British Citizenship | Documents to submit

[RagsKasthuri]

Hi,

I have recently been granted ILR and my ILR has been backdated to August 2006. Hence, I am planning to apply for Citizenship by the end of July'09. I have got a few things to get clarified before I do that

1) I got to know about this Nationality Checking Service and have called up and left a message thrice on three different days during last week and today. However, haven't received a call back. These nationality checking services are based in Scotland. I tried writing an e-mail and the email bounced back with a failure delivery notification. Any advice on how to get hold of these guys would be useful.

2) I am planning to submit the following documents. Kindly confirm if I had missed out anything else:

1) ILR approval letter backdated to August 2006
2) Bank statements for the last 6 months
3) Passport
4) Initial HSMP approval letter
5) Birth Certificate
6) Letters from HMRC showing the statement of account and the tax calculations as an individual tax payer for the last 6 years
7) Letter from HMRC for the payment of Corporation tax as a Limited Company
Company accounts issued by the accountant for the Limited Company
9) Life in the UK test pass certificate
10) Current contract of employment
11) Passport size photograph

Kindly review the list above and let me know if there is a need to submit any other documents.

3) How long does it generally take for the British Citizenship application to be decided? I also have seen that once approved, the candidate will have to go through the oath and pledge ceremony. Is this after the application has been completely decided?

4) Do I need to apply for a British passport seperately after my Citizenship application has been approved? If so, what is the procedure and how long does it take?

Your help by providing this information would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rags
M: 07845180202

[djb123]

1) Can't help

2) Think you are sending in more documents than necessary especially if your passport has been the one you've been using for the last 5 years or so.

3) It can takes anything from 1 month to maybe over a year to be approved. You will only be asked to arrange the oath taking once you have been approved, as it's at the oath taking you actually become British and receive your naturalisation certificate. You have to attend the oath taking ceremony within 3 months of being approved - exactly when you take it depends on the availability of ceremonys in your area.

4) You have to apply for a British passport separately once you have attended the oath taking ceremony. It requires you to complete another form (with a referee signing it as well) and obviously pay more money. It can take up to 6 weeks to be approved, though you will have be asked to attend an identity interview after your application has been processed. The identity interview can be arranged within in a few days or so. They will only send you the passport after you have attended the interview.

[RagsKasthuri]

Thanks for the response.

Everything looks good at the moment. Does anyone have experience of getting hold of the Nationality Checking Service appointments?

Or alternatively could anyone let me know approximately how long they take to return the call and how far away would their appointments be?

The way its explained over the voice recorded message is that "Please leave your name and number and we will get back to you. You will receive only one call back".

Just doesn't say how long is the queue / how far away would be the appointments. I am not in a major rush / hurry. Just want to apply for the citizenship before the new Probationary citizenship policy comes in to picture.

Does anyone know when the policy changes to the Citizenship are likely to come into play?

Cheers,
Rags

[John]

RagsKasthuri, have you actually read the application form AN, or the guide AN? I ask that because the list of documents you list bears no relationship to what the form and guide actually indicate.

As regards the NCS office, I merely suggest, keep trying.

[old_hsmp]

There is no other way to book NCS appointment in Scotland than leaving voice message. In fact, one of my friends kepts trying by leaving voice messages everyday and they finally contacted him after 4/5 weeks.

Otherwise if you can't wait, you can book the appointment in England.

[jazbaati99]

Hello

Scottish NCS office are a bit notorious to get through to. You need to keep trying i.e. leave voice message or send emails however if you live close to one of these offices (Hamilton, East Kilbride or Lanark) you can actually walk in and book an appointment. From my experience it was just a breeze to walk in the Hamilton town house office and book an appointment in person.

Regards

[KUMARVK]

I am not sure whteher it is useful to you,

few NCS serivces in london work on saturday for example Ealing/hounslow/harow ,
so you can try here in london.

[Filipinas]

RE: Documents to be submitted- You really need to check the Form AN Guide. It's very different from applying for an LLR or ILR. It is less complicated for as long as you have the right referees.

RE: NCS. You got some good advises from the other members, just a tip try checking out the list of NCS in the BIA site and if you are open to the idea of a little travel, try calling on other councils that offer them. Mind you other NCS in other areas are quite easy to contact and deal with- also, they offer different fee charges for the same service (NCS Peterborough charges £60 for a family while Birmingham charges £140) so you might like to try that option.

Filipinas

[mirnat]

KUMARVK just a point that u touched on about NCS in London offering Saturday service - do I need to be living in those boroughs to use the NCS there?

[John]

You can use any NCS office. You do not need to live in the area around any particular NCS office.

[RagsKasthuri]

Hi

I have now got an appointment with the Hamilton Nationality checking service for the 7th July.

Cheers,
Rags

[RagsKasthuri]

Hi,

When you guys said that the application would be straight forward, if you had the right referees, Is there anything in specific that I need to be aware of?

I have gone through the home office website and there is a list of people who can act as referees. I have chosen one of them as my accountant and the other one is my colleague at work who is also a contractor and is the Director of the Limited Company.

They both are British Citizens.

Hope this is all ok. I've got the appointment for next Tuesday the 7th July.

Cheers,
Rags

[John]

Rags, those people are OK. Have they already signed the form, and supplied their British passport number?

I ask because a number of people when asked to enter their passport number pull out from signing.

[keshgrover]

Hi,

When you guys said that the application would be straight forward, if you had the right referees, Is there anything in specific that I need to be aware of?

I have gone through the home office website and there is a list of people who can act as referees. I have chosen one of them as my accountant and the other one is my colleague at work who is also a contractor and is the Director of the Limited Company.

They both are British Citizens.

Hope this is all ok. I've got the appointment for next Tuesday the 7th July.

Cheers,
Rags

Hi Rags,

Please let us know how your appointment went once you finish with it.

[RagsKasthuri]

Hi,

I've now got my British Citizenship application approved.

Had my NCS in Hamilton on 7th July 2009. However, my application was sent out only on the 14th July 2009 to comply with the rule that I must have been in the country 5 years from the date the citizenship application reaches the home office.

Citizenship application was approved on the 6th August 2009.

My Citizenship ceremony is going to be in Hatfield. Does anyone know if there are any fixed dates for the ceremonies ?

Also anything around the passport application would be helpful.

I would also like to know if India & Britain allows dual citizenship.

Thanks,
Rags

[justice_will_reign]

Hi,

I've now got my British Citizenship application approved.

Had my NCS in Hamilton on 7th July 2009. However, my application was sent out only on the 14th July 2009 to comply with the rule that I must have been in the country 5 years from the date the citizenship application reaches the home office.

Citizenship application was approved on the 6th August 2009.

My Citizenship ceremony is going to be in Hatfield. Does anyone know if there are any fixed dates for the ceremonies ?

Also anything around the passport application would be helpful.

I would also like to know if India & Britain allows dual citizenship.

Thanks,
Rags

Hi, congraulation, you can get responses to your question on another section on this forum and it will be good if you share your story there as well. Just click on http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... start=1740

[Sun09]

Hi there,

I am due to applying my Citizenship in Sep, I have got everything they needed but some of the details I can't remember like my past five address becasue I have used more than 15 address in 5 years time, I moved out every 6 months,

Many thanks,
Sun