Citizenship Ceremony cancelled due to Covid-19

[en_ilegna]

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

Still waiting inv. letter from May approval

hi, was just wondering if you have any good updates yet?

[minikube]

Still waiting since May approval. Have sent a written letter to HO to enquire what is happening.

[raij]

Looks like we're in the same boat (applied 3 March, approved 26 May). Sounds like lockdown email approval was a curse rather than the blessing I thought it was at the same time. I have now basically spammed the same email to a half dozen of home office email addresses as well as checking with the council - never got a response (first couple of emails sent in July). Literally don't know what else to do.

@HamiltonNZ -- I know. totally agree with you. Don't know what else to do either.

Wonder how many people here are May approvals too. Seems like HO has forgotten about us.

I'm in the same boat (pre-lockdown application, approved during the spring lockdown, no progress since) and here are the options I've tried so far:

0) Phone helpline - fairly useless I'd say as they are an outsourced company, don't have access to the system and can't provide any case-specific information. Also you won't get any paper trail.

1) Email. Didn't get any reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries. I did get an initial response from citizenship.support in the end of October (it took them more than 3 months to reply and by that time I didn't even expect to get a reply anymore). They said a "relevant department" will look at my query. So I'm hoping that someone at the HO is at least looking into the issue with our applications now.

2) Complaints at the HO website (https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason). I'm not sure if my application got lost, in any case all the timelines the HO previously communicated have passed and I got no clear answer about the lack of progress with my application, so I think it's a valid reason to file a complaint. They have a 20 working days service standard and do respond. However, the response to the first complaint seems to be a generic copy-paste - all the members of this forum were told to wait 8-12 weeks regardless of their application and approval timelines. However, when that expires, it is possible to file a complaint about an existing complaint (as the response to the first complaint didn't provide an explanation and didn't resolve the issue). I filed the first complaint after 4 months wait. The response was to wait for 12 weeks which expires in a couple of weeks. If I don't get a letter by then, I'll have to file a complaint on a complaint. According to the website then a senior member of staff will look into the issue, and I hope if there is a problem with the spring lockdown approvals, at least they could acknowledge the issue and start working on resolving it.

3) Reaching out to a MP. I contacted my MP after 5 months wait. The MP submitted an enquiry but didn't get any response either. They said they would follow up on the issue though.

If you have any other ideas on what we could do, please share. It seems to be purely an admin issue from the HO side, so hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to resolve.

hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks
[/quote]
Hi 3rd of june approval here , i am also considering filing a complaint , i email on a lmost weekly babsis with my local register office , they told me this week that of course my paperwork didnt arrive , but that H.O. does NOT reply to registery office emails neither ,.. and that they are sending paperwork slowly and this week they only had 60 "ceremony aplications" from h.o

[Kadey123]

I have been a silent reader for over 7months and I thought I’d share my boyfriends timeline as I helped him through the process and also came across this page. Thank you Baybars for giving hope in a time that is so difficult to find it in. To help those approved mid August - I called the Home office yesterday to find out what was going on as I had seen some September approvals had received invitations. I spoke to a kind lady named Helen who advised the Home Office are working and printing letters and they are currently dealing with August Approvals, in which she added “the wait should be too long now” which gave me some hope for my partners documents/ letter to be received.

My boyfriend emailed our local council two weeks ago who said Home Office was sending big batches every two weeks but his documents were not there. he then emailed his caseworker who was a very nice lady who called him and said not to worry and don’t let it affect your mental health and that the citizenship team were printing letter and he should receive it soon but it’s just taking awhile. We waited two weeks and emailed the local council again yesterday after seeing some Mid august people received invitation letters and we received a response back 3:51pm saying they had good news and that his paperwork was received today in the batch and they have booked him in for a ceremony on 24th November 2020@ 5pm - so it all worked out in the end. however I must note we have not yet received the Home office invitation but I suppose we will just bring the approval letter his passport and extra ID to prove as the confirmation email does say we have to bring the invitation letter but we are scared to ask incase they cancel the ceremony and we are so close to the end of the process- Has any one attended without an invitation letter especially Havering Council( which is our local council). I hope this provides some comfort for those waiting and I hope you all get your invitation letters and certificates soon and I will also keep you updated. Please see below for timeline.

