New citizenship form UKF

[keji]

ok, seems my time limit is different from others
application was received 27th of july
bank notification of withdrawal 12th of Aug. no acknowledgement whatsoever for my application till date.
application from overseas. I wonder why its that fast to deduct my fee.
keep you posted

[lagos1980]

UKF application received 29th July.
Ceremony fee of £80 deducted 11th August.
No email confirmation of receipt of documents yet.

Update:

Biometrics letter received 12th August.
Biometrics done 13th August.

Let the waiting begin!

[Yanni]

ok, seems my time limit is different from others
application was received 27th of july
bank notification of withdrawal 12th of Aug. no acknowledgement whatsoever for my application till date.
application from overseas. I wonder why its that fast to deduct my fee.
keep you posted

The app is a couple a month's old so they must have formalized themselves with it by now.
So am guessing that's why yours was delth with so quick. Which is a good sign so hopefully it means we won't have to wait long for our results

[bfrenchfry]

An update!!

Today they finally deducted money from my account!! It's been 16 weeks and 2 days and it's the only movement I've seen on their part, but at least now I finally know they definitely have my paperwork and are working on it. Don't know if I'll get an acknowledgement now or the biometric letter, but it's something!

[Yanni]

An update!!

Today they finally deducted money from my account!! It's been 16 weeks and 2 days and it's the only movement I've seen on their part, but at least now I finally know they definitely have my paperwork and are working on it. Don't know if I'll get an acknowledgement now or the biometric letter, but it's something!

Awww thank God. That's great news.

[Antsmall]

Yes, finally something, yay! You've been waiting so long, it's getting ridiculous. Good luck!

[g_barrie_g]

BIOMETRICS

I have finally enrolled my facial and fingerprint details at VFS Singapore on 21 August 2015.
I have on my hand my Registration and Biometrics receipts.

VFS Singapore saved me from going beyond the 30 working days deadline in enrolling my Biometric details. As their appointment system for Overseas Citizenship applicants category is up and running smoothly. I am very thankful that the VFS Singapore staff were very accomodating, systematic and up to date about section 65 and UKF procedures.

Now I can peacefully wait again for the next process.

[Antsmall]

So, did the website bug finally get fixed?

How was the biometrics thing - what sort of documents did they ask for?

Any information will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Meanwhile, no progress here. They received my application on the 26th of May, took my fee and sent me an acknowledgement email (sans reference number) on the 14th of July, and were silent thereafter. I send them a Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed envelope to use in returning my precious original documents (after obtaining it from a friend in Britain who sent it to me) so I can see from the tracking number that it hasn't been sent yet. It's almost as if they're operating according to a LIFO (Last In First Out) system: people who applied in April are only now getting their acknowledgements more than a month after me, and people who applied a month ago are already doing their biometrics. It's partially a difference between UK and overseas applications but some far later overseas applications are being processed faster than earlier ones. I have no idea what mechanisms are determining any of this.

[lagos1980]

I'm curious about the content of the biometrics letter being sent out to overseas applicants. My sister will be applying from Nigeria, which has an abysmal post office system, so I'm worried about her getting the letter in time to enroll her biometrics within 30 days.

The biometrics letter I received in the UK has a barcode with the home office number, my full name, date of birth, etc. Do you overseas applicants have barcodes on your letters? And do they return your passports to you with the letter?
If someone can attach a photo of only the body of the letter (without your personal or home office details which are at the top), so I can compare it to mine, that would be great too.

I want to know if it's best she puts in a UK address, then I can courier the letter to her so she gets it in good time.

[g_barrie_g]

So, did the website bug finally get fixed?

How was the biometrics thing - what sort of documents did they ask for?

No. You see, when making an appointment through VFS using their UKVI Appointment System, you have to choose first your "Country of Operations" from the dropdown list then the VFS Center that is available in that country.

Naturally, I will choose Philippines as my country of operation because I reside here. There are two VFS Centers available here: VFS Manila and VFS Cebu.

Now the problem that I have encountered was that when the Country of Operation is Philippines, the calendar system that was put in place does not do anything. It does not have available dates, holidays, and time slots and etc. in short it has no use. I cannot proceed, I could not confirm any dates.

And so I had read again the Biometrics letter, and I learned that I am free to enrol at my nearest enrollment center other than my own country.

So I chose Singapore as my Country of Operations, and thank God there were green slots for available days and red slot for holidays. Then I clicked a date slot then a time slot appeared. Then I clicked that tome slot provided then walahhh my Appointment Letter is ready to print.

