October 2013 - Naturalisation Application Timeline

[jotter]

Has anyone contacted home office regarding payments for 23rd Oct onwards applicants in last couple of days? Any meaningful response ( other than standard 2-4 weeks& busy times 7 weeks)? It's going to be 6 weeks tomorrow. That's awful time just to acknowledge, just to take payment. ..

Whilst respecting your understandable anxiety, these are not 'normal' times. To put it in context, in this forum we've had almost double the number of reports of applications for that single week (Oct 21-26) compared to the entire time since then. We are going to see some abnormally long processing times until the UKBA gets over the hump. Once we start to see some fee deductions/approvals for post-October 25th then that should signal the start of the catchup. Realistically that's probably going to be January. Anything sooner will be a bonus. To the question: "Why weren't you better prepared for the inevitable flood of October applications?" I expect the HO's response would be along the lines of 'While there are far more applications for October, there are correspondingly less for the post October 25th time and over a 2-3 month period we expect this to even itself out'.

[asadkhan71]

Has anyone contacted home office regarding payments for 23rd Oct onwards applicants in last couple of days? Any meaningful response ( other than standard 2-4 weeks& busy times 7 weeks)? It's going to be 6 weeks tomorrow. That's awful time just to acknowledge, just to take payment. ..

Miine was 23rd October fee was taken on 27 November acknowledgement received 29th November dated 27th Nov.

[jotter]

October 23rders we know of.

consciousness (fees taken)
asadkhan71 (fees taken)
sanjana (fees taken)
amoursamara
faz28
sweet sweet sweety
naveedkamboh
amit_shah21
Real34
treborson
sarvosuper

Note that this is October 23rd received by HO, not October 23rd applied. Correct me if I've got your dates wrong.

Still nobody post Oct 23rd other than Pqek.

Any breaking news peoples?

[asadkhan71]

October 23rders we know of.

consciousness (fees taken)
asadkhan71 (fees taken)
sanjana (fees taken)
amoursamara
faz28
sweet sweet sweety
naveedkamboh
amit_shah21
Real34
treborson
sarvosuper

Note that this October 23rd received by HO, not October 23rd applied. Correct me if I've got your dates wrong.

Still nobody post Oct 23rd other than Pqek.

Any breaking news peoples?

You are right 23rd October HO received my application.

[sweet sweet sweety]

October 23rders we know of.

consciousness (fees taken)
asadkhan71 (fees taken)
sanjana (fees taken)
amoursamara
faz28
sweet sweet sweety
naveedkamboh
amit_shah21
Real34
treborson
sarvosuper

Note that this is October 23rd received by HO, not October 23rd applied. Correct me if I've got your dates wrong.

Still nobody post Oct 23rd other than Pqek.

Any breaking news peoples?

Brilliant jotter
Excellent .... now I know who applied along with me... on same date...

So according to info available... 3 applicants fees debited ... out of 11

[Pqek]

October 23rders we know of.

consciousness (fees taken)
asadkhan71 (fees taken)
sanjana (fees taken)
amoursamara
faz28
sweet sweet sweety
naveedkamboh
amit_shah21
Real34
treborson
sarvosuper

Note that this is October 23rd received by HO, not October 23rd applied. Correct me if I've got your dates wrong.

Still nobody post Oct 23rd other than Pqek.

Any breaking news peoples?

I'm still waiting, applied on 28th October and fees debited on 22nd November.

[Real34]

My application reached HO on the 23rd still no debit

[desertlord]

Looking at dates , it is clearly not first in first out also looking at payments is not a factor at all , some people paid by cheaque got their money taken before cc or dc. I think it is all about your orignal country of birth. some countries take longer .

Maybe someone can post what nationality they are and how lond did it take we can start understand how it works.

[p2kin]

Whilst respecting your understandable anxiety, these are not 'normal' times. To put it in context, in this forum we've had almost double the number of reports of applications for that single week (Oct 21-26) compared to the entire time since then. We are going to see some abnormally long processing times until the UKBA gets over the hump. Once we start to see some fee deductions/approvals for post-October 25th then that should signal the start of the catch up. Realistically that's probably going to be January. Anything sooner will be a bonus.