Date of application: 04/04/2020
Date of receipt of approval: 17/08/2020(email)
Date on Approval letter: 17/08/2020
Date of receipt of ceremony letter: Not yet received from HO but my local council (Havering) received my certificate 12/11/2020 and emailed me to book a ceremony.
Date of Ceremony: 24/11/2020

Good luck to you all and I am so great full for this thread as it has helped me and my partner through these uncertain times to keep hope throughout this whole process. I hope you all soon receive your invitation letters and certificates and can apply for you British passport.

Have a lovely day

Hello Kadey,
Just go with your approval letter and IDs should you not receive the invitation letter by the ceremony date. Havering council seem to be very reasonable based on other people's experiences posted here & also my partner's who had the ceremony @ Langtons house back in September. The lady was very helpful and booked us for a ceremony the very day we called. Wish u all the best.

Thank you so much for your support it’s his citizenship and we are only 24 so that’s what we were nervous with this whole process we haven’t been on holiday for ages because of this situation so finally looking forward to for him to have this ceremony so we can tackle the last hurdle of the process. I printed of approval letter for him and email confirmation for Havering about the ceremony. Thank you so much for replying back with advice. I hope you all get it soon I know it’s tough and daunting but hang in there i ah e a feeling. The end of July and August in full will be resolved in full soon. I will chase up my boyfriends caseworker to see if she can give him an updates as she told him to contact her when he does he citizenship ceremony and she has been so helpful and supportive always calling rather than emailing back. So hopefully I can use that to help and cause some ease where possible as many of you have done this throughout the thread for everyone else - hope you have a lovely weekend and still time to receive invitation letter soon. I think the post is really messed up due to coronavirus and also now Christmas period approaching and lots of parcels and letter going in and out so this could be the delay as I believe I saw some people receive letter this week dated middle to end of October and some even dated early November so just keep the hope and faith.

[Cost Manager]

Thanks for everyone here.

I have got my ceremony and applied for passport yesterday.
Does anyone have any idea what happens to freedom of travel within EU with British passport after Jan 1st 2021?
BP holders have to apply for visa or nothing changes?

[VulgarisMagistralis]

Thanks for everyone here.

I have got my ceremony and applied for passport yesterday.
Does anyone have any idea what happens to freedom of travel within EU with British passport after Jan 1st 2021?
BP holders have to apply for visa or nothing changes?

Nothing changes until the EU manifests itself. If you have a British driving licence, though, and you plan on driving in the EU, you need an international driving licence. Also, you may need health insurance. But no visas.

The gvt has a page dedicated to it: https://www.gov.uk/visit-europe-1-january-2021

[Frou01]

Looks like we're in the same boat (applied 3 March, approved 26 May). Sounds like lockdown email approval was a curse rather than the blessing I thought it was at the same time. I have now basically spammed the same email to a half dozen of home office email addresses as well as checking with the council - never got a response (first couple of emails sent in July). Literally don't know what else to do.

@HamiltonNZ -- I know. totally agree with you. Don't know what else to do either.

Wonder how many people here are May approvals too. Seems like HO has forgotten about us.

I'm in the same boat (pre-lockdown application, approved during the spring lockdown, no progress since) and here are the options I've tried so far:

0) Phone helpline - fairly useless I'd say as they are an outsourced company, don't have access to the system and can't provide any case-specific information. Also you won't get any paper trail.

1) Email. Didn't get any reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries. I did get an initial response from citizenship.support in the end of October (it took them more than 3 months to reply and by that time I didn't even expect to get a reply anymore). They said a "relevant department" will look at my query. So I'm hoping that someone at the HO is at least looking into the issue with our applications now.

