British Naturalization Time-Line!!!

[Marie B]

Hi Mo007,

The following is from the UKPA website:

Section 10 - Countersignature

If the application requires countersigning, the application form must be completed before it is countersigned. A countersignature is usually only needed if the application is for a first passport or to replace a lost, stolen or missing passport. A countersignature may be needed if the renewal or extension of a passport and the appearance of the holder has changed considerably, for example if the passport was issued when they were a small child.

The countersignatory must hold a current British or Irish passport, and be willing to provide their passport number in the relevant space in section 10.

ACCEPTABLE COUNTERSIGNATURES

Accountant
Articled Clerk of a Limited Company
Assurance Agent of Recognised Company
Bank/Building Society Official
Barrister
Broker
Chairman/Director of Limited Company
Chemist
Chiropodist
Christian Science Practitioner
Commissioner of Oaths
Councillor: Local or County
Civil Servant (permanent)
Dentist
Engineer (with professional Qualifications)
Fire Service Official
Funeral Director
Insurance agent (full time) of a recognised Company
Journalist
Justice of the Peace
Legal Secretary (members and fellows of the Institute of legal secretaries)
Local Government Officer
Manager/Personnel Officer (of Limited Company)
Member of Parliament
Merchant Navy Officer
Minister of a recognised religion
Nurse (SRN and SEN)
Officer of the armed services (Active or Retired)
Optician
Person with Honours (eg OBE MBE etc)
Photographer (Professional)
Police Officer
Post Office Official
President/Secretary of a recognised organisation
Salvation Army Officer
Social Worker
Solicitor
Surveyor
Teacher, Lecturer
Trade Union Officer
Travel Agency (Qualified)
Valuers and auctioneers (fellow and associate members of the incorporated society)
Warrant officers and Chief Petty Officers

Or persons of similar standing to the above, working or retired, are acceptable as countersignatories.

Relatives or partners should not countersign passport applications.

For my own passport application my next door neighbour of ten years countersigned my application, he was a retired police officer.

[Mo007]

Thanks Marie B.

My local council's Register's Office sent me a group ceremony invitation packet last Friday, for September 26th, 2005 - but I requested earlier date this morning, and have been given the chance to get it done tomorrow morning, at the cost of £75 - I'll take it!

I will let you know how it went.

Thanks guys.

- mo

[Mo007]

I took my private affirmation oath yesterday, it was easy-peasy! - it took just 15 mins. I am happy to report that there were no errors on my naturalization certificate, and I am going to apply the British passport tomorrow. Will update you on that as soon as I get it done.

So far so good, thanks.

- mo

[Mo007]

I just received my British passport. All in all, from the day I applied for naturalization to the day I got my passport, it took just 3 months.

Thanks to John, and others who gave me advice during the course of this process.

Best,

- mo

[Joseph]

Kayalami wrote:

I actually think otherwise. Those from the 6 pilot areas are being fast tracked over all other applicants. Increase the number of pilot centres and effectively increase the population being fast tracked unless caseworkers increased in similar proportion. Think of the urgent queue for HSMP/FLR applications - there is now a queue to join this queue . I believe timelines will go back up to the 3 month mark to better represent this.

I tend to agree with Kayalami. Look at it this way. There were 135,035 applications received in 2004. This was a drop of 8% from 2003, so this year may be much higher. Assuming 255 work days a year, that means that IND in Liverpool receive on average 530 applications a day! It's rather incredible that they are able to approve applications in 3 months, not to mention 5 days. But it's understandable that if a few applications have been pre-screened by the NCS they will go to the top of the queue. If 6 pilot areas each submitted 15 applications, they would submit 90 a day which is less than 17% of the average day’s take. When eventually 50 councils offer NCS, then most of the intake will be via NCS.

So perhaps NCS will become the “norm” averaging 3 months and those poor unfortunate souls who don’t use NCS will end up waiting much longer than the 4 months, assuming their applications are in order. If their applications have problems, they will wait the same amount of time just to find out that their applications have been rejected.

Joseph

[John]

Joseph, I hear what you and Kayalami are saying but I don't think you have taken into account all the factors.

It is extremely clear that the average waiting times have been reducing. That is, the length of the backlog has reduced. So on an average day they have actually dealt with more cases than they received on that day ... otherwise the average would not have been falling.