DOCUMENTS
It was provided in the letter. The 4 page Biometric Letter and Passport. But on my part I was glad that I brought my transaction receipt with me because they took that and just returned my Biometrics Letter and Passport. (They made a copy of my Bio Letter and Passport, the original was given back to me).

It was fast for me, because we are an Overseas Citizen Applicant. Just like the head of VFS Singapore jokingly told the security checker "He is a rare case" because the security checker does not know what category of queue number he will be giving me. So instead of visa queue nimber I was given an enquiry number. When I was inside the center I was accomodated differently that is why I took only 30 mins even if I had to go back to the lobby to get and write down a Singapore local number from my wife who is waiting for me with my belongings.

It was basically it. I hope this information helped you guys.

[g_barrie_g]

@antsmall

I forgot to mention... Bring the Appointment Letter also.

[Antsmall]

Oh I see - so it seems that the VFS offices or websites relating to the Philippines had some weird problem for some reason, whereas the Singapore one didn't.

Well, I guess we'll all have to cross that bridge when we come to it (wait and see if the VFS websites in our various countries of residence are buggy or not). Hmm. Bizarre. Who knows how many people will have to travel to another country just because of this.

Anyway, thanks for the information!

[g_barrie_g]

Well, I guess we'll all have to cross that bridge when we come to it (wait and see if the VFS websites in our various countries of residence are buggy or not). Hmm. Bizarre. Who knows how many people will have to travel to another country just because of this.

When I was inside the biometrics booth I asked the staff if she recalls any number of applicants like me that has enrolled their biometrics there and she told me that as far as she can recall, there were only 4 to 6 applicants within the last three months.

Now I wonder why the calendar system for Philippines is not active, am I the only one here in the philippines who applied or Is it only me that knows about section 65/UKF? I asked because if I am not the only one, there would be lots of applicants who will bombard the VFS Manila or the UKVI with lots of email reporting the issue.

[Antsmall]

Well, section 65 is a slightly obscure law - it hasn't received a lot of emphasis. The lacuna in the law which was fixed by section 65 (after years of campaigning and communication with politicians etc by me and some others) was a considerable and unnecessary injustice which the government repeatedly refused to fix despite verifiable pleas (visible in records of parliamentary discussions) to do so since at least 1981. Most people who might otherwise have been in a position to benefit from section 65 probably ended up not needing it for various reasons: their parents married civilly before they turned 18, they spent enough time in Britain to naturalise, they were under 18 when the laws allowing discretionary registration were introduced, or of course they happened to be born in Britain so they never had to find out that they would have otherwise been denied citizenship through jus sanguinis, jus solis having made the point moot until 1983. And it's quite possible that many people who would now benefit from it haven't found out about it because they just gave up on it years ago, and it's not making headlines anywhere to grab their attention. Clearly people in our position were never a priority for the government because we are comparatively few and we were inherently unable to vote; our plight wasn't something which could be viewed as 'trendy' to fix because it hinged on discrimination against males rather than the much more discussed and visible discrimination against females (I say this as a female: the fact that historically females have endured far more discrimination doesn't automatically mean that males are never discriminated against or that their issues must be ignored just because they don't easily tie into trendy discussions of 'patriarchy' etc - not that I am a fan of 'patriarchy' either, merely equality).

So because of the relative obscurity and non-priority of section 65 it's possible that the number of potential applicants in the Philippines (a subset of an already small and rather ignored group) is tiny and the number who have already found out about it is even tinier, with the result that the Powers that Be don't notice the bugginess of the website (for lack of overwhelming numbers of complaints) and the few applicants have to find individual workarounds like taking a trip to Singapore!

[g_barrie_g]

@lagos1980

The 1st page/paper of 4 has 2 barcodes. The first barcode which is on the top right corner of the paper is Code128. And the barcode on the bottom left corner is of PDF417.

Try to google barcodes Code128 and PDF417 to see what they look like.

The remaining 3 pages just also contains my personal details and then further instructions.

There you are... I hope it helped.

[lagos1980]

@lagos1980

The 1st page/paper of 4 has 2 barcodes. The first barcode which is on the top right corner of the paper is Code128. And the barcode on the bottom left corner is of PDF417.

Try to google barcodes Code128 and PDF417 to see what they look like.

The remaining 3 pages just also contains my personal details and then further instructions.

There you are... I hope it helped.

Thank you for the info.

[lagos1980]

So, did the website bug finally get fixed?

How was the biometrics thing - what sort of documents did they ask for?