2) Complaints at the HO website (https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason). I'm not sure if my application got lost, in any case all the timelines the HO previously communicated have passed and I got no clear answer about the lack of progress with my application, so I think it's a valid reason to file a complaint. They have a 20 working days service standard and do respond. However, the response to the first complaint seems to be a generic copy-paste - all the members of this forum were told to wait 8-12 weeks regardless of their application and approval timelines. However, when that expires, it is possible to file a complaint about an existing complaint (as the response to the first complaint didn't provide an explanation and didn't resolve the issue). I filed the first complaint after 4 months wait. The response was to wait for 12 weeks which expires in a couple of weeks. If I don't get a letter by then, I'll have to file a complaint on a complaint. According to the website then a senior member of staff will look into the issue, and I hope if there is a problem with the spring lockdown approvals, at least they could acknowledge the issue and start working on resolving it.

3) Reaching out to a MP. I contacted my MP after 5 months wait. The MP submitted an enquiry but didn't get any response either. They said they would follow up on the issue though.

If you have any other ideas on what we could do, please share. It seems to be purely an admin issue from the HO side, so hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to resolve.

hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks

Hi 3rd of june approval here , i am also considering filing a complaint , i email on a lmost weekly babsis with my local register office , they told me this week that of course my paperwork didnt arrive , but that H.O. does NOT reply to registery office emails neither ,.. and that they are sending paperwork slowly and this week they only had 60 "ceremony aplications" from h.o
[/quote]

I would complain in a writing sending a letter to Liverpool.
At the complaint email they answer after a month and no one so far complaining got a descent response. In fact some replies of complaints I’ve seen would even need a follow up complaint.

[SwiftKey]

Hi everyone,

I've been a fly on the wall but thought I would share my recent update. I received my invitation letter today. I applied in June and was approved the first week in August.

My only concern is that my invitation lists my council as Nottinghamshire County Council. However, my actual council is Nottingham City. I know Nottingham City is continuing with ceremonies as I've been checking in with them...However, I don't know anything about Nottinghamshire County Council. Does anyone know if they are holding ceremonies during lockdown and how often? The staff at Nottingham City are very friendly and they always respond very quickly by phone or email so I'm a bit nervous about going with another council! I'm unable to get hold of Nottinghamshire County by phone but I've emailed them to see if they've received my invitation.

By the way, for those who may find this info useful - Nottingham City said they just received about 100 certificates and will process it this week so they should be contacting those applicants next week

/

i contacted nottingham city council October 29 and they emailed back November 3. they said all ceremonies are canceled as of the moment. then i found out from you it is not true. I wonder why they told me the opposite.

[Frou01]

Hi everyone,

I've been a fly on the wall but thought I would share my recent update. I received my invitation letter today. I applied in June and was approved the first week in August.

My only concern is that my invitation lists my council as Nottinghamshire County Council. However, my actual council is Nottingham City. I know Nottingham City is continuing with ceremonies as I've been checking in with them...However, I don't know anything about Nottinghamshire County Council. Does anyone know if they are holding ceremonies during lockdown and how often? The staff at Nottingham City are very friendly and they always respond very quickly by phone or email so I'm a bit nervous about going with another council! I'm unable to get hold of Nottinghamshire County by phone but I've emailed them to see if they've received my invitation.

By the way, for those who may find this info useful - Nottingham City said they just received about 100 certificates and will process it this week so they should be contacting those applicants next week

/

i contacted nottingham city council October 29 and they emailed back November 3. they said all ceremonies are canceled as of the moment. then i found out from you it is not true. I wonder why they told me the opposite.

I think that could be for the reason that most councils only got the communication by HO to go ahead during lockdown by 5./6. November.

My council first said it’s all suspended and then changed the text on their page to say they go ahead.

[raij]

@HamiltonNZ -- I know. totally agree with you. Don't know what else to do either.

Wonder how many people here are May approvals too. Seems like HO has forgotten about us.

I'm in the same boat (pre-lockdown application, approved during the spring lockdown, no progress since) and here are the options I've tried so far:

0) Phone helpline - fairly useless I'd say as they are an outsourced company, don't have access to the system and can't provide any case-specific information. Also you won't get any paper trail.

1) Email. Didn't get any reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries. I did get an initial response from citizenship.support in the end of October (it took them more than 3 months to reply and by that time I didn't even expect to get a reply anymore). They said a "relevant department" will look at my query. So I'm hoping that someone at the HO is at least looking into the issue with our applications now.

