Naturalization vis-a-vis travel query

[natques]

Hi,

If I understand correctly, the procedure for naturalization is as follows:

1. You get letter of approval (won't consider rejection scenario)
2. You attend the ceremony
3. You apply for British passport

My question is this. Have you got citizenship as soon as step 1 above is completed, before completing step 2 ? My country allows just one full citizenship at a time (ie, can hold just one passport), will it be legal for me to travel in and out of UK on my non-UK passport betweeen steps 1 and 2 above or for that matter between steps 2 and 3 ? I understand that after step 3 is completed, I must only use UK passport.

Thanks in anticipation

[Christophe]

You will not be a British citizen until you have completed step 2. Therefore, I should imagine, based on what you say, your present passport would be a valid document for travel between step 1 and step 2 but that it would cease to be so as soon as you have attended the citizenship ceremony.

You should therefore have no particular problems using it to travel on after step 1 and before step 2. Once step 2 is completed, it ought not to take long at all to get a British passport - a week or two, probably, from the time of application. Soon, though, all first-time applicants will need to attend an interview, but even so, I don't imagine that it would take you long: after all, if you think about it, issuing a passport to a newly naturalised citizen must be one of the easiest decisions that the passport agency has to make!

[natques]

Thanks, Christophe. I intend to travel abroad for holidays and needed to know this before booking tickets.

[Marco 72]

Hopefully what happened to me won't happen to you: they spelt my name wrong on the naturalisation certificate and I had to send it back to the Home Office three weeks ago (still haven't heard from them). I'm a British citizen, but I can't get a passport.

In any case, I wouldn't make any travel plans until I have the passport in my hands. In April they should be starting to interview passport applicants and it might slow the process down.