I understand what's going on, I was just hoping from Home Office some kind of confirmation that application has reached to them with 'x', 'y' & 'z' documents. Let them take time to process application.. I have no problem with that. At the moment, I just have Royal Mail confirmation that parcel has reached to the address where NCS has sent. I don't want to be in position where tomorrow, Home Office says oh we are missing your application/we didn't receive it & ask me to re-apply (problem with that is my no of days out of country would go over limit as I travelled out of country during this 'hibernation' period).

[akhan25]

so in envelope or along to documents u dont have an invitation, so u can book it whenever u want up to 90 days?

I though they send a ceremony date with decision/approval

My letter was invitation to the ceremony and approval u have to contact ur council within 21 days then u have 90 days to book ceremony. Eg u receiletter today so u have to call cpuncil within 21 days to book your ceremony but u can choose date of upto maximum 90days.

[jotter]

I understand what's going on, I was just hoping from Home Office some kind of confirmation that application has reached to them with 'x', 'y' & 'z' documents. Let them take time to process application.. I have no problem with that. At the moment, I just have Royal Mail confirmation that parcel has reached to the address where NCS has sent. I don't want to be in position where tomorrow, Home Office says oh we are missing your application/we didn't receive it & ask me to re-apply (problem with that is my no of days out of country would go over limit as I travelled out of country during this 'hibernation' period).

I know what you mean, I applied a couple of weeks after you but I'm in exactly the same boat and going away at Christmas will also in theory put me over the limit for a rolling 12 month period. It would be nicer if the UKBA could be quicker about the fee deductions and acknowledgement letters. As others have commented, the plausible reason is that they want to get the bulk of the pre-October 28th applications done before they even touch any new ones. One thing to reassure is that your NCS will have a record of when you applied, so in the unlikely case that your application 'walked' you have independent proof of your original date of application.

[psuego]

Eligibility criteria: Non - EEA spouse of an EEA + PR card held for two years
Method of application: Self (SD)
Date of application: 15/10/13
Date of receipt by UKBA: 16/10/13
Date of debit of fees: 12/11/2013
Date of receipt of acknowledgement: 12/11/2013
Date of receipt of approval: Waiting
Date of Ceremony: Waiting

Still in the waiting line I emailed Nationality help desk yesterday and they are saying that no decision has yet been taken on my application. I have requested my passport back so i can travel in december. It said on the online form if i request for return of my documents it might delay my case but lets see what happens. I hope it doesn't affect my application.
Good luck to you all!

[Jessk]

looks like all has gone cold, not many approval news in the recent days..

[p2kin]

looks like all has gone cold, not many approval news in the recent days..

Indeed, it's December.. cold month all gone cold... neither approvals nor fees taken.... Looks like Xmas holidays have already started

[desertlord]

jotter,

Is there a chance you can start collecting some data based on nationality we want to know how long did it take for people from certain countries got their approval.

[sco_kop]

Eligibility criteria: Spouse of BC +ILR
Method of application: NCS Wandsworth
Date of application: 05/10/13
Date of receipt by UKBA: 08/10/13
Date of debit of fees: 28/10/2013
Date of receipt of acknowledgement: 01/11/2013
Date of receipt of approval: 04/12/13
Date of Ceremony: Waiting 14/01/2014

Finally received approval. Over the moon. To everyone waiting i know it's difficult to be patient but you will get yours eventually.

Good luck.

Thanks to everyone for their help on this brilliant forum

[jotter]

Hi desertlord, I would be willing to if I was confident that all timeline posters would be comfortable volunteering that information, but I know that a lot of people prefer to keep that to themselves and I'm not sure that I'm comfortable charting data that could potentially 'brand' a country or continent. The last thing I want to do is make any poster feel like they are at risk of stigma. I know you don't mean it that way, but in a public forum like this we have to be careful. Charts I would be willing to add (if I can find the time) would be:
- approval timelines based upon method of application
- approval timelines based upon route to settlement

Btw: Congratulations sco_kop!!

[desertlord]

[quote="jotter"]Hi desertlord, I would be willing to if I was confident that all timeline posters would be comfortable volunteering that information, but I know that a lot of people prefer to keep that to themselves and I'm not sure that I'm comfortable charting data that could potentially 'brand' a country or continent. The last thing I want to do is make any poster feel like they are at risk of stigma. I know you don't mean it that way, but in a public forum like this we have to be careful. Charts I would be willing to add (if I can find the time) would be:
- approval timelines based upon method of application
- approval timelines based upon route to settlement

Btw: Congratulations sco_kop!![/quote]

Agree with you to some level but route of settlement has shown no difference at all. The real factor was, eea nationals get approval with 10 days to 2 weeks of fees regardless the route of settlement. I think some nationals would take longer and it's a shame that you are not judged on how good person you are buf what country you originally come from.

