I have been a silent observer of this forum for some time; at first when I applied for naturalisation in 2013 and now for my wife's application. Reading this forum and experiencing the naturalisation process twice, I am 100% convinced that the process is run by completely incompetent chimpanzees. Here's my wife's timeline and experience:
Eligibility criteria: 4 years ILR including 2 years BC spouse
Language criteria met: UK Masters degree + Life in the UK test
Nationality: Indian
Method of application: NCS York
Date of application: 23/07/2015
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKBA: 24/07/2015 (assumed as NCS York doesn't provide tracking number)
Date of acknowledgement: 07/08/2015 (letter dated 31/07/2015)
Date money gone from account: 31/07/2015
Date of letter requesting biometrics: 07/08/2015 (letter dated 04/08/2015)
Biometrics done: 08/08/2015
Date of approval: 20/10/2015 (letter dated 10/10/2015) Royal Mail 2nd class after paying £1005 in fees is simply extortion
Date of ceremony: Complex*
*Our joy of getting the approval letter soon turned to stress as we noticed that they had named the wrong council to contact. We've always lived in York, yet the letter asks us to contact Westminster Council. For clarity, we never asked for the ceremony to be in any other location other than where we live i.e question 1.21 of form AN was left blank.
I called Westminster council to ask if her certificate was sent there. They said the relevant people's phone is always busy so they can only send them and email with a message to call us back. I called the home office on 0300 123 2253 (number thanks to this forum!) They immediately suggested that she must have requested Westminster instead of York in h application! When we explained that this wasn't the case and it was a mistake on their part they asked us to send an email to
Citizenship.support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk to request them to transfer it to York. We sent the email immediately which I'm sure is just sitting in the big black hole called the Home Office!!
York holds its ceremonies on the first Thursday of every month. Knowing the HOs lack of competence I doubt they will settle this by the first Thursday of November so we're probably looking at December!
Anyone experienced a similar problem before? Any tips or feedback to share?
Cheers