Still waiting for Citizenship certificate - October 2023 ceremony

[12OClock]

I attended citizenship ceremony on 2nd October 2023. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for my certificate to arrive. I have tried sending several emails to citizenship info with no reply at all. I also sent an email to Helen Mcentee with no response.

I am stuck in this situation with no way to move forward. Any ideas what else I can do as it is 12 weeks since I attended ceremony.

thanks.

[meself2]

When did you attend the ceremony (what time)?
Also, are you a refugee?

It's too close to Christmas now to take any meaningful action I'm afraid; two bank holidays await!
Have you checked with your TD so s/he can send an email to a mailbox dedicated to TDs?

[12OClock]

Thanks for your reply. No, not a refugee.

Yeh, I think, I need to wait at least until first week of January for anything meaningful. I don't know who my area TD is but let me use that route too.

[Vadrar]

As meself suggests, I think TD is your best bet at this stage. I’d contact them on Jan 4th so your message lands when someone is in the TD’s office.

[meself2]

Thanks for your reply. No, not a refugee.

Yeh, I think, I need to wait at least until first week of January for anything meaningful. I don't know who my area TD is but let me use that route too.

From personal experience - emailed TD, they emailed ISD the same day, forwarded me response next day, so they'll be able to reach out.
Whether they'll get a meaningful answer or not is not something we can influence, but it's definitely something to try.
You can find your TD here - https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/
Maybe even email multiple ones if one doesn't respond.

There's been a number of cases where refugee applicants got their certs wayyyy late and after a lot of back and forth with ISD, that's why I asked.
Is there a chance you could've missed it? It's supposed tracked and signed (but my postie just put it through mailbox).
Maybe even ask your TD to check with ISD about a tracking number, if there's a cert sent to you?

Also check your emails, spam and whatnot - sometimes they send invitations to the next ceremony, even though you had one; no idea why, but they do it.


Anyway, you have until early Jan to figure all this out and where to go further. Good luck!

[12OClock]

Much appreciated. Thanks for the responses.

I spoke to my lovely postman few times, so he is well aware that i am expecting something important.

Called AnPost to check if I missed anything but they can't help until I have a tracking number. Given I am not getting any responses on my emails to Citizenship helpdesk, finding tracking number seems impossible.

All mail folders checked. Just getting nervous that without certificate I can't prove I am Irish now let alone getting a passport.

[meself2]

Did you get the cert?

As said by the minister, you should've.
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/qu ... nswers-161

all attendees from the 2nd October 2023 citizenship ceremony have now received their certificate of naturalisation, other than a very small number from whom the Citizenship Division of my Department await clarification or further information.

[12OClock]

Not yet and I haven't received any emails asking for more details or photos unfortunately. Really stuck here with no replies coming from Helpdesk.

I will try to go thru a TD early next week.

I am mostly coming to conclusion that my certificate would have been delivered at an incorrect address! Really sad situation with this entire process.

Thanks for checking in.

[meself2]

You can try and use this response to a PQ to push it further; don't know if it'll achieve desired effect (hopefully it will!), but if they claim to deliver certs or ask for info to everyone from October, up to them to figure out why you, an October ceremony attendee, didn't get it.

[pyramid stone]

You can try and use this response to a PQ to push it further; don't know if it'll achieve desired effect (hopefully it will!), but if they claim to deliver certs or ask for info to everyone from October, up to them to figure out why you, an October ceremony attendee, didn't get it.

Same here, I think 6 weeks from 20th October is not that far by now. it's matter of days from today.

[meself2]

You can try and use this response to a PQ to push it further; don't know if it'll achieve desired effect (hopefully it will!), but if they claim to deliver certs or ask for info to everyone from October, up to them to figure out why you, an October ceremony attendee, didn't get it.

Same here, I think 6 weeks from 20th October is not that far by now. it's matter of days from today.

It's been almost 12 weeks since Oct 20th, even more than you think!

[pyramid stone]

You can try and use this response to a PQ to push it further; don't know if it'll achieve desired effect (hopefully it will!), but if they claim to deliver certs or ask for info to everyone from October, up to them to figure out why you, an October ceremony attendee, didn't get it.

