Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[MannyWarrior]

When did you contact them? The lady told me today this information.

Trust me brother, your invitation will be on the way.

Email your full name and case ref number to their email and await their response.

She told me all correspondence will be by post so hopefully you will receive next week the letter from them.

I also got email from them that saying they're not received, And how did you contact them by email or phone?And I also think next week will be some good news. Good luck every one.

That’s very weird. She confirmed to me thay invites have been sent and the latest dates they’ve received were June.

Hopefully next week is good news for you

I hope so, Let's see.

Hey,

Let me know how it goes for you this week or if you get anything.

I’m still waiting for the July certificates to be sent out to them, sadly.

T

[Small]

I can tell from the posts many people are really fed up.
It’s been far over two months ago many parts of life went back to normal and we in department stores who deal with many customers and staff on a daily basis managed to work perfectly with health and safety requirements.
Put into place zoom trainings on health and safety still in May, had lots of PPE delivered far before stores opened to be perfectly prepared by the 15 June.

HO and councils missed our doing their bit at that stage.
They could have perfectly prepared trainings, rules, PPE and all it needs to start secure ceremonies from 15 June.
If they would have done organised all at the same time I’m sure at this stage they could have sorted their backlog, but they were disorganised and NOW they are dealing with their March backlog only like I was told by my council.

I find it astonishing in the department store I’m working the beauty department can offer beauty treatments, but councils can’t held 10 minute meetings handing out certificates.

If they don’t put in a better plan this week to speed up things proper I‘m sure the ones being approved in August waiting until next year for their ceremony.

Best to contact MPs and also write an email to HO complaints department.

Nothing to do with Virus. HO is like that for years. That’s the deliberate attitude trying people to stop applying for Citizenship. They are working from home. BC was free and there were no tests. HO made it so difficult. We came to UK not free, we spend and invest money. We paid taxes. It’s not only us there are native British people who migrated to Australia, America and other countries.
The people who favour for HO .. who think that HO is sound checks etc. HO has done checks already when you got you ILR. Then comes to Good characters, another way to discourage people by HO. Hong Kong people are being allowed to live and work in UK without checking their back grounds. Where is good character for them??
Another thing I would like to mention about privilege, HO frasturate Immigrants so much. The people have right to say about the ways HO deals with them. It’s not a privilege , we earn BC.

[BoyTed]

I got this from Home Office this morning.

Thank you for your polite e-mail

The invitation will be sent in as soon as possible. Obviously under the current circumstances -COVID-19, the process is taking longer than usual to complete.

Thank You  
FMT Admin Support Nationality Group

UKVI  - Citizenship, Work, Study, Premium
Red Zone, 4th Floor, Capital Building, Liverpool L3 9PP

T:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk

[TheTraveller]

I can tell from the posts many people are really fed up.
It’s been far over two months ago many parts of life went back to normal and we in department stores who deal with many customers and staff on a daily basis managed to work perfectly with health and safety requirements.
Put into place zoom trainings on health and safety still in May, had lots of PPE delivered far before stores opened to be perfectly prepared by the 15 June.

HO and councils missed our doing their bit at that stage.
They could have perfectly prepared trainings, rules, PPE and all it needs to start secure ceremonies from 15 June.
If they would have done organised all at the same time I’m sure at this stage they could have sorted their backlog, but they were disorganised and NOW they are dealing with their March backlog only like I was told by my council.

I find it astonishing in the department store I’m working the beauty department can offer beauty treatments, but councils can’t held 10 minute meetings handing out certificates.

If they don’t put in a better plan this week to speed up things proper I‘m sure the ones being approved in August waiting until next year for their ceremony.

Best to contact MPs and also write an email to HO complaints department.

Nothing to do with Virus. HO is like that for years. That’s the deliberate attitude trying people to stop applying for Citizenship. They are working from home. BC was free and there were no tests. HO made it so difficult. We came to UK not free, we spend and invest money. We paid taxes. It’s not only us there are native British people who migrated to Australia, America and other countries.
The people who favour for HO .. who think that HO is sound checks etc. HO has done checks already when you got you ILR. Then comes to Good characters, another way to discourage people by HO. Hong Kong people are being allowed to live and work in UK without checking their back grounds. Where is good character for them??
Another thing I would like to mention about privilege, HO frasturate Immigrants so much. The people have right to say about the ways HO deals with them. It’s not a privilege , we earn BC.

