Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[wapo90]

I've been following this thread for a long time now.
I received an email from my solicitor today with my invitation letter. Please find below my details :

Application date : 3rd of July 2020
Approval date : 14 September 2020
Ceremony invitation received : 06 November 2020
Ceremony invitation dated : 24 October 2020
Council : Hillingdon

I called the Hillingdon council straight away. A lovely young lady answered my call. Unfortunately she was not able to find my details on their system yet. She advised me that it may take couple of days for them to receive my certificate and that they will send me a post to confirm that they have received it. Once I receive their post then I should call them to book a ceremony.

They are not conducting ceremonies at the moment at all but they are accepting bookinga for December.

Good luck to all of you guys.

[nnn15]

I also bookedmarked their online system to my laptop before they shut it down.

http://registrars.westminster.gov.uk/Ag ... eBookings/

Try this it might work for you aswell.

Nice - thanks for the link! It still works, so people from Westminster can check online if the council has their certificate. No luck for me though. I just hope my application didn't get lost. It's been a very long wait and apparently I can ask them to investigate what happened with the case only after they state they've cleared the backlog...

[Frou01]

I still don’t understand all these September approvals being sorted and August and some June approvals received nothing.

What has happened to work off the backlog in “strict order” by approval date?

[saupen]

anyone here who is approved early June who has not received anything yet?

very start of june here - also no invitation letter , register office did not get my paperwork neither

I am waiting too. Many from August in this forum are receiving it ....I am worried now....

[Frou01]

anyone here who is approved early June who has not received anything yet?

very start of june here - also no invitation letter , register office did not get my paperwork neither

I am waiting too. Many from August in this forum are receiving it ....I am worried now....

I’m highly concerned too.

How on earth could they give September approvals who had no 12 week wait a preference?
I find it appalling and so unfair.

I have written to my MP about this.

[nnn15]

I still don’t understand all these September approvals being sorted and August and some June approvals received nothing.

What has happened to work off the backlog in “strict order” by approval date?

There are also spring approvals that haven't received the ceremony invitation letters (me and a couple of other people on this forum which probably means in reality there are more people in this situation).
I know it's frustrating to see that people who submitted an application after you were approved have already attended their ceremonies. Maybe the HO is just trying to print out everything they've got now regardless of the approval date. Let's hope there will be more letters coming next week.

If you have a written confirmation from the HO that you should receive your ceremony invitation letter within 12 weeks and it has already passed you can submit a complaint here: https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason. I did this back in August, their service standard is 20 working days and I received a generic response that if I haven't received anything yet I should wait another 8-12 weeks which has nearly expired by now. If they don't deliver until then I'm probably going to ask them to do a detailed investigation about what happened with my case.

[Frou01]

I still don’t understand all these September approvals being sorted and August and some June approvals received nothing.

What has happened to work off the backlog in “strict order” by approval date?

There are also spring approvals that haven't received the ceremony invitation letters (me and a couple of other people on this forum which probably means in reality there are more people in this situation).
I know it's frustrating to see that people who submitted an application after you were approved have already attended their ceremonies. Maybe the HO is just trying to print out everything they've got now regardless of the approval date. Let's hope there will be more letters coming next week.

If you have a written confirmation from the HO that you should receive your ceremony invitation letter within 12 weeks and it has already passed you can submit a complaint here: https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason. I did this back in August, their service standard is 20 working days and I received a generic response that if I haven't received anything yet I should wait another 8-12 weeks which has nearly expired by now. If they don't deliver until then I'm probably going to ask them to do a detailed investigation about what happened with my case.

I find Spring approvals to be sorted now highest priority than anyone.

I would even find it ok to postpone other ceremonies and give them preference.

It’s not ok to waive through people with a 6 week wait while there are people with 25+ weeks and counting!
These should have preference to anyone else of us.

[LoreleiB]

Just received an update from Coventry City Council. All ceremonies are cancelled due to lockdown. They are doing virtual ceremonies hopefully in a week's time and will be in contact with attendees directly to organise them.

I had a group ceremony booked for the 18th Nov so I hope I can still attend an online ceremony relatively soon. Let's see what they say.

[raij]

anyone here who is approved early June who has not received anything yet?

very start of june here - also no invitation letter , register office did not get my paperwork neither

I am waiting too. Many from August in this forum are receiving it ....I am worried now....

