Travel with old passport after Naturalisation?

[Nusibabes]

Hi Guys,

I have found myself in a bit of a fix which is really my fault but need advice on what to do next! Here are a few questions...the story behind this is at the bottom of the page so as not to bore anyone!

Questions:

1. When you receive your acceptance letter after your application for citizenship, do you get your passport back in original condition, ie. leave to remain stamp still in place?

2. If so can you travel abroad (apart from your country of origin) with original passport .....

a) Whilst already having booked to attend citizenship ceremony on return from holiday.

b)after attending the citizenship ceremony (and becoming a british citizen) but not actually applied for a british passport?

3. Can I use my original passport/ birth certicate to also get married abroad in situations above, a & b?

3. If I cant do any of the above, can I do anything to speed up the cittizenship application process?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

"The story..."

Basically I applied for birtish citizenship in October 2011, and my understanding (Before I looked at things in more detail) was that if your application was successful, you got your british passport sent to you right way although you still had to attend the ceremony....Wrong I know!

I now know that confirmation of citizenship is made when you receive your certificate at the ceremony, and even then, I would still have to apply for a british passport which would take another 6 weeks.

Now the problem is...because I thought the whole process would take 6 months max, me and my fiance have booked a holiday in Jamaica in June 2012, where we also plan to marry. He is already british and am Zambian. Aim was to get my citizenship before then as it definitely helps with travelling abroad too.

Now after looking into all this it looks like by the time I get my confirmation letter, attend the ceremony, and apply & reveive my british passport, its really cutting it fine for time! I checked my bank account and the application fee is not even debited yet, meaning without payment, they probably have not processed it yet!

I am now thinking of alternatives, and I know I definitely don't need a visa to go to Jamaica...

So any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank You.

[osteophytes]

Hi Guys,

I have found myself in a bit of a fix which is really my fault but need advice on what to do next! Here are a few questions...the story behind this is at the bottom of the page so as not to bore anyone!

Questions:

1. When you receive your acceptance letter after your application for citizenship, do you get your passport back in original condition, ie. leave to remain stamp still in place?

2. If so can you travel abroad (apart from your country of origin) with original passport .....

a) Whilst already having booked to attend citizenship ceremony on return from holiday.

b)after attending the citizenship ceremony (and becoming a british citizen) but not actually applied for a british passport?

3. Can I use my original passport/ birth certicate to also get married abroad in situations above, a & b?

3. If I cant do any of the above, can I do anything to speed up the cittizenship application process?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

"The story..."

Basically I applied for birtish citizenship in October 2011, and my understanding (Before I looked at things in more detail) was that if your application was successful, you got your british passport sent to you right way although you still had to attend the ceremony....Wrong I know!

I now know that confirmation of citizenship is made when you receive your certificate at the ceremony, and even then, I would still have to apply for a british passport which would take another 6 weeks.

Now the problem is...because I thought the whole process would take 6 months max, me and my fiance have booked a holiday in Jamaica in June 2012, where we also plan to marry. He is already british and am Zambian. Aim was to get my citizenship before then as it definitely helps with travelling abroad too.

Now after looking into all this it looks like by the time I get my confirmation letter, attend the ceremony, and apply & reveive my british passport, its really cutting it fine for time! I checked my bank account and the application fee is not even debited yet, meaning without payment, they probably have not processed it yet!

I am now thinking of alternatives, and I know I definitely don't need a visa to go to Jamaica...

So any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank You.

Answers

1. When you receive the approval letter, your passport will not be altered in any way (including the ILR stamp)

2. a. You can travel with your original passport before attending the ceremony (until you attend the ceremony you are not a british citizen and so you can travel on your passport similar to what you have been doing until now)

2.b. Once you attend the ceremony you are a british citizen. You can still travel on your old passport using the ILR stamp (some members of this forum have posted their experiences and my understanding is that there was no problem. But ideally it is better to avoid this situation) http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... f9874231ef

3. There is nothing you can do to speed up the process. But if you have applied in October and the fees is not taken yet, it is slightly unusual and I would advice to contact the HO

And...7 months is long enough for you to get this process completed with out any hassles provided you satisfy the requirements

[Jambo]

Well, June is quite far away. It all depends on how long your naturalisation application will take. Once a decision is made (and assuming it is an approval), you can get attend the ceremony and get a British passport in about 4 weeks (in most cases).

As for travelling on previous passport, then as far as I understand Zambia doesn't recognise dual nationality so once ( or shortly after ) you obtain BC, you lose your Zambian citizenship and your passport can't be used for travel any more.
You obtain BC in the citizenship ceremony so even if you get the approval letter, until you attend a ceremony, you are not British and can use your Zambian passport with the leave to remain.

So once you receive the decision letter, you would be in a better position to know if you should attend the ceremony before your trip or after (you got 3 months to attend the ceremony after a decision is made).

Answering your questions:
1. Yes. You receive the passport back in the original condition.
2. a) Yes.
b) Maybe. Depends on Zambia rules on dual nationality.
3) Depends on the authorities abroad. You need to check with them.

BTW - I would not state Urgent in the subject line for travel in 7 months time....

[Nusibabes]

Thank you for the great responses. Really helps!

I was starting to panick because I wasnt sure if you got your old passport back with LTR and also when the ceremonies run in my local area. It could be every month, or every 3 months! And also the passport info says it can take up to 6 weeks to get the british passport back.

So assuming I got the acceptance letter in March, I would only have 2 months to organise everything else which is really cutting it fine (hols booked at start of June)....hence the "Urgent" title...as I was really starting to panick!

[John]

Question, if you travel on your Zambian passport, do you need a visa from Jamaica to visit there? If you don't know the answer to that, I think you should find out.

[Nusibabes]

I did check that yes.....and as Zambia is a commonwealth country, it is listed on the Jamaican Embassy website as being one of the countries whose nationals do not require a VISA to go to Jamaica. I was quite surprised at this myself but very relieved!

[John]

Good news indeed!