Well Said All what you just said is true and people need to understand these facts.

[Learning18]

Hi , hope all are well, my Certificate arrived to my council but they refused to book a ceremony to me as still I didnt receive my invitation letter.
My approval was by email on 19/05/2020
My council is London , Brent
They confirmed they have my certificate since Tuesday 18/08/20
Is there any way to get a copy of the invitation letter as they told me it should be posted to me in the same day ( Tuesday) by the home office.

Hi,

My application was approved 2 weeks after you. I tried calling Brent. But the man that I spoke to said he didn't have my certificate and that he could not tell me if they got certificates from may or June. Were they able to tell you anything?

[nnn15]

Has anyone dealt with the Westminster council recently? Their website says that they resumed ceremonies on August 19th but I'm trying to understand if they managed to clear some of the existing backlog and if they started inviting people who got their approval in the past few weeks. Thanks

I'm also waiting for a ceremony with Westminster council. I was approved in April, but they don't have my certificate yet. They told me they received a batch of certificates in July, and are supposed to start receiving regular weekly deliveries from this week. It sounded they had some availability for ceremonies, but obviously they can't conduct ceremonies if they haven't received the certificates.

[Parisiana]

Has anyone dealt with the Westminster council recently? Their website says that they resumed ceremonies on August 19th but I'm trying to understand if they managed to clear some of the existing backlog and if they started inviting people who got their approval in the past few weeks. Thanks

I'm also waiting for a ceremony with Westminster council. I was approved in April, but they don't have my certificate yet. They told me they received a batch of certificates in July, and are supposed to start receiving regular weekly deliveries from this week. It sounded they had some availability for ceremonies, but obviously they can't conduct ceremonies if they haven't received the certificates.

Thanks a lot! I also called them and they said that they have availability for both group and private ceremonies and that they received a few certificates but did not manage to get more details from them. Did they tell you the approval dates of the certificates they received? Are they still processing the ones approved pre-lockdown or did they move on to more current ones? Hope you receive your invitation letter soon! I was approved in August so I guess the waiting time will be longer for me

[nnn15]

Has anyone dealt with the Westminster council recently? Their website says that they resumed ceremonies on August 19th but I'm trying to understand if they managed to clear some of the existing backlog and if they started inviting people who got their approval in the past few weeks. Thanks

I'm also waiting for a ceremony with Westminster council. I was approved in April, but they don't have my certificate yet. They told me they received a batch of certificates in July, and are supposed to start receiving regular weekly deliveries from this week. It sounded they had some availability for ceremonies, but obviously they can't conduct ceremonies if they haven't received the certificates.

Thanks a lot! I also called them and they said that they have availability for both group and private ceremonies and that they received a few certificates but did not manage to get more details from them. Did they tell you the approval dates of the certificates they received? Are they still processing the ones approved pre-lockdown or did they move on to more current ones? Hope you receive your invitation letter soon! I was approved in August so I guess the waiting time will be longer for me

It sounded that they've been blocked by not having certificates, but they expect regular weekly certificates deliveries to restart, and then things will move on faster. I guess we'll see on this forum in the next couple of weeks if a lot of people start receiving their ceremony invitations - hopefully soon we'll get some updates!

[Dima1]

I've got my invitation letter last Saturday (22/08). Not sure when exactly it was delivered as was away from home for a couple of weeks. Some details:

Application submitted: 14/02/2020
Biometrics provided: 17/02/2020
Approval email received: 26/05/2020
Date on the invitation letter: 27/07/2020

Called the council (Greenwich) today - they do in person ceremonies only (but both group and private ones), no guests allowed. Still waiting for them to book me into one of those.

