Entering UK with Certificate of Citizenship & Passport Application-URGENT

[Nacholee]

We received our invitation of Citizenship by 22nd of July, but due to urgent travelling plan back to visit family. We are facing the following dilemmas, it will be appreciated if anyone has similar experience could give us some reference.

—We decided to attend the citizenship ceremony, which is 7th of Aug


Plan A- Could we take the certificate of citizenship by the council and travel out of the country. Then, come back with our foreign passport + UK certificate of citizenship?
(We simply not have enough time to submit and wait for 6 weeks to our first British passport).

Plan B- If we submit our application the same day of 7th of Aug, is there anyone in this discussion board has experience per below

1, how long it will take to return the original documents, including foreign passport?
2, could we request returning the original passport urgently due to travel purpose?
3, On the application website, it says we could attach the old passport instead of the current one. Would this be acceptable for the British passport application?

We are really scratching our head around and also want to obey the rules to attend the citizenship. Understood that we could request to extend, but tried all the emails like furthernationalityenquiry, citizenship support...etc. No reply from Home office, and the council only take Home Office’s instruction.

Any helps and advice will be greatly appreciated.

[CR001]

How long will you be away for?

Why not simply reschedule the ceremony to a date once you have returned?? You contact the council to do that not HO.

Note a certificate of naturalisation is not a travel document. Without a visa or British passport, you are unlikely to even get to board the plane if you are a visa national that requires a pre-approved visa.

1, how long it will take to return the original documents, including foreign passport?
2, could we request returning the original passport urgently due to travel purpose?
3, On the application website, it says we could attach the old passport instead of the current one. Would this be acceptable for the British passport application?

1. It is currently taking about 2 weeks for the passport process.
2. Unlikely.
3. You must send ALL uncancelled passports including your CURRENT passport.

[Nacholee]

Thanks for the reply.

For rescheduling the ceremony, we’ve tried this but been told that our deadline is 19/10, according to what HO told the council. Therefore, we can only request through HO for extension.

- we saw very few cases here that been granted to extend, so just want to be cautious and book into the ceremony first.

For using the certificate to travel, as we have dual nationality and our Taiwan passport could visit UK as tourist, which could be allowed to board the plane. The only worrying is that when we touch down to UK, would the border agency take our explanation and let us into the UK with citizenship certificate?

Thanks for the passport advices, truly appreciated. We’ve checked the timeline of British passport application, which says around 2-4 weeks.

[CR001]

You have not answered my question on how long you would be away

[Nacholee]

- we saw very few cases here that been granted to extend, so just want to be cautious and book into the ceremony first.

??Does anyone from this message board had experience to extend the citizenship ceremony?


- In our case, we could come to UK as a tourist for 180 days without any visa.

?? Does anyone has similar case and use own passport with certificate of citizenship to enter back to UK?


Our travel plan is approaching and really not able to change due to family reason. Kindly ask if anyone could advise similar experience. Many thanks.

[CR001]

You have not answered my question on how long you would be away

???

[Nacholee]

I will be away until end of Oct, which is outside of the 3 month period to attend the ceremony.

[Nacholee]

Just would like to know if anyone from this message has experience entering the UK with citizenship certificate.

Many thanks.

[zimba]

Just would like to know if anyone from this message has experience entering the UK with citizenship certificate.

Many thanks.

If you manage to get to the UK and prove to the border officer that you are indeed a British citizen, you will be allowed in. Given you are NOT a visa national, you should be able to get to the UK and get in.
See this FOI response from border force in 2016: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... sthrough=1

Another options is to apply for certificate of entitlement (COE) while you are away. The COE sticker in your passport shows you have right of abode in the UK. COE application could take awhile but you may get it by the end of October:
https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/apply ... ntitlement

[Nacholee]

Thanks for the kindly reply from all above.

Truly appreciated.

We now plan to carry our citizenship certificate and our own passport, then will try to get some letter or phone conversation acknowledge that we could enter the UK as a British Citizen.

[heliosperson]

If it makes you feel any better, I have a friend who entered without a UK passport in somewhat similar circumstances. After he naturalised he never bothered getting a UK passport. After one trip he tried to reenter with his old ILR card and American passport. The system flagged his card as no longer valid. They then did enough checks to see he was a citizen and let him in. He didn't have a certificate with him.