally received my invitation letter already 1 week ago.. approval august 6th Wandsworth council
I emailed them twice as apparently you can only try book via email.. no answer yet:( obviously you don’t have to attend to book within the 21 days stated on the letter ?
Good Morning Everyone,

Were anyone able to book a Private Ceremony recently with Westminster Council? Their website says they will continue to do Private Ceremonies, but when I try to book it takes me a page which says ceremonies are not available and that I need to call them.

I called many times but it is impossible to get through to the registerer.

Can you please share your experience and explain how you managed to book your ceremony with Westminster?

Many thanks & good luck to everyone!
[/quote]

[Gioldn]

Hi I’m Wandsworth too I received my letter last week.. I called them and they told me you can only book virtual ceremonies vua email.. no reply yet..

oh my god you are right.
I just searched on Wandsworth council online ceremony booking system with my approval letter reference number and they got my certificate. woohoo
So my invitation letter should be on the way to me this week.

Hi Londuk1, I am from Wandsworth council too, Could you please tell me when you go to Wandsworth council page "Please enter your home office reference" This is the reference number that is within our approval email isn't it. And please do update your status. Good Luck

Hi Londuk1
same case here im also from wandsworth council can u tell us the full procedure please

[1lexD]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

Hello,

I was booked by KCC ceremony team for group ceremony limited to 20 people the coming Fridays 10am. I doubt this is the only one for the day. Also someone mentioned he (or she) has been booked for the coming Monday, which means they are conducting the ceremonies more than ones a week. I hope that helps.

[Szrsrts]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

Hello,

I was booked by KCC ceremony team for group ceremony limited to 20 people the coming Fridays 10am. I doubt this is the only one for the day. Also someone mentioned he (or she) has been booked for the coming Monday, which means they are conducting the ceremonies more than ones a week. I hope that helps.

Hello,
I managed to book for next Friday.

Thank you

[mrmo93]

Hello good morning folks,

Has anyone managed to book a ceremony with KCC Maidstone? Thank you.

Hello,

I was booked by KCC ceremony team for group ceremony limited to 20 people the coming Fridays 10am. I doubt this is the only one for the day. Also someone mentioned he (or she) has been booked for the coming Monday, which means they are conducting the ceremonies more than ones a week. I hope that helps.

Congrats , when was your approval I am in the same county but I got approved october 12th.

[Gillji]

Hi All
Any one from October approved got the invitation yet?
As I heard some October approved people got their invitations straight way
Is that true?
Any one have any information and share here would be appreciated
Thanks in advance to all
And wishing every one good luck on this platform