UKM application experience and timeline

[hlassell]

Eligibility criteria: UKM
Nationality: Canadian
Applying from: Canada
Method of application: Online
Date of application: 08/20/2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKBA: 08/21/2018
Date money gone off account: 08/20/2018
Date of acknowledgement: 08/21/2018 (by email)
Date of letter requesting biometrics: 09/10/2018
Biometrics done: 11/06/2018
Date of approval: 21/12/2018 *yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
Date of ceremony:
Date applied for passports:
Date passports received:

OH MY GOSH! My caseworker emailed me today to say I am approved and he is getting my documents mailed back to me and I will receive info about my ceremony soon! Merry Christmas to me!

[bletchlypark]

Eligibility criteria: UKM
Nationality: Canadian
Applying from: Canada
Method of application: Online
Date of application: 08/20/2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKBA: 08/21/2018
Date money gone off account: 08/20/2018
Date of acknowledgement: 08/21/2018 (by email)
Date of letter requesting biometrics: 09/10/2018
Biometrics done: 11/06/2018
Date of approval: 21/12/2018 *yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
Date of ceremony:
Date applied for passports:
Date passports received:

OH MY GOSH! My caseworker emailed me today to say I am approved and he is getting my documents mailed back to me and I will receive info about my ceremony soon! Merry Christmas to me!

Congrats! So about 4 months from Application to approval?

[hlassell]

Congrats! So about 4 months from Application to approval?

Thank you!! And yes pretty much exactly 4 months! I anticipated not hearing anything until January or February. So this was a nice surprise. He even wished me Merry Christmas!

[sunburn]

Eligibility criteria: UKM (Mother born in UK, not Romein route)
Nationality: United States
Applying from: Unites States
Method of application: Online. Document posting TBD
Date of application: Sept 6, 2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKVI: Sept 6, 2018 (online)
Date money gone off account: Sept 6, 2018 (online)
Date of UKVI acknowledgement email: Sept 7, 2018
Date of emailed letter requesting biometrics: Nov 19 2018
Biometrics date: Dec 3 2018
Date of approval: Dec 18 2018
Date of ceremony: PENDING
Date applied for passports: PENDING
Date passports received: PENDING

[bletchlypark]

Eligibility criteria: UKM (Mother born in UK, not Romein route)
Nationality: United States
Applying from: Unites States
Method of application: Online. Document posting TBD
Date of application: Sept 6, 2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKVI: Sept 6, 2018 (online)
Date money gone off account: Sept 6, 2018 (online)
Date of UKVI acknowledgement email: Sept 7, 2018
Date of emailed letter requesting biometrics: Nov 19 2018
Biometrics date: Dec 3 2018
Date of approval: Dec 18 2018
Date of ceremony: PENDING
Date applied for passports: PENDING
Date passports received: PENDING

Curious to see how long it takes to get a ceremony invite. Do you mind if I ask where you plan to go?

[sunburn]

Curious to see how long it takes to get a ceremony invite. Do you mind if I ask where you plan to go?

I'll post an update when they contact me to schedule it. I picked San Francisco as my choice, since I live in the bay area.

[luthersnowak]

Curious to see how long it takes to get a ceremony invite. Do you mind if I ask where you plan to go?

I'll post an update when they contact me to schedule it. I picked San Francisco as my choice, since I live in the bay area.

Same here. My approval was dated November 19th, and I haven't heard anything yet. I'm in Alaska, so the closest consulate is San Francisco. I'm from Boston, and have family there and have requested that the ceremony be held there. I guess we'll see.

[bletchlypark]

Curious to see how long it takes to get a ceremony invite. Do you mind if I ask where you plan to go?

I'll post an update when they contact me to schedule it. I picked San Francisco as my choice, since I live in the bay area.

I requested Atlanta, since that is closest to me. I've been hoping someone here might have some experience with that office to see what it was like.

