TIMELINE AFTER NATURALISATION APPLICATION SUBMISSION

[basis]

3rd Aug Applied at Harigey NCS -no appointment
8th Aug - recd the approval and supporting document (english proof)
10th Nov ceremony (beyond three months - see separate thread Citizenship Ceremony for details)
11th applied for fast track UK passport
16th recd the passport

[yorkking]

applied for the passport on 12/11 sat in person for wife and kid.
got the passport and the naturalisation certificate by courier today!!
yk

[basis]

if u apply in person they give u back the foreign passport immediately and retain only the naturalisation certificate which comes back by post later.
yk

Not quite true - I applied in person and they specifically asked for and kept my old passport and sent it back with the naturalisation certificate.

Agree with lemess. I applied at London Regional Passport Office and they kept passport and naturalisation certificate. Both was delvrd today (applied on Friday) but since I was not at home it will be redelivered tomorrow at work address.

[basis]

It seems there are quite a few takers for the Fast Track Applications facility recently started at Passport Offices for First Time applicants. In no time it has become popular. When I went at London Passport office there were many people to benefit from this one week fast track service (which actually turns out to be much less than that).

[lemess]

i have going to leave the UK on friday(in 3 days). my concern was that if previously the payment had been taken out the next day, and the 5 days to remain the uk started from then
whereas in my case the home office were doing some check before they went ahead with the payment and the 5 day in the UK clock started from then, then i would be out of the UK then.

i have checked with my bank and it is a timeline question that is why i posted to the forum

Where did this figure of 5 days come from ? There is no such requirement.
The only stipulation is that you be in the country on the date the application is received by the home office at liverpool which you clearly were. My guess is that the NCS guys mention 5 days as a very conservative buffer to allow for the time it takes to reach liverpool. Once you have acknowledgement of delivery at liverpool and you were in the country on that day, the best thing to do is not to micro-track your application but just wait for the response. The home office says you should get an acknowledgement letter within 2 weeks and I would only start fretting if that hasn't happened. Whether your card has been debitted is neither here nor there - for all you know the home office internal processes may apply credit card postings on a weekly basis for certain cards. I know some of my credit cards don't get charged for weeks after I have stayed in a hotel on a business trip. The charges show up as backdated though.

[basis]

where is the original message from roger square.

[Kayalami]

coolMe
Junior Member


Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 1

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:32 am Post subject: Naturalisation : Applied on 14/10 at NCS recd ACKN on 10/11!

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Hi Everyone,

I have been following this forum for a long time.
Looking at NCS service feedback, I also went through the same route but the experience I had was totally different.

I applied on 14/10/2005 at Northamption NCS on the basis of 4 years of WP + 1 yr ILR.
I didn't receive an acknowledgement from Home Office for 4 weeks. I contacted NCS, Homeoffice, Royal Mail and they all said it had reached home office on 17/10/2005.

I kept wondering why I haven't received any confirmation/acknowledgement from Home Office.

Today, I received a acknowledgement letter from Home office saying that they have recd all the documents and they would process it accordingly. But the acknowledgement letter is dated 10/11/2005 !!!!

So, will my application be considered as received before 1st Nov as it reached them on 17th Oct OR considered as received on 10th Nov when they acknowledged it.

I would like to know, if anyone had a similar problem ?

BTW, Northamption NCS had started operation a week before I applied !!!!


Ta
CoolME

[raikal]

Can we strictly use this post to update the TIMELINE of the applications.

For other topics pls create new topic

[flyez]

Are there anyone submitted their naturalisation application after 01-Nov-2005? If possible, is it ok share your timeline?

I sumbitted mine on 15-Nov at Wandsworth NCS and still no reply/no payment taken so far. I wonder if the new life-in-the-UK test cause the possible dealyed factor beyond for HO caseworkers.

[voipuk]

NCS : WANDSWORTH
Date of submission or posting 31 Aug. 2005
CRITERIA - 5 1/2 yr
Date of receipt of acknowledgement: 2nd Sept. 05
*** letter of character check : a letter received on 19th Sept which said HO were carrying on character check and may take several months
Date of receipt of approval : 5th Nov. 05
Date of Ceremony : 15th Nov. 05

..........waiting for the correction of certificate!!

[lemess]

Are there anyone submitted their naturalisation application after 01-Nov-2005? If possible, is it ok share your timeline?

I sumbitted mine on 15-Nov at Wandsworth NCS and still no reply/no payment taken so far. I wonder if the new life-in-the-UK test cause the possible dealyed factor beyond for HO caseworkers.

I applied for my wife at NCS brent on 15 Nov. still no acknowledgement or money debitted. Things moved much faster when I submitted my application a month ago. I know the aplication reached liverpool on the 16th so there may be some sort of holdup there as they seemed to be pretty rapid in acknowledging applications in the past.

In any case, I'm not really fretting. They do say they attempt to acknowledge applications within 2 weeks and it hasn't been 2 weeks yet.

[K2004]

Well mine reached Liverpool on the 10thof November, still no aknowledgment or card been debited.... any ideas???

[flyez]

So, its bit weird for the obvious delay (although I know its just a CHECKING service) for the application sent after 01-Nov via NCS.