[Raihanul]

I've got my invitation letter last Saturday (22/08). Not sure when exactly it was delivered as was away from home for a couple of weeks. Some details:

Application submitted: 14/02/2020
Biometrics provided: 17/02/2020
Approval email received: 26/05/2020
Date on the invitation letter: 27/07/2020

Called the council (Greenwich) today - they do in person ceremonies only (but both group and private ones), no guests allowed. Still waiting for them to book me into one of those.

congratulation. Still waiting for mine. Hopefully get it soon.

[sunny007]

Still waiting for my ceremony, My application has been approved in march, but my council have not received my certificate yet, don't know where is my certificate, tried to contact the home office through email - no luck, through phone - no information, my council also send an email to home office but no reply received, don't know who to contact during this difficult time. Any help / guidance will be appreciated.

[Stef03]

Received this from my Local Council today (Herefordshire)... unfortunately not good news for me as of yet... keep waiting (approval letter on June 10th). I hope that there will not be a second lockdown and we will end up as the Windrush generation (The COVID Generation)

Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have checked our system, but we have unfortunately not received your certificate from the Home Office yet. Usually the certificates are sent out at the same as the invitation letter, so once you receive your letter from the Home Office inviting you to book your ceremony, please call us on 0300 123 4045 (option 4) and we should have received your certificate by then and will be able to make the booking for you.

If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

[Stef03]

Received this from my Local Council today (Herefordshire)... unfortunately not good news for me as of yet... keep waiting (approval letter on June 10th). I hope that there will not be a second lockdown and we will end up as the Windrush generation (The COVID Generation)

Dear xxxx,

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have checked our system, but we have unfortunately not received your certificate from the Home Office yet. Usually the certificates are sent out at the same as the invitation letter, so once you receive your letter from the Home Office inviting you to book your ceremony, please call us on 0300 123 4045 (option 4) and we should have received your certificate by then and will be able to make the booking for you.

If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Second response just now

Dear xxxx

The Home Office as of Monday this week has just recommenced sending out certificates and invitation letters, therefore you should hear from them in due course

[Lopand]

The Home Office as of Monday this week has just recommenced sending out certificates and invitation letters, therefore you should hear from them in due course

What a joke, every couple of days the HO claims to have restarted sending out certificates. I'm so tired of them.

[Frou01]

The Home Office as of Monday this week has just recommenced sending out certificates and invitation letters, therefore you should hear from them in due course

What a joke, every couple of days the HO claims to have restarted sending out certificates. I'm so tired of them.

I do believe they now send out every week certificates. But they are just slow and only started this month (while in my opinion they could have started mid June already when a majority went back to work, shops etc, to avoid a massive backlog they now have to deal with. And on top dealing with emails and calls of everyone waiting and claiming to be annoyed of it!).

However with their extreme delayed start they try to catch up now and that’s part of my response I had last week:

“ During lockdown the Home Office have continued to approved new citizens applications, the new citizens have been informed by them by letter which also advises that there will be a delay in their being able to attend a ceremony. However this week the Home Office have started sending these peoples Naturalisation Certificates to the local Register Offices, they are doing so in order of the date that their application was approved, to enable the local Register Offices to manage the numbers and schedule ceremonies.”

[bppartnerclub]

The Home Office as of Monday this week has just recommenced sending out certificates and invitation letters, therefore you should hear from them in due course

What a joke, every couple of days the HO claims to have restarted sending out certificates. I'm so tired of them.

I do believe they now send out every week certificates. But they are just slow and only started this month (while in my opinion they could have started mid June already when a majority went back to work, shops etc, to avoid a massive backlog they now have to deal with. And on top dealing with emails and calls of everyone waiting and claiming to be annoyed of it!).

However with their extreme delayed start they try to catch up now and that’s part of my response I had last week:

“ During lockdown the Home Office have continued to approved new citizens applications, the new citizens have been informed by them by letter which also advises that there will be a delay in their being able to attend a ceremony. However this week the Home Office have started sending these peoples Naturalisation Certificates to the local Register Offices, they are doing so in order of the date that their application was approved, to enable the local Register Offices to manage the numbers and schedule ceremonies.”

Hmm I'm not convinced that this is true, there have already been a couple of people on here that apparently got their approval after I did and got their invitations while I have not...