[allthemadmen]

Eligibility criteria: UKM
Nationality: Canadian
Applying from: Canada
Method of application: Online
Date of application: 08/20/2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKBA: 08/21/2018
Date money gone off account: 08/20/2018
Date of acknowledgement: 08/21/2018 (by email)
Date of letter requesting biometrics: 09/10/2018
Biometrics done: 11/06/2018
Date of approval: 21/12/2018 *yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
Date of ceremony:
Date applied for passports:
Date passports received:

OH MY GOSH! My caseworker emailed me today to say I am approved and he is getting my documents mailed back to me and I will receive info about my ceremony soon! Merry Christmas to me!

Great news! Congratulations!

[allthemadmen]

Eligibility criteria: UKM (Born in the US to British mother in 1973)
Nationality: United States
Applying from: Unites States
Method of application: online
Date of application: 22nd October 2018
Payment method: Credit card
Date of receipt by UKBA: (Documents received by UPS) 12th November
Date money gone off account: 22nd October
Date of acknowledgement: 22nd October (email)
Date of biometric appt. invitation: 4th December (email)
Date biometrics appt confirmation: 7th December (email)
Biometrics done: 19th December
Date of approval:
Date of ceremony:
Date applied for passports:
Date passports received:

tick tock!

[rhino57]

I received my approval on September 20th, and received my invite to the citizenship ceremony on November 14th. They gave me the date of December 7th for the ceremony. Because I was traveling out of the country until the 6th, I accepted contingent on flights not being delayed and me arriving home on time. They were very accommodating around that, fully willing to schedule a different time if I did not arrive home by the 6th.
I attended the ceremony on Dec 7th at the San Francisco British Consulate. It was really a lot of fun and a wonderful celebration of the journey of getting here as well as the event itself. There were quite a lot of people there and they were very welcoming of family and friends. Congratulations to all who have heard and hang in there to all who are waiting!

[hlassell]

Great news! Congratulations!

Thank you!! I received my documents back today! I was shocked they came back so fast. Inside was a letter saying I will recieve my ceremony invitation in a separate letter. With the usual wording about waiting 12 weeks before emailing about it.

[sunburn]

I received my approval on September 20th, and received my invite to the citizenship ceremony on November 14th. They gave me the date of December 7th for the ceremony. Because I was traveling out of the country until the 6th, I accepted contingent on flights not being delayed and me arriving home on time. They were very accommodating around that, fully willing to schedule a different time if I did not arrive home by the 6th.
I attended the ceremony on Dec 7th at the San Francisco British Consulate. It was really a lot of fun and a wonderful celebration of the journey of getting here as well as the event itself. There were quite a lot of people there and they were very welcoming of family and friends. Congratulations to all who have heard and hang in there to all who are waiting!

San Francisco will be my venue as well, so I'm pleased to read about your experiences! What time of day was the ceremony, and how long did it last ? I'm a little concerned about getting downtown through the morning traffic for this. Were there many people getting their certificates ?

[bletchlypark]

Eligibility Criteria: UKM
Nationality: United States
Applying from: Unites States
Method of application: Online with documents sent via DHL
Payment method: Credit card
Date of application: Dec 17, 2018
Date documents sent: Dec 19, 2018
Date of UKVI acknowledgement email: Dec 18, 2018
Date of receipt by UKVI: Dec 21, 2018
Date funds withdrawn: Dec 18, 2018
Date of letter requesting bio-metrics: PENDING
Bio-metrics done: PENDING
Date of approval: PENDING
Date of ceremony: PENDING
Date applied for passport: PENDING
Date passports received: PENDING

Just a couple of questions, now that I am in the waiting game.

Do they send the bio-metrics request letter via email or snail mail or both?

Will they acknowledge receipt of my documents? I have a POD from DHL so I am not worried but still would like to know that they have it all in my case file.

It seems in the past they didn't deposit the funds until they had the full application and documents, in other words this was another way to track/confirm progress. Now with the online application they seem to charge the credit card immediately. So I am thinking this information is no longer useful for tracking purposes?

Will my caseworker contact me at some point? Mostly I am concerned about getting them a return slip for my docs.

Any idea where I might have to go for Bio-metrics if I live in Nashville, TN?