Same here, I think 6 weeks from 20th October is not that far by now. it's matter of days from today.

It's been almost 12 weeks since Oct 20th, even more than you think!

22 days today since 20th Dec 2023, = 3 weeks and a day, I think

[meself2]

Oh, you meant Dec.

It'll take a while since it was holiday season, but hopefully soon indeed!

[12OClock]

Folks - wanted to close this thread with good news!

And sincerely hope this post will help people who run into a similar situation. I hope no one face this challenge though!

TL/DR

An-Post mistakenly delivered my certificate to an incorrect address! No blame game here as these mistakes can happen. I was just unfortunate to land in such situation!

Details which might help people.

Primarily, be patient. The certificate printing & delivery does that 4-8 weeks. Start to enquire only after 6th week. For 2nd October we had approx. 3000 new Irish citizenships. For Dec 2023, it was almost 6000. So please be patient.

I started having doubts after 5-6th week and emailed Citizenship helpdesk at citizenshipinfo@justice.ie.

Never got any reply apart to auto generated email. Started asking around and looking around on social for anyone in comparable situation. Week by week, people in such situation reduced. I panicked more. Started to send emails to helpdesk with no luck. Someone suggested to send a registered post letter to Citizenship office in Tipperary. I did it twice in 3 weeks gap. Still nothing. No reply. Complete silence!

Since I wasn't getting any reply coming back to my emails, I then filed a Freedom of Information with Department of Justice. Straightforward process. My request was acknowledged, and I got a FOI number and an officer assigned. This moved nothing though. Only to get a month more extension request for my FOI saying due to exceptional circumstances. I panicked more! more since I started to feel identity loss. I have no way to prove my citizenship apart from some random photos taken during the ceremony. More so when I have to Renunciation of current Citizenship from my birth country due to strict timelines.

Reached this lovely group hoping someone might have run into such situation and can suggest. Some great suggestions came in from this group (thanks meself2 & others) suggesting me to engage a TD.

I started emailing TDs asking for help. To my surprise they responded and were very welcoming to help. They started taking matters with DoJ with my details.

This is when Helpdesk started responding to my emails. I am not sure if this was due to TDs engagement or my repeated calling / emails to Minister. But anyways, I had someone looking into my files.

Helpdesk sent me my tracking ID suggesting that my certificate was delivered in first week of November. When I challenged that i haven't received it and the sign wasn't mine, they asked ME (yes me) to take the matters with AnPost and nothing comes out that report the lost cert with Garda. I was surprised that why do I need to report this as Lost given, I never received it in the first place.

Initially AnPost helpdesk said they can only give me the tracking details which I can already see on the website. They also suggested that Citizenship office must file a complaint since they were the sender and I, as receiver can't do it. I mentioned that to Citizenship helpdesk.

This is also when I spoke my local postman. He knew for 2 months I have been waiting for this letter. He spoke with the officer in my area local delivery center. Lucky for me that they managed to find where the letter was signed thru their internal tracking tools. They assured me that postman will try to retrieve the letter for me next day.

Final day, after almost 3 months I got the call from AnPost office to come and collect my letter!!!

What a lucky day. Glad the house who took my cert and kept it for months did not discard this important letter. Glad the postman managed to retrieve it for me.

So long story short here is all I did so far -

1. Waiting patiently until mentioned official timeframes for delivery. Please, please, please do not start doing what I mentioned below. All these really put pressure on limited office resources and as a result they can't address urgent issues. Only after you see that you are one in few unlucky ones, like me, follow undermentoned.
2. Kept monitoring social for indications. One such excellent group on FB is REDACTED
3. Started emailing Citizenship helpdesk. (don't keep any hopes from them though).
4. Sent registered letter to Citizenship office.
5. Opened a FOI after more than 8 weeks passed. And only when I wasn't getting any reply from helpdesk. Please understand that it requires significant work in the background to pull the information. Unfortunately, I had to go this route since Helpdesk was of no help!
6. Emailed Ministers office. Got a file number.
7. Kept emailing helpdesk and Minister. (after 2 months of no news from anyone).
8. Engaged TDs.

Delighted to be An Irish Citizen!