Citizenship Ceremony - Birmingham City Council

[mashk]

Anyone have any problems arranging this? The numbers provided by the home office on the letter sent to me don't work. I keep on getting an answering machine. Been trying since the middle of last week.

[John]

Do you live or work reasonably close to the Council House? If you do suggest you call in and speak to them in person, and arrange your Citizenship Ceremony.

But we have of course had two days of Bank Holiday, plus the two days of weekend, since you received your letter, so maybe you will get through soon on the telephone. They are very busy .... the biggest "provider" of Citizenship Ceremonies in the UK.

[mashk]

Do you live or work reasonably close to the Council House? If you do suggest you call in and speak to them in person, and arrange your Citizenship Ceremony.

But we have of course had two days of Bank Holiday, plus the two days of weekend, since you received your letter, so maybe you will get through soon on the telephone. They are very busy .... the biggest "provider" of Citizenship Ceremonies in the UK.

Cheers for the reply. Unfortunately, I'm not close to the Council House and will probably have to book a day off work to visit.

Been trying since Tuesday, last week. I think the information the home office has provided is wrong. When I arranged for my form to be checked with the nationality checking service, I found out Birmingham CC had moved this service from the main Council House to the registrars office.

I'm wondering if it's the same for this. Think I'll give them a bell and find out. Just wanted to know if anyone else had been through the same experience and how they resolved it.

Was also a tad worried about any penalties, as the letter explicitly states ceremonies should be arranged with 14 days of the date mentioned on the letter.

[John]

The ceremony is conducted by the Registrar, but the ceremony is at the Council House, and (unless it has moved recently) the Council's office that arranges ceremonies is also at the Council House, near to the Mayor's Parlour.

I would not take off time yet, but keep trying to get through.

[mashk]

Yep. Just phoned up and got the brush off. Need to keep on phoning the same numbers, only to be greeted by a bloody message telling me to keep trying.

Bah.



I thought the hard part was already done. Yet they put even more hoops in my way.

[mashk]

Managed to get though today. After 100+ phone calls. Only to be told, 'we haven't received your paperwork yet, phone back in three weeks'

Seriously thinking of spending £280 for a private ceremony.

[bani]

That is a disgrace. I got through on my first call (Cambridge) and ceremony date was booked in 2 minutes. I even got an email confirmation. Maybe you should have the ceremony in another council.

[tina2001]

Dear All,

How long you have to wait to get the invitation letter for ceremony after you get ur successful letter?

[dale36]

Mashk
I TOTALLLY know what you are going through. I got my letter in early Feb and it took 2 months to finally get a letter with a date from bham city council. The phone numbers are wrong. I called the home office and they told me they recently moved buildings. apparantly it is chaos. I emailed several times, made a formal complaint to the council, got phone message back saying they didn't have my name (I have no idea how that is possible) and then after giving up completely, got a random letter with a date for the ceremony. Send an email to the NCS team (the address on the the answering machine) with all your details, wait for a reply then email the city council complaints department. I also contacted my MP as well. Not sure what did it, I never found out, but keep a log of all the contacting you do. They will get you eventually. Hang in there, they won't forget you. If worse comes to worse, call the home office, they are aware of the situation.
Good luck!

[tina2001]

Are they going to send any appointment confirmation letter in our home after ceremony date booked by phone??????

[mashk]

Mashk
I TOTALLLY know what you are going through. I got my letter in early Feb and it took 2 months to finally get a letter with a date from bham city council. The phone numbers are wrong. I called the home office and they told me they recently moved buildings. apparantly it is chaos. I emailed several times, made a formal complaint to the council, got phone message back saying they didn't have my name (I have no idea how that is possible) and then after giving up completely, got a random letter with a date for the ceremony. Send an email to the NCS team (the address on the the answering machine) with all your details, wait for a reply then email the city council complaints department. I also contacted my MP as well. Not sure what did it, I never found out, but keep a log of all the contacting you do. They will get you eventually. Hang in there, they won't forget you. If worse comes to worse, call the home office, they are aware of the situation.
Good luck!

Don't suppose you remember the email address? The answering machine message doesn't mention any email addresses now.

Quick update.

Intend to start phoning again this week, after a bit of a hiatus.

[mashk]

Finally sorted.

Only took three weeks.

[Qarrar]

Thought I'd post some information I was able to find out from the Birmingham Register Office in relation to Citizenship Ceremonies. According to the adviser I spoke to Birmingham usually holds such ceremonies on a Tuesday and when there is excess demand another ceremony is scheduled in for either a Wednesday or Thursday and this happens about every 6 weeks.

Usually there are 3 Ceremony Slots at any given date, which are at 9:15, 11:15 and 2:15.