[sunburn]

They contact you by email to ask you to offer a USCIS ASC location convenient to you, dates and times, at least a week out. Once you give them that information, they follow up with another email with an attached appointment letter that you take to the ASC to get your biometrics done. A link will be offered by email that lets you search for a convenient nearby ASC.

I'm not sure what deposit of funds here is - you pay the moment the credit card is used , before you get the final confirmation receipt and checklist telling you what to send by post.

I included my FedEx return envelope in my supporting documents. The caseworker emailed me asking me to contact FedEx and arrange a pickup time and date. The person applied the return label I supplied, and it billed me on my FedEx personal account. I set one up for free beforehand, and it was very useful, simply billing my card through the listed account number. Of course, you can simply depend on them posting it back by Royal Mail at no additional cost, if you prefer.

[luthersnowak]

Eligibility Criteria: UKM
Nationality: United States
Applying from: Unites States
Method of application: Online with documents sent via DHL
Payment method: Credit card
Date of application: Dec 17, 2018
Date documents sent: Dec 19, 2018
Date of UKVI acknowledgement email: Dec 18, 2018
Date of receipt by UKVI: Dec 21, 2018
Date funds withdrawn: Dec 18, 2018
Date of letter requesting bio-metrics: PENDING
Bio-metrics done: PENDING
Date of approval: PENDING
Date of ceremony: PENDING
Date applied for passport: PENDING
Date passports received: PENDING

Just a couple of questions, now that I am in the waiting game.

Do they send the bio-metrics request letter via email or snail mail or both?

Will they acknowledge receipt of my documents? I have a POD from DHL so I am not worried but still would like to know that they have it all in my case file.

It seems in the past they didn't deposit the funds until they had the full application and documents, in other words this was another way to track/confirm progress. Now with the online application they seem to charge the credit card immediately. So I am thinking this information is no longer useful for tracking purposes?

Will my caseworker contact me at some point? Mostly I am concerned about getting them a return slip for my docs.

Any idea where I might have to go for Bio-metrics if I live in Nashville, TN?

Same as Sunburn, I received my biometric invite through email. My payment was taken a couple of weeks after my application was submitted. It took about two months from the date of submission to receive a biometric request. As far as the return slip, I opted not to provide one. I've never had an issue with Royal Mail, so I felt pretty comfortable with it.

Typically you would have to go to USCIS Application support center. The one in Nashville is here:

1400 Donelson Pike,
Suite B-13,
Nashville, TN 37217

[rhino57]

I received my approval on September 20th, and received my invite to the citizenship ceremony on November 14th. They gave me the date of December 7th for the ceremony. Because I was traveling out of the country until the 6th, I accepted contingent on flights not being delayed and me arriving home on time. They were very accommodating around that, fully willing to schedule a different time if I did not arrive home by the 6th.
I attended the ceremony on Dec 7th at the San Francisco British Consulate. It was really a lot of fun and a wonderful celebration of the journey of getting here as well as the event itself. There were quite a lot of people there and they were very welcoming of family and friends. Congratulations to all who have heard and hang in there to all who are waiting!

San Francisco will be my venue as well, so I'm pleased to read about your experiences! What time of day was the ceremony, and how long did it last ? I'm a little concerned about getting downtown through the morning traffic for this. Were there many people getting their certificates ?

The ceremony was at noon, probably started at about 12:15 as we waited for everyone to show up. As everyone obtaining citizenship has to stand up separately with the Vice Consul to swear allegiance, it took around an hour. There were probably 30-40 people there, but I would guess maybe 12-15 who were actually getting their citizenship. It was a lot of fun - everyone was very excited for everyone else even when we didn't know each other - everyone clapped after each oath of allegiance. Afterwards there were lots of pictures taken with the Vice Consul, the flag, the picture of the Queen. My family and I promptly went out for a pint!

[hlassell]

The ceremony was at noon, probably started at about 12:15 as we waited for everyone to show up. As everyone obtaining citizenship has to stand up separately with the Vice Consul to swear allegiance, it took around an hour. There were probably 30-40 people there, but I would guess maybe 12-15 who were actually getting their citizenship. It was a lot of fun - everyone was very excited for everyone else even when we didn't know each other - everyone clapped after each oath of allegiance. Afterwards there were lots of pictures taken with the Vice Consul, the flag, the picture of the Queen. My family and I promptly went out for a pint!