2) Complaints at the HO website (https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason). I'm not sure if my application got lost, in any case all the timelines the HO previously communicated have passed and I got no clear answer about the lack of progress with my application, so I think it's a valid reason to file a complaint. They have a 20 working days service standard and do respond. However, the response to the first complaint seems to be a generic copy-paste - all the members of this forum were told to wait 8-12 weeks regardless of their application and approval timelines. However, when that expires, it is possible to file a complaint about an existing complaint (as the response to the first complaint didn't provide an explanation and didn't resolve the issue). I filed the first complaint after 4 months wait. The response was to wait for 12 weeks which expires in a couple of weeks. If I don't get a letter by then, I'll have to file a complaint on a complaint. According to the website then a senior member of staff will look into the issue, and I hope if there is a problem with the spring lockdown approvals, at least they could acknowledge the issue and start working on resolving it.

3) Reaching out to a MP. I contacted my MP after 5 months wait. The MP submitted an enquiry but didn't get any response either. They said they would follow up on the issue though.

If you have any other ideas on what we could do, please share. It seems to be purely an admin issue from the HO side, so hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to resolve.

hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks

Hi 3rd of june approval here , i am also considering filing a complaint , i email on a lmost weekly babsis with my local register office , they told me this week that of course my paperwork didnt arrive , but that H.O. does NOT reply to registery office emails neither ,.. and that they are sending paperwork slowly and this week they only had 60 "ceremony aplications" from h.o

I would complain in a writing sending a letter to Liverpool.
At the complaint email they answer after a month and no one so far complaining got a descent response. In fact some replies of complaints I’ve seen would even need a follow up complaint.
[/quote]

Silly question , but what address to send it for the complaints please ? thank you

[Frou01]

I'm in the same boat (pre-lockdown application, approved during the spring lockdown, no progress since) and here are the options I've tried so far:

0) Phone helpline - fairly useless I'd say as they are an outsourced company, don't have access to the system and can't provide any case-specific information. Also you won't get any paper trail.

1) Email. Didn't get any reply from FurtherNationalityEnquiries. I did get an initial response from citizenship.support in the end of October (it took them more than 3 months to reply and by that time I didn't even expect to get a reply anymore). They said a "relevant department" will look at my query. So I'm hoping that someone at the HO is at least looking into the issue with our applications now.

2) Complaints at the HO website (https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk/reason). I'm not sure if my application got lost, in any case all the timelines the HO previously communicated have passed and I got no clear answer about the lack of progress with my application, so I think it's a valid reason to file a complaint. They have a 20 working days service standard and do respond. However, the response to the first complaint seems to be a generic copy-paste - all the members of this forum were told to wait 8-12 weeks regardless of their application and approval timelines. However, when that expires, it is possible to file a complaint about an existing complaint (as the response to the first complaint didn't provide an explanation and didn't resolve the issue). I filed the first complaint after 4 months wait. The response was to wait for 12 weeks which expires in a couple of weeks. If I don't get a letter by then, I'll have to file a complaint on a complaint. According to the website then a senior member of staff will look into the issue, and I hope if there is a problem with the spring lockdown approvals, at least they could acknowledge the issue and start working on resolving it.

3) Reaching out to a MP. I contacted my MP after 5 months wait. The MP submitted an enquiry but didn't get any response either. They said they would follow up on the issue though.

If you have any other ideas on what we could do, please share. It seems to be purely an admin issue from the HO side, so hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to resolve.

hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks

Hi 3rd of june approval here , i am also considering filing a complaint , i email on a lmost weekly babsis with my local register office , they told me this week that of course my paperwork didnt arrive , but that H.O. does NOT reply to registery office emails neither ,.. and that they are sending paperwork slowly and this week they only had 60 "ceremony aplications" from h.o

I would complain in a writing sending a letter to Liverpool.
At the complaint email they answer after a month and no one so far complaining got a descent response. In fact some replies of complaints I’ve seen would even need a follow up complaint.

Silly question , but what address to send it for the complaints please ? thank you
[/quote]

Sorry, it says London here, not Liverpool.