Has the reported average time reduced? Well in April last year when my wife was applying the average was said to be about eight months, and even that was a lot less than it had been. You have not got to go back too far to see an average waiting time of over a year, and it not uncommon for people to wait for 18 to 24 months.

Now? The average is said to be 4.08 months (I have just checked) ... and no doubt that would continue to fall if all other factors stayed the same.

So if they are actually dealing with more cases they receive on a day the implication must surely be that the average will continue to fall.

Why is the average falling? Don't forget that the fees were increased quite substantially as from 01.01.04, and have been increased again since then. I therefore suspect that at least some of that extra money has been invested into getting more staff. Or at the very least maybe more IT facilities to enable staff to just do the work more efficiently.

And think about it, whatever the route the application takes, NCS or postal, it is probably the case that the majority of applications are a "no-brainer", that is, clearly should be granted. I think it is very clear that all newly arrived cases are being quickly examined and if they are in the "no-brainer" category then they are passed to a work unit for rapid processing. So it is only the more problematic applications that will be diverted to maybe higher-grade staff to take the more difficult decisions.

I think this categorisation of applications has been going on for some time, pre-dating the start of the NCS. When my wife applied in April 2004 the average time was said to be eight months. In fact she heard in just five weeks.

So add another bit into the equation ... NCS is expanded to more centres and then the great majority of applications are received using that route. OK, there might be a slight increase in the time taken to deal with such applications but given that there are clearly dealing with more cases a day than they receive, I expect any such increase to be minimal ... a few days at most.

After all, don't forget, NCS is actually pre-vetting applications and no doubt declining to forward those where the application form has not been fully completed or where vital supporting documentation is missing. In other words, cutting out Liverpool having to deal with such mundane detail. Cutting out Liverpool getting those "deficient" applications must in itself enable staff there to do more productive work .... rapidly processing the "no-brainer" cases.

In time I would not be at all surprised if IND stops accepting Citizenship applications by the postal route, and insists that everyone uses the NCS route.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

[confused1]

I think IND is almost reaching their 3 months target Because if anybody can remember, I applied in October and then in January they wrote me back asking for some supporting documents.

Altough I have provided them already, pissibly they've lost it.

Anyway, assume if the supporting documents were in place then, I guess I would have received a decission by the end of January 06, which I think isn't too bad.

[John]

Accordingly to the IND website the average times are currently thus :-

These are the waiting times as of end of January.

Naturalisation 3.98 months
Adult registrations 1.71 months
Registration of minors 3.56 months
Registration of stateless 5.95 months
Other registrations 3.31 months
Renunciations 1.57 months
Right of Abode applications 2.86 months

Average times for all nationality applications (as of end of January) 3.81 months

So for naturalisation at 3.98 months, even that is slightly less than the 4.08 months I quoted back in September. And given the deluge of applications in October that is a remarkable achievement.

[confused1]

Copy cats There's already a sililar forum exists "TIMELINE AFTER APPLICATION SUBMISSION HERE, PLEASE?".

[confused1]

Hey John, I'm not shouting on the post above. Altough they're in upper case but I've put them in " "

[confused1]

Applied on the first week of October.

Phoned the IND today, 21 February, they said the approval letter is on it's way.

It took just over 4 months.

Applied through a Solicitor. Paid by cheque and it took 6 weeks to clear.

Received no acknowledgement letter.

[mhunjn]

If you look at the dates for messages, you were the one who posted on this thread on 20 Feb.... there had been no msgs here since 23 Sep...

So it's actually you who started this thread again.

And why do you keep on posting about your approval in every possible thread?... isn't it ok to put it on one, and let people catch up if they are interested?...

Copy cats There's already a sililar forum exists "TIMELINE AFTER APPLICATION SUBMISSION HERE, PLEASE?".

[confused1]

If you look at the dates for messages, you were the one who posted on this thread on 20 Feb.... there had been no msgs here since 23 Sep...

So it's actually you who started this thread again.

And why do you keep on posting about your approval in every possible thread?... isn't it ok to put it on one, and let people catch up if they are interested?...

Copy cats There's already a sililar forum exists "TIMELINE AFTER APPLICATION SUBMISSION HERE, PLEASE?".

I write them where it could be useful. It saves people's time and possibly gives them the answer quickly they are looking for.

Hope that explains well.
Thanks.