Awesome. Since the majority of my ancestors are Scottish I've already found a Scottish Pub in Calgary to go to after my ceremony.

[Shaun45]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

[PleasantThebest]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats!

My post finally arrived (on Monday 7 Jan). So planning on submitting my passport application soon. Please can you give us a run down of the supporting docs you sent for your passport application did you have to get a countersignatory to sign the forms? I read on gov.uk site that they have to sign the back of a passport photo as well

[Shaun45]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats!

My post finally arrived (on Monday 7 Jan). So planning on submitting my passport application soon. Please can you give us a run down of the supporting docs you sent for your passport application did you have to get a countersignatory to sign the forms? I read on gov.uk site that they have to sign the back of a passport photo as well

Correct, your countersignatory must declare, date and sign the back of one of your two photos and fill in and sign your forms. I only sent my original certificate of registration, certified copy of my counter signatory passport and a copy of my utility bill for proof of address. The turnaround time for my passport went surprisingly quick considering it was the holiday season.

All the best for your application.

[PleasantThebest]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats!

My post finally arrived (on Monday 7 Jan). So planning on submitting my passport application soon. Please can you give us a run down of the supporting docs you sent for your passport application did you have to get a countersignatory to sign the forms? I read on gov.uk site that they have to sign the back of a passport photo as well

Correct, your countersignatory must declare, date and sign the back of one of your two photos and fill in and sign your forms. I only sent my original certificate of registration, certified copy of my counter signatory passport and a copy of my utility bill for proof of address. The turnaround time for my passport went surprisingly quick considering it was the holiday season.

All the best for your application.

Thanks. Did you send a colour photocopy of your entire (i.e. including blank pages) SA passport? Also, your countersignatory's passport.. assuming it was just the page where the person's details/photograph is? Was it a British passport?

[Shaun45]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats!

My post finally arrived (on Monday 7 Jan). So planning on submitting my passport application soon. Please can you give us a run down of the supporting docs you sent for your passport application did you have to get a countersignatory to sign the forms? I read on gov.uk site that they have to sign the back of a passport photo as well

Correct, your countersignatory must declare, date and sign the back of one of your two photos and fill in and sign your forms. I only sent my original certificate of registration, certified copy of my counter signatory passport and a copy of my utility bill for proof of address. The turnaround time for my passport went surprisingly quick considering it was the holiday season.

All the best for your application.

Thanks. Did you send a colour photocopy of your entire (i.e. including blank pages) SA passport? Also, your countersignatory's passport.. assuming it was just the page where the person's details/photograph is? Was it a British passport?

I sent certified colour copies of ever page of my SA passport, including blank pages and the covers. My counter signatory just sent a certified colour copy of the details/photo page of his SA passport.

[sunburn]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats! How soon after approval did you get communication to discuss the scheduling of your ceremony ? There's about 2.5 months between the two in your case. I received my own approval mid December, so I'm waiting for communication from my local British consulate now.

[Shaun45]

So today marks an important day and the conclusion of my UKM citizenship application journey. I just received my UK passport.

To recap my timeline:

Place of application: Cape Town, South Africa
Date application posted: 26 June 2018
Date received at UKVI:. 28 June 2018
Date money went off account: 02 August 2018
Biometrics request email date: 23 July 2018
Biometrics done: 03 August 2018
Date of approval: 02 October 2018
Date of ceremony: 14 December 2018
Date of passport application: 17 December 2018
Date of passport received: 09 January 2019

I would like to thank all those who have contributed and given advice on this forum. All the best to those who have applied.

Congrats! How soon after approval did you get communication to discuss the scheduling of your ceremony ? There's about 2.5 months between the two in your case. I received my own approval mid December, so I'm waiting for communication from my local British consulate now.

I received my ceremony invitation email from my local Consulate General on the 14th November. Basically a month before my ceremony.