[lendosing]

Finally! I gave up waiting for it and here it is. Received my approval today dated 02.12. Over the moon.

I've been advised in the letter not to contact Local Authority unless I don't receive invitation to the ceremony within 2 weeks. I thought I had to arrange dates with them - am I wrong? I believe all Councils have different rules.

Anyway, good luck to all! Normal post will take ages now as my letter was sent out 2 days ago in "next day delivery" envelope. Christmas coming - hope you get what you waiting for before that!

Eligibility criteria: Spouse of BC
Method of application: Self
Date of application: 14 / 10 / 2013
Date of receipt by UKBA: 15 / 10 /2013 (Royal Mail tracking)
Date of acknowledgement letter: 06/11/2013 (received 11/11/2013)
Date of debit of fees: 07/11/2013 - cleared (balance dropped 06/11)
Date of approval: 04/12/13 (dated 02/12)
Date of Ceremony: Awaiting

[p2kin]

jotter,

You are a statistics person!! I was wondering if we had some kind of online reporting available built in this forum, so as soon as someone enters data, rather than manually using that data for analysis, we could use directly in reporting tool, at the moment I thing someone (you in this case) manually copying data (in some software like I assume excel) & then analyzing..bit of a manual work.

I'd suggest, let's try to search something that would give us reporting like capability for coming up with such kind of analysis.

What do you say?

[Jessk]

congrats, Lendosing, sco_kop, hope more approval news comes through..

[jotter]

Hi desertlord, so you are looking at simply whether EEA route and non-EEA route applicants get treated any differently when it comes to BC processing times? That I could chart, as it's more general and people list that in their eligibility criteria.

Congrats lendosing!!

[imran22]

Eligibility criteria: Spouse of BC +ILR
Method of application: NCS Wandsworth
Date of application: 05/10/13
Date of receipt by UKBA: 08/10/13
Date of debit of fees: 28/10/2013
Date of receipt of acknowledgement: 01/11/2013
Date of receipt of approval: 04/12/13
Date of Ceremony: Waiting 14/01/2014

Finally received approval. Over the moon. To everyone waiting i know it's difficult to be patient but you will get yours eventually.

Good luck.

Thanks to everyone for their help on this brilliant forum

Hi sco_kop

What was the date on your letter?

[desertlord]

[quote="jotter"]Hi desertlord, so you are looking at simply whether EEA route and non-EEA route applicants get treated any differently when it comes to BC processing times? That I could chart, as it's more general and people list that in their eligibility criteria.

Congrats lendosing!![/quote]


I am sure they are different!

Further I think some countries in Asia will be looked at " need more checking" same applies for middle east. I haven't seen anyone from these countries taken approval in normal time all of them about 2-3 month earliest.

[freedom34]

Finally! I gave up waiting for it and here it is. Received my approval today dated 02.12. Over the moon.

I've been advised in the letter not to contact Local Authority unless I don't receive invitation to the ceremony within 2 weeks. I thought I had to arrange dates with them - am I wrong? I believe all Councils have different rules.

Anyway, good luck to all! Normal post will take ages now as my letter was sent out 2 days ago in "next day delivery" envelope. Christmas coming - hope you get what you waiting for before that!

Eligibility criteria: Spouse of BC
Method of application: Self
Date of application: 14 / 10 / 2013
Date of receipt by UKBA: 15 / 10 /2013 (Royal Mail tracking)
Date of acknowledgement letter: 06/11/2013 (received 11/11/2013)
Date of debit of fees: 07/11/2013 - cleared (balance dropped 06/11)
Date of approval: 04/12/13 (dated 02/12)
Date of Ceremony: Awaiting

Congratulations lendosing, finally we started hearing approvals from middle of October applicants. While it was taking 30 to 40 days to get approval letters last month, now it is taking 50 to 60 days at least!
The reason you've been advised not to contact local authority without invitation letter is you applied yourself not by NCS. Otherwise you could be ringing your council straight away to get ceremony date when you received approval letter.