[Frou01]

Maybe they are with smaller councils who didn’t have to deal with a big backlog and just have time now to do ceremonies for everyone approved recently?

I’m for example in Birmingham. Just their March backlog were almost 500!
Birmingham is a million city with only one council to deal with everyone of that area.
While London as even bigger city has so many boroughs and also started in June while Birmingham only started a week ago!
In my case I can expect that to take months with Birmingham!
I’m so gutted I have chosen that council in my application!

[Parisiana]

The Home Office as of Monday this week has just recommenced sending out certificates and invitation letters, therefore you should hear from them in due course

What a joke, every couple of days the HO claims to have restarted sending out certificates. I'm so tired of them.

I do believe they now send out every week certificates. But they are just slow and only started this month (while in my opinion they could have started mid June already when a majority went back to work, shops etc, to avoid a massive backlog they now have to deal with. And on top dealing with emails and calls of everyone waiting and claiming to be annoyed of it!).

However with their extreme delayed start they try to catch up now and that’s part of my response I had last week:

“ During lockdown the Home Office have continued to approved new citizens applications, the new citizens have been informed by them by letter which also advises that there will be a delay in their being able to attend a ceremony. However this week the Home Office have started sending these peoples Naturalisation Certificates to the local Register Offices, they are doing so in order of the date that their application was approved, to enable the local Register Offices to manage the numbers and schedule ceremonies.”

Thank you for this helpful update. Do you know if the Home Office will be sending invitation letters at the same time when sending certificates to councils? Most councils do not allow to book a ceremony without the Home Office invitation letter. Thanks

[Tirinti]

Maybe they are with smaller councils who didn’t have to deal with a big backlog and just have time now to do ceremonies for everyone approved recently?

I’m for example in Birmingham. Just their March backlog were almost 500!
Birmingham is a million city with only one council to deal with everyone of that area.
While London as even bigger city has so many boroughs and also started in June while Birmingham only started a week ago!
In my case I can expect that to take months with Birmingham!
I’m so gutted I have chosen that council in my application!

Well I'm from London, but my borough Croydon, hasn't started yet. I've read here Westminster council has capacity but Home Office is not sending them certificates. Croydon town hall is 10 minutes walk from my home and Westminster town hall is 20 minutes walk and 20vminutes train ride. Croydon has 400k residents so the backlog must be massive. I was approved two weeks ago so I doubt I will have ceremony this year.

[bigby639]

Good news guys, just got my invitation letter dated 03/08 & application was approved on 12th June

which mean, they are now sending the invitations.

[mrduplicity]

congratulations! when was your application date? and when did you submit your biometrics? my application was approved 10th june and i haven't received anything yet.

[bigby639]

congratulations! when was your application date? and when did you submit your biometrics? my application was approved 10th june and i haven't received anything yet.

Application submitted 21st Feb, biometrics was done on 2nd Mar and contacted them to get the response and got the approval via email on 12th June within 3 days of the email.

[naturaliser123]

Hi all, just had my ceremony today and thought I’ll share my experience. Applied and completed biometrics in February and approval via email in May. I heard nothing at all since then.

Just on the off chance, I tried to book a ceremony on Westminster’s website and to my surprise it went through (putting in your Case ID where it asks for reference). If it lets you through it means they have your cert. I confirmed this and spoke to a registrar who kindly let me have my ceremony even without the invite.

Hope this helps some of you!

[Parisiana]

Hi all, just had my ceremony today and thought I’ll share my experience. Applied and completed biometrics in February and approval via email in May. I heard nothing at all since then.

Just on the off chance, I tried to book a ceremony on Westminster’s website and to my surprise it went through (putting in your Case ID where it asks for reference). If it lets you through it means they have your cert. I confirmed this and spoke to a registrar who kindly let me have my ceremony even without the invite.

Hope this helps some of you!

Thanks for the post and congrats on getting through the entire process! Just to confirm, where can I find my case ID, is the "Our Ref" 9-digit reference at the top of the approval letter? Thanks!

[Mayo101]

I for one second do not believe they are sending out certificates chronologically. I have had my approval in May and applied last October and yet there are people getting certificates with approvals after me and also people who were approved before me but are still waiting..