I’m highly concerned too.

How on earth could they give September approvals who had no 12 week wait a preference?
I find it appalling and so unfair.

I have written to my MP about this.

My Mp officially ignoring me , home office did not reply to any emails sent from august onwards - i am happy for everyone receiving their invites , but also at same time i am slightly mad that mine isnt here , what councils are you guys with ?

[raij]

I still don’t understand all these September approvals being sorted and August and some June approvals received nothing.

What has happened to work off the backlog in “strict order” by approval date?

There are also spring approvals that haven't received the ceremony invitation letters (me and a couple of other people on this forum which probably means in reality there are more people in this situation).
I know it's frustrating to see that people who submitted an application after you were approved have already attended their ceremonies. Maybe the HO is just trying to print out everything they've got now regardless of the approval date. Let's hope there will be more letters coming next week.

If you have a written confirmation from the HO that you should receive your ceremony invitation letter within 12 weeks and it has already passed you can submit a complaint here: https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason. I did this back in August, their service standard is 20 working days and I received a generic response that if I haven't received anything yet I should wait another 8-12 weeks which has nearly expired by now. If they don't deliver until then I'm probably going to ask them to do a detailed investigation about what happened with my case.

I find Spring approvals to be sorted now highest priority than anyone.

I would even find it ok to postpone other ceremonies and give them preference.

It’s not ok to waive through people with a 6 week wait while there are people with 25+ weeks and counting!
These should have preference to anyone else of us.

Fully agree with you all , i mean this should be a priority , but looks like it isnt , i am really sick and tired of waiting

[nnn15]

I still don’t understand all these September approvals being sorted and August and some June approvals received nothing.

What has happened to work off the backlog in “strict order” by approval date?

There are also spring approvals that haven't received the ceremony invitation letters (me and a couple of other people on this forum which probably means in reality there are more people in this situation).
I know it's frustrating to see that people who submitted an application after you were approved have already attended their ceremonies. Maybe the HO is just trying to print out everything they've got now regardless of the approval date. Let's hope there will be more letters coming next week.

If you have a written confirmation from the HO that you should receive your ceremony invitation letter within 12 weeks and it has already passed you can submit a complaint here: https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason. I did this back in August, their service standard is 20 working days and I received a generic response that if I haven't received anything yet I should wait another 8-12 weeks which has nearly expired by now. If they don't deliver until then I'm probably going to ask them to do a detailed investigation about what happened with my case.

I find Spring approvals to be sorted now highest priority than anyone.

I would even find it ok to postpone other ceremonies and give them preference.

It’s not ok to waive through people with a 6 week wait while there are people with 25+ weeks and counting!
These should have preference to anyone else of us.

Fully agree with you all , i mean this should be a priority , but looks like it isnt , i am really sick and tired of waiting

I would expect from the online system that it allows to do the following nearly instantly with a couple of clicks:
1) Look up the application by caseID and get the latest status,
2) Sort applications by e.g. application date, approval date,
3) Filter applications by a certain column (e.g. application status).

If that was the case it would be really easy to provide status updates and also manage certificates dispatch (also in date order). Observed behaviour suggests this is not the case. It could be that because of covid restrictions less people are working, but it wouldn't explain why the HO can't confirm the application status and dispatch certificates in approval date order.

It doesn't look like they are very good with technologies and that their systems are top-notch - remember the recent case of 16000 underreported covid cases because a csv file reached it maximum capacity.. It might be that the HO system is heavily manual in operation, and in this case we just have to wait, maybe reach out to our MPs or submit a complaint and keep reaching out to the HO until they confirm the application status...

[loupiol]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some good news given this forum has really helped me through my ILR process and my naturalization process.

I received my invitation letter TODAY (06/11/2020) from the HO and it's dated 24/09/2020.
My approval letter was on 22 June. (see timelines thread for my full timeline, rescheduled the UKVCAS meeting 3 times!!).

I was hoping and hoping that it would come on 18 October as per the model one of our forum members shared. Cheers mate for that!
I was starting to get desperate when I didn't get anything in October. I was also getting paranoid (Did I put the write address? Is my neighbour taking my mail? Going cuckoo!)

I emailed the council's registrar (I'm in RBKC) several times and they always got back a day later. They would they didn't receive my certificate and were sorry. At least they answered, these guys are trying!

I emailed the Home Office but got the official generic response that they have a 12 week backlog.