“ How to make a complaint
You can email us at: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

Or write to us at:

Home Office
Direct communications unit
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
The Home Office fax number is: 020 7035 4745

You can also telephone the government switchboard on 020 7035 4848. The switchboard handles calls for many departments and will try to put you through to the appropriate member of staff. Sometimes it takes a while and they may need to ask for more information. This is to help you.

When you contact us, please give us full details and include information (if you have it) about the part of the department you felt provided a dissatisfactory service. Please also provide us with the following details:

the area of the Home Office to which your complaint refers and a contact name (if you have one)
information on whether it is an original complaint or a follow-up to a reply you were not satisfied with
a clear description of the complaint and what you would like us to do to sort things out
your full postal address, phone number and e-mail address (if you have one)
We aim to respond to you within 20 working days.

Other areas of the Home Office have their own complaints procedures”

[Frou01]

As my council has now received my certificate and told me certificates to them and invitations to us are sent out the same day I assume issues for not receiving the invitation is caused by a delay of Royal Mail.
There hasn’t been any mail in 8 days in follow and my husband and me usually get regularly mail.

I could imagine RM is affected by the new lockdown in some areas and that the reason for not receiving the invitation.
But I will remain very positive about this. It’s still some time to go until my booked ceremony and likely at some point mail being delivered again.

[Parisiana]

Got British Today

Naturalization approved : 27th Suly 2020
Ceremony invitation : Never Received
Private Ceremony (free of charge) booked on 12th November 2020 (Westminster council).
Applied passport: 12th November 2020

Congrats!! How did you manage to book the ceremony without invitation letter? Was it just through the Westminster website?

[Dreams101]

Still waiting since May approval. Have sent a written letter to HO to enquire what is happening.

Good luck. I hope they resond to you quickly.
What address did you use?

[raij]

hi, was just wondering if you have updates on your application?thanks

Hi 3rd of june approval here , i am also considering filing a complaint , i email on a lmost weekly babsis with my local register office , they told me this week that of course my paperwork didnt arrive , but that H.O. does NOT reply to registery office emails neither ,.. and that they are sending paperwork slowly and this week they only had 60 "ceremony aplications" from h.o

I would complain in a writing sending a letter to Liverpool.
At the complaint email they answer after a month and no one so far complaining got a descent response. In fact some replies of complaints I’ve seen would even need a follow up complaint.

Silly question , but what address to send it for the complaints please ? thank you

Sorry, it says London here, not Liverpool.

“ How to make a complaint
You can email us at: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

Or write to us at:

Home Office
Direct communications unit
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
The Home Office fax number is: 020 7035 4745

You can also telephone the government switchboard on 020 7035 4848. The switchboard handles calls for many departments and will try to put you through to the appropriate member of staff. Sometimes it takes a while and they may need to ask for more information. This is to help you.

When you contact us, please give us full details and include information (if you have it) about the part of the department you felt provided a dissatisfactory service. Please also provide us with the following details:

the area of the Home Office to which your complaint refers and a contact name (if you have one)
information on whether it is an original complaint or a follow-up to a reply you were not satisfied with
a clear description of the complaint and what you would like us to do to sort things out
your full postal address, phone number and e-mail address (if you have one)
We aim to respond to you within 20 working days.

Other areas of the Home Office have their own complaints procedures”
[/quote]


Thank you so much , thats such a great help

[Cost Manager]

Got British Today

Naturalization approved : 27th Suly 2020
Ceremony invitation : Never Received
Private Ceremony (free of charge) booked on 12th November 2020 (Westminster council).
Applied passport: 12th November 2020

Congrats!! How did you manage to book the ceremony without invitation letter? Was it just through the Westminster website?

Called them and they confirmed they got my certificate.
Then booked it through the website.
Appeared in the ceremony with my approval letter.
It was quite easy

[VulgarisMagistralis]

I just received an email from Hammersmith and Fulham council. This is what it says (without names):

Dear [VulgarisMagistralis]

I would like to inform you we have now received your certificate. This means you can now be booked in for a ceremony, we are offering both group and private. If you could please provide us with your contact number and we will call you to discuss booking you in for a ceremony.

