Naturalization Certificate not returned by HMPO

[obi1983]

Hi all!

I have just applied for my first British passport after naturalisation. Whilst doing it, we realised that the HMPO never returned to my partner her naturalisation certificate when she applied for it a couple of months ago. She received her British passport, and also her Italian one. But not the certificate.

Does anyone else have a similar issue?

[CR001]

Contact them directly. They are very helpful. It would have been sent separately to the passport so make sure it isn't lying somewhere unopened or hopefully, not thrown out.

[obi1983]

Thank you very much for your quick answer! We are calling them at the moment, still on hold

We are very careful with the post, and we have been working from home for ages, so I think we have not missed it. Just to double-check: do they normally return it in the same envelope than the passport (not the British, in this case, the Italian) or in different ones?

[CR001]

Supporting documents are all returned separately after the British passport.

[obi1983]

So, all supporting documents are not sent together in the same envelope, right? In that case, maybe it is lost somewhere.

Thank you so much CR001!

[CR001]

All supporting documents are sent together. The British passport is sent separately.

[obi1983]

In that case, they didn't send it. In the envelope, it was only the passport, not the certificate.

Thanks for your clarification!

[obi1983]

After many calls to HMPO, where the agents were telling us to wait for another five working days until they finish the investigation, they got back to us saying that they do not know where her naturalisation certificate is.

They said they have opened a formal investigation, and as a good will gesture, they will issue a new one free of charge.

Keeping aside the fact that how could they lose such important document and the GDPR connotations it have, does anyone know how long they can take?