Then a few days ago, I received a letter from the borough saying they received my certificate followed by the Home Office invitation 1 week later.

I just booked a ceremony for next week. Let's see if that actually pans out.

I wanted to leave readers with a glimmer of hope. Although the process is slow, if you've been approved unless you've broken the law or what not, the invitation will come!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE.

[Hunter01]

Got approved on 02nd September.
Received letter on 06th November dated 27th October..
Happy days..
Only thing is Westminster council suspended all ceremonies till further notice but that’s fine as an wait..

[lmannova]

I am happy people are receiving their invitations but unfortunately I still didn't get anything. :[

I was approved on 20th July [Greenwich council] and people approved in September are getting their invitations which doesn't make any sense at all..

Anybody with the Greenwich council?

[Frou01]

I am happy people are receiving their invitations but unfortunately I still didn't get anything. :[

I was approved on 20th July [Greenwich council] and people approved in September are getting their invitations which doesn't make any sense at all..

Anybody with the Greenwich council?

Yes, I agree.
In this case the whole point of that patient wait was pointless, as fairness and sorting this backlog professional isn’t a priority they could have straight send invitations but n a chaotic way!

The wait was so hard and to see one of the other being approved just in December really feels terrible.

Something must gone wrong. I don’t believe to get my invitation tomorrow or next week now as I lost trust.
i

[Wethebest]

Update: Citizenship got approved on 9th July nothing from Home office since then. I randomly emailed my local council southwark they told me they have certificate but can't book a ceremony until I have received my invitation letter from the home office.

Timeline

Applied 14 oct 2019
Biometric done: 13th November
Approval letter: 9 July

[toombs]

Hi guys.
Just a quick update. I was accepted on August 19, 2020. But still no ceremony invitation letter. An email was sent to Bristol council on 03.11.2020 regardless of any news about my certificate. This is what they send me back.....

Good morning,

We are very sorry to inform you that, due to the current Government restrictions, all citizenship ceremonies have had to be cancelled from 5th November to 2nd December.

Anyone who has booked a private or group ceremony will be contacted as soon as we are ready to start taking bookings again.

Thank you for your patience at this difficult time.

Kind regards

Ceremonies Team

Nothing mentioned about my certificate(possible auto answer). So I decided to wait until next Friday. Looks like mid and end of August approvals are skipped from some reason.

Cheers and good luck to all who are still waiting.

[Dreams101]

Just received an update from Coventry City Council. All ceremonies are cancelled due to lockdown. They are doing virtual ceremonies hopefully in a week's time and will be in contact with attendees directly to organise them.

I had a group ceremony booked for the 18th Nov so I hope I can still attend an online ceremony relatively soon. Let's see what they say.

Hi LoreleiB. Thanks for sharing. My council is Coventry too. Received approval email on 18 May 2020, but nothing since.

Do you mind sharing your approval date, and the date you received you invitation letter?
Also, this is great news that Cov council are finally starting virtual ceremonies.
Can you please share how you received this update?

Thank you

[Liverpool2020]

Any news from Liverpool city council ??
Approval on 16 Oct .

[Nikamo]

Hey Nikamo. Pleased for you. What’s your approval date and what council? Thanks

Approval date was 15/07/2020.
Certificate was received by council on 02/11
It is Falkirk Council

I received my invite on 04/11, letter dated 10/10. Was able to book a small group ceremony for 11/11

[Belle01]

Something definitely went wrong with the mid to late August batch of certificates from comments here. Myself and hubby approved on 21st August 2020 and not heard anything till now. No invitation letter yet and when our local council got a big batch this week our certificates weren’t included. I work for another London borough and confirmed with the registry manager that Last week they got a delivery for July and now they got a delivery for September on Wednesday this week but August was skipped out and not delivered. He thinks the batch was missed out. So probably an administrative issue that has seen us left out. Hopefully they realise soon and rectify this. The issue is when will they notice the error has occurred? It’s such a frustrating experience after applying in May, waiting during the lockdown for the IDV app and ending up doing biometrics only to be pushed further to the back of the queue by an inept system. I hope we all get some good news soon.

