Name change prior to applying for naturalisation

[Pete1956]

Hi to everyone

I brought my Filipino partner over to the UK over five years ago and she was granted ILR last year. She has a business here and has always been known to her clients by a different name. We were aware that we could have gone straight for citizenship last year but decided to change her name officially first. We applied for the name change on January 6th 2021, sent multiple documents and gave biometrics in February.

It has now been six months and we haven't heard anything from UKVI. I have been looking at the timelines for many of the visas and they are being processed within six months yet a change of name is taking UKVI over six months!

If anyone could give advice I would like to know firstly, how long do things like this usually take? and secondly, does anyone have contact information for UKVI? Many thanks in advance. Pete

[Pete1956]

I found a few numbers that don't work and have also come across these two that appear to be variants of the same thing 0203 875 4669 and 0300 790 6268. Both numbers take me through a menu, ask me to provide my credit card details and then purport to transfer me to an agent whereupon I am cut off. It happens every time. I came across a thread on these message boards where a woman was wanting to change her name prior to applying for naturalisation and was advised not to but to just change her name along with the naturalisation so maybe we went through a lot of unneccesary waiting, however I don't want to apply without finding out where we stand in relation to the name change application now that we've done it.
I have a couple of email addresses picked up from the boards here that are for naturalisation enquiries, I will probably try those next.

[Pete1956]

I emailed UKVI on nationalityenquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and got an automated response with information that I'll have a look at later. I don't believe this email address is looked at by UKVI so am not expecting any further response. I also contacted UKVI through citizenship.support@homeoffice.gov.uk The email didn't bounce back so I'll have to wait and see if I get a response.
I rang 0300 790 6268 and this time managed to get a little further. Instead of being cut off I was told by a message that repeated about once a minute 'please wait'. I did wait, for one hour and twenty minutes, then hung up.

[Pete1956]

I rang 0300 790 6268 at 8.00am this morning and managed to get through. The woman at the other end told me that she was part of the team that deals with enquiries from outside the UK and I should ring back at 9.00am as the team that deals with queries inside the UK comes on at that time. I rang back at 9.00am and after half an hour I got through to a man who said that the number was only for queries from outside the UK!
He gave me the following number and assured me that I would have success with it: 020 7035 4848. I'll try that number later today.. not feeling very hopeful though given my experience so far.

[Pete1956]

I rang 020 7035 4848 the menu advised me to ring 0300 790 6268, the very number where I was given the instruction to ring the 020 number! So I'm stuck. I'll probably try my M.P. next and see whether I can get any info there..

[Pete1956]

This will be my last post since no one has bothered to offer advice. I have contacted my M.P. and I'm hoping she will help although as she is part of the same establishment as UKVI in a broad sense I doubt it.
Me and my partner have tried to do the right thing and have had to jump through all the same hoops as everyone else with the exorbitant fees and long timelines plus the extra few because of her status.
We had applied to change both name and gender after receiving ILR. The reason we didn't do this before is that we were afraid of UKVI and with good reason. Correct me if I am wrong but we thought that if we started messing around with names and gender while trying to get ILR we might endanger the process. My partner has a business here and no-one knows she is trans, they all assume she is female as she presents as such. The only transphobia she have EVER encountered was from UK border force when we came back from a trip to Germany through the port of Calais. Grinning thugs messing us around once they realised the passport that had M didn't match with the female they were seeing. We now have the gender recognition certificate and have offered it to UKVI but they aren't responding. We applied for the name change over six months ago but.. nothing. (Obviously UKVI have an agenda and it doesn't favour us) We have emailed, phoned, contacted the M.P. and we will as a last resort contact GIRES but I'm guessing they will do nothing. Officially my partner is entitled to British citizenship.. and she should have it by now as she came here in February 2015. She should have been granted citizenship during 2020 and here she is, a contributor to the system and gets nothing in return.... what a joke.. disgusting!! She came here full of hope and loved going to London/Buckingham Palace etc. and now she is wondering what kind of a place this is.

[ashali]

This will be my last post since no one has bothered to offer advice. I have contacted my M.P. and I'm hoping she will help although as she is part of the same establishment as UKVI in a broad sense I doubt it.
Me and my partner have tried to do the right thing and have had to jump through all the same hoops as everyone else with the exorbitant fees and long timelines plus the extra few because of her status.
We had applied to change both name and gender after receiving ILR. The reason we didn't do this before is that we were afraid of UKVI and with good reason. Correct me if I am wrong but we thought that if we started messing around with names and gender while trying to get ILR we might endanger the process. My partner has a business here and no-one knows she is trans, they all assume she is female as she presents as such. The only transphobia she have EVER encountered was from UK border force when we came back from a trip to Germany through the port of Calais. Grinning thugs messing us around once they realised the passport that had M didn't match with the female they were seeing. We now have the gender recognition certificate and have offered it to UKVI but they aren't responding. We applied for the name change over six months ago but.. nothing. (Obviously UKVI have an agenda and it doesn't favour us) We have emailed, phoned, contacted the M.P. and we will as a last resort contact GIRES but I'm guessing they will do nothing. Officially my partner is entitled to British citizenship.. and she should have it by now as she came here in February 2015. She should have been granted citizenship during 2020 and here she is, a contributor to the system and gets nothing in return.... what a joke.. disgusting!! She came here full of hope and loved going to London/Buckingham Palace etc. and now she is wondering what kind of a place this is.

I feel for you! This is so frustrating, I don't understand why a simple TOC can take this long. I have also applied for a transfer of condition due to a name change, it's just a simple update on the BRP. I have also waiting for 6 months, with MP involvement.I don't know what is the policy within HM, but they obviously not processing these type of cases. And we are probably missing the Xmas holiday as well. After long discussion within the family, I've decided to move back to Europe, enough nonsense with this UK system.

[Pete1956]

Hi

Thanks for responding.. We just received the BRP today.. The 'valid from' date is one year exactly from the BRP we received last year for ILR.... ONE EXTRA YEAR!!!!!

That is ONE EXTRA YEAR! for playing by the rules, ONE EXTRA YEAR! for paying through the nose to these corrupt individuals, ONE EXTRA YEAR! for putting our trust in these horrible people.

You say you have had enough and are going back to Europe.. I don't blame you.. I wish you all the best.