The only change before/after 01-Nov for the requirement of naturalisation application is the "life in the UK test". I think HO yet find an efficient way to verify if applicant has passed it thus cause cases hold-up at some points.

[lemess]

So, its bit weird for the obvious delay (although I know its just a CHECKING service) for the application sent after 01-Nov via NCS.

The only change before/after 01-Nov for the requirement of naturalisation application is the "life in the UK test". I think HO yet find an efficient way to verify if applicant has passed it thus cause cases hold-up at some points.

Two points :
1.I don't think you can conclude that the delay is specific to applications submitted via NCS.
2. Why should the life in the UK test lead to delays in acknowledging applications ? Surely acknowledgements are sent before a caseworker actually starts analysing the application.

I suspect some form of computer glitch in the IND application processing systems after 1 Nov. It may be unrelated but the IND website has been painfully slow over the last few weeks as well. Doesn't even load up at the moment http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/

In any case I don't think there's much choice but to wait.

[John]

I suspect it comes down to this .... IND in Liverpool will have been deluged with applications in the last part of October, prior to the new Citizenship Test, and Citizenship/ESOL course, requirements starting as from 1st November.

Simply I suspect that there are still working their way through the October applications before starting much work on the November ones.

It is worth noting that the IND website is now saying that at the end of October naturalisation applications were taking an average of 4.04 months.

[lemess]

A lot of sense there John although I was one of the lucky ones who applied about 10 working days before Nov 1 and got a rapid turnaround. The only thing I find surprising is the time taken to send acknowledge the app after receiving it - something that shouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes to process. Unless the IND has been totally swamped ( and that's difficult to see as only a certain number of people would have actually qualified for naturalisation before Nov 1 and they could have predicted what that would be), I was expecting an immediate acknowledgement of the form and processing of the payment but perhaps a month or two before a caseworker gets around to dealing with it.

In any case, c'est la vie. They spoilt us all with their efficiency earlier I guess.

[John]

Lemess, I suspect that most people don't realise just how busy that office in Liverpool is!

The last time I did the calculation ..... add together number of successful applications and the (much smaller) number of rejections and then divide by the number of working days in a year = an average of about 550 new applications per working day!

So if that is the normal average number of applications, suspect they might well have been getting over a thousand per working day towards the end of October.

No doubt that bulge in application numbers will be absorbed soon and more normal service resumed in the near future.

[voipuk]

It is worth noting that the IND website is now saying that at the end of October naturalisation applications were taking an average of 4.04 months.

If you ring them up now, the it tells you the average waiting time is 6 months.

[kp1]

the telephone has always said that the waiting time is currently 6 months, regardless of the website (for the last 3 months atleast). However my belief (only my assumption) is that the website is probably more accurate or gives a better picture as it is updated regularly. the telephone recording on the other hand is much more complex to amend and cannot be done as frequently??

also, it may be their explanation or answer if you application had taken longer than 4.04 months. i.e. you could call to find out the progress and say its been over 4 months and they can turn back to you and say, hey but the telephone message says 6 months... so wait ...???

[lemess]

it is worth remembering that one of the rationales behind increasing the naturalisation fee was that the government deemed the level of a paid service that took six months to a year in deciding nationality applications unacceptable. The homeoffice target has always been to have a 3 month average time and if it is indeed saying 6 months, at the very least some MP should be putting forward a question.

[kp1]

lemess, i agree with you, but i am assuming the 3 or 6 month average times relative to application received directly at liverpool. do ncs application count towards average time? if so, they are clearly helping the ind statistics to lower average waiting time.

also, there is no one on the forum whose application has actually taken 6 months (not that i have found any) since the HO made the pledge to charge extra and reduce processing time we cant really say that it may be taking upto 6 months... i applied to liverpool directly at the end of october and i dont expect to hear form them anytime soon. However I may get my local MP involved after a 6 month period.. which only seems fair

[lemess]

kp1 bear in mind that 3 months is the target AVERAGE time for a decision. Individual applications may well take more and any MP's question would have a stronger case talking about the increase in average times rather than the time taken to decide individual applications.

[lemess]

As an update the money has been debitted today - just about 5 working days after the app reached liverpool. So I guess it's not really that big a delay.

[John]

If you ring them up now, the it tells you the average waiting time is 6 months.

I suggest that the IND website figure is more accurate. It is now showing 4.04 months. a month ago it was on 4.11 months. Those detailed figures are clearly calculated ....maybe the IND staff need to be told and then they would not keep saying "six months".

But I reiterate, 4.04 months is an average. Clearly some applications take far longer than others, and there will be some applications that end up getting rejected after many months of deliberations. You only have to ask the owner of Harrods!!!!

[flyez]

I also received acknowledgement letter from HO this morning (dated 21-Nov) as I submitted mine on 15-Nov via Wandsworth NCS.

But in 2nd paragraph, it said-
A fee payment was not enclosed. You will be asked to submit this in due course.


But I clearly remember that I did enclosed payment slip and NCS staff even had also circled "Visa" payment type and written down the total amount on it (I provide my visa debit card number on it).

Its bit weird. What should I do? just wait, or mail another payment slip to Liverpool?