[dogcat]

Something definitely went wrong with the mid to late August batch of certificates from comments here. Myself and hubby approved on 21st August 2020 and not heard anything till now. No invitation letter yet and when our local council got a big batch this week our certificates weren’t included. I work for another London borough and confirmed with the registry manager that Last week they got a delivery for July and now they got a delivery for September on Wednesday this week but August was skipped out and not delivered. He thinks the batch was missed out. So probably an administrative issue that has seen us left out. Hopefully they realise soon and rectify this. The issue is when will they notice the error has occurred? It’s such a frustrating experience after applying in May, waiting during the lockdown for the IDV app and ending up doing biometrics only to be pushed further to the back of the queue by an inept system. I hope we all get some good news soon.

I think this might be the case as I got approved late August and still haven't received anything.

[Frou01]

Something definitely went wrong with the mid to late August batch of certificates from comments here. Myself and hubby approved on 21st August 2020 and not heard anything till now. No invitation letter yet and when our local council got a big batch this week our certificates weren’t included. I work for another London borough and confirmed with the registry manager that Last week they got a delivery for July and now they got a delivery for September on Wednesday this week but August was skipped out and not delivered. He thinks the batch was missed out. So probably an administrative issue that has seen us left out. Hopefully they realise soon and rectify this. The issue is when will they notice the error has occurred? It’s such a frustrating experience after applying in May, waiting during the lockdown for the IDV app and ending up doing biometrics only to be pushed further to the back of the queue by an inept system. I hope we all get some good news soon.

I have strong concerns they will realise they whether sent the wrong batches (September!) or lost or forgot the August batches as they don’t communicate with us.
Because they switched off the emails and the lady at the helpline has confirmed HO does NOT want to get contacted by us by email anymore only in writing.

So how can they know now?
It’s an absolute terrible situation.

[Frou01]

Something definitely went wrong with the mid to late August batch of certificates from comments here. Myself and hubby approved on 21st August 2020 and not heard anything till now. No invitation letter yet and when our local council got a big batch this week our certificates weren’t included. I work for another London borough and confirmed with the registry manager that Last week they got a delivery for July and now they got a delivery for September on Wednesday this week but August was skipped out and not delivered. He thinks the batch was missed out. So probably an administrative issue that has seen us left out. Hopefully they realise soon and rectify this. The issue is when will they notice the error has occurred? It’s such a frustrating experience after applying in May, waiting during the lockdown for the IDV app and ending up doing biometrics only to be pushed further to the back of the queue by an inept system. I hope we all get some good news soon.

I have strong concerns they will realise they whether sent the wrong batches (September!) or lost or forgot the August batches as they don’t communicate with us.
Because they switched off the emails and the lady at the helpline has confirmed HO does NOT want to get contacted by us by email anymore only in writing.

So how can they know now?
It’s an absolute terrible situation.

I hope councils will earlier approvals priority and delay all September approvals to next year.

Someone here is waiting since mid May. I hope councils will prevail common sense when HO isn’t able to.

[oxana777]

Something definitely went wrong with the mid to late August batch of certificates from comments here. Myself and hubby approved on 21st August 2020 and not heard anything till now. No invitation letter yet and when our local council got a big batch this week our certificates weren’t included. I work for another London borough and confirmed with the registry manager that Last week they got a delivery for July and now they got a delivery for September on Wednesday this week but August was skipped out and not delivered. He thinks the batch was missed out. So probably an administrative issue that has seen us left out. Hopefully they realise soon and rectify this. The issue is when will they notice the error has occurred? It’s such a frustrating experience after applying in May, waiting during the lockdown for the IDV app and ending up doing biometrics only to be pushed further to the back of the queue by an inept system. I hope we all get some good news soon.

I have strong concerns they will realise they whether sent the wrong batches (September!) or lost or forgot the August batches as they don’t communicate with us.
Because they switched off the emails and the lady at the helpline has confirmed HO does NOT want to get contacted by us by email anymore only in writing.

So how can they know now?
It’s an absolute terrible situation.

I hope councils will earlier approvals priority and delay all September approvals to next year.

Someone here is waiting since mid May. I hope councils will prevail common sense when HO isn’t able to.

I think its unfair what you say now! Some people have applied in 2019 and been approved in september for example, so its only fair for them to have a ceremony before somebody who applied in may 2020 and was approved in august 2020. They clearly have suffered for longer so deserved an earlier ceremony! I applied in april, was approved in september and i think i should have my ceremony before somebody who applied in june and got approved in august. Perhaps home office are sending invites in regards to how long the person been waiting alltogether..