Kind regards,

[Bubbles]

Registration officer

Registrars

Hammersmith & Fulham Council

020 8753 2140

registeroffice@lbhf.gov.uk

www.lbhf.gov.uk/registrars

My approval letter was sent on the 13/08/2020 via email. I did not receive a ceremony letter yet. It took exactly 3 months.

[Szrsrts]

Good morning beautiful people. Has anyone received invitation letter or being contacted by the council? Thank you

[MelonyMelody9]

Hi everyone,

I've been a fly on the wall but thought I would share my recent update. I received my invitation letter today. I applied in June and was approved the first week in August.

My only concern is that my invitation lists my council as Nottinghamshire County Council. However, my actual council is Nottingham City. I know Nottingham City is continuing with ceremonies as I've been checking in with them...However, I don't know anything about Nottinghamshire County Council. Does anyone know if they are holding ceremonies during lockdown and how often? The staff at Nottingham City are very friendly and they always respond very quickly by phone or email so I'm a bit nervous about going with another council! I'm unable to get hold of Nottinghamshire County by phone but I've emailed them to see if they've received my invitation.

By the way, for those who may find this info useful - Nottingham City said they just received about 100 certificates and will process it this week so they should be contacting those applicants next week

/

i contacted nottingham city council October 29 and they emailed back November 3. they said all ceremonies are canceled as of the moment. then i found out from you it is not true. I wonder why they told me the opposite.

Yeah i don't think that's the case anymore. I spoke with them this week (via phone and email). When the lockdown was announced they said all ceremonies would be put on pause. However, when I contacted them again this week, they said they were instructed by the government that they can proceed with ceremonies during the lockdown. So it's worth getting back in touch with them.

[HamiltonNZ]

Final and positive update from me on this thread, hoping to help fellow long haulers with another data point. I was approved in May and I lived in Westminster when I applied which is why I was chasing Westminster council in the absence of an invitation letter.

Due to the length of the delay I have now moved into the remit of Hammersmith and Fulham council. I changed my address with the HO using the usual tool (got confirmation), but this was for correspondence only (mail forwarding also in place) and I did not think that my responsible council would change from Westminster to H&F.

It did, however, and yesterday H&F called me out of the blue to confirm they received my certificate and I am now booked in for a private ceremony this afternoon. Still no letter, but they don't ask for it (sensibly). As others have mentioned, H&F is very on the ball and responsive.

Good luck to all.

[minikube]

Still waiting since May approval. Have sent a written letter to HO to enquire what is happening.

Good luck. I hope they resond to you quickly.
What address did you use?

Thanks, Dreams
Here is the address I've used

The Capital Building
Liverpool
L3 9PP

Home Office
UK Visas and Immigration
Nationality Group

[Yawboat]

Hello everyone any of you here approved in September and with Hackney council?

[Dreams101]

Final and positive update from me on this thread, hoping to help fellow long haulers with another data point. I was approved in May and I lived in Westminster when I applied which is why I was chasing Westminster council in the absence of an invitation letter.

Due to the length of the delay I have now moved into the remit of Hammersmith and Fulham council. I changed my address with the HO using the usual tool (got confirmation), but this was for correspondence only (mail forwarding also in place) and I did not think that my responsible council would change from Westminster to H&F.

It did, however, and yesterday H&F called me out of the blue to confirm they received my certificate and I am now booked in for a private ceremony this afternoon. Still no letter, but they don't ask for it (sensibly). As others have mentioned, H&F is very on the ball and responsive.

Good luck to all.

Congratulations and thanks for hte update.

Great to see one of the May approvals finally done with this process.

Hope this means the the rest of us approved in May will have our cetificates soon too.

[Dreams101]

Still waiting since May approval. Have sent a written letter to HO to enquire what is happening.

Good luck. I hope they resond to you quickly.
What address did you use?

Thanks, Dreams
Here is the address I've used

The Capital Building
Liverpool
L3 9PP

Home Office
UK Visas and Immigration
Nationality Group

Thank you very much @ minikube

Please keep us posted when you hopefully hear back from them.

[razaaslam2002]

Hello everyone any of you here approved in September and with Hackney council?

Approval datę 17 sep and West Sussex council....