No. You see, when making an appointment through VFS using their UKVI Appointment System, you have to choose first your "Country of Operations" from the dropdown list then the VFS Center that is available in that country.

Naturally, I will choose Philippines as my country of operation because I reside here. There are two VFS Centers available here: VFS Manila and VFS Cebu.

Now the problem that I have encountered was that when the Country of Operation is Philippines, the calendar system that was put in place does not do anything. It does not have available dates, holidays, and time slots and etc. in short it has no use. I cannot proceed, I could not confirm any dates.

And so I had read again the Biometrics letter, and I learned that I am free to enrol at my nearest enrollment center other than my own country.

So I chose Singapore as my Country of Operations, and thank God there were green slots for available days and red slot for holidays. Then I clicked a date slot then a time slot appeared. Then I clicked that tome slot provided then walahhh my Appointment Letter is ready to print.

DOCUMENTS
It was provided in the letter. The 4 page Biometric Letter and Passport. But on my part I was glad that I brought my transaction receipt with me because they took that and just returned my Biometrics Letter and Passport. (They made a copy of my Bio Letter and Passport, the original was given back to me).

It was fast for me, because we are an Overseas Citizen Applicant. Just like the head of VFS Singapore jokingly told the security checker "He is a rare case" because the security checker does not know what category of queue number he will be giving me. So instead of visa queue nimber I was given an enquiry number. When I was inside the center I was accomodated differently that is why I took only 30 mins even if I had to go back to the lobby to get and write down a Singapore local number from my wife who is waiting for me with my belongings.

It was basically it. I hope this information helped you guys.

Was your passport mailed to you with the biometric letter?

[bfrenchfry]

Meanwhile, no progress here. They received my application on the 26th of May, took my fee and sent me an acknowledgement email (sans reference number) on the 14th of July, and were silent thereafter. I send them a Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed envelope to use in returning my precious original documents (after obtaining it from a friend in Britain who sent it to me) so I can see from the tracking number that it hasn't been sent yet. It's almost as if they're operating according to a LIFO (Last In First Out) system: people who applied in April are only now getting their acknowledgements more than a month after me, and people who applied a month ago are already doing their biometrics. It's partially a difference between UK and overseas applications but some far later overseas applications are being processed faster than earlier ones. I have no idea what mechanisms are determining any of this.

I know assuming doesn't help any of us, but it really does seem like they started getting these new applications in April and had no clue what to do with them so just threw them on a stack to deal with later. When more came through in June they had a better grasp on things, all while the early people sat collecting dust. I'm really hoping them finally taking my money now instead of within 4 weeks of applying doesn't mean I'm in for another 4-5 month wait from here. I'm in the US so hopefully if I get my biometric letter the VFS system won't be as problematic as others are dealing with.

[g_barrie_g]

@lagos1980

Yes, my passport was sent to me with my Biometrics letter together with my fathers birth certificate.

And also one more thing I forgot to tell you... The 4th page/paper of 4 of my Biometrics letter served as an acknowledgment from them stating that they have deducted the 80 pounds ceremonial fee.

[lagos1980]

@lagos1980

Yes, my passport was sent to me with my Biometrics letter together with my fathers birth certificate.

And also one more thing I forgot to tell you... The 4th page/paper of 4 of my Biometrics letter served as an acknowledgment from them stating that they have deducted the 80 pounds ceremonial fee.

Thanks for the info!

[bfrenchfry]

My recent update just compounds the insanity of my application. I just finally got a response from the NationalityBiometrics email address saying:

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your application.
There is currently no facility for biometric enrolment in the United States of America. It is expected to be available from October 2015 and a biometric enrolment letter will be sent to you as soon as this becomes operational.


I am shocked they can implement this system starting April 6th, but not even ensure they have facilities operational. 6 months after they require biometrics they may finally put one in the US?? I'm sure it won't be in my city and I'll have to fly somewhere to go do this. I can't even believe the constant never-ending ineptitude of the UKVI! If anyone else applies from the US, they should expect to be in for quite a wait.

[Yanni]

My recent update just compounds the insanity of my application. I just finally got a response from the NationalityBiometrics email address saying:

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your application.
There is currently no facility for biometric enrolment in the United States of America. It is expected to be available from October 2015 and a biometric enrolment letter will be sent to you as soon as this becomes operational.


I am shocked they can implement this system starting April 6th, but not even ensure they have facilities operational. 6 months after they require biometrics they may finally put one in the US?? I'm sure it won't be in my city and I'll have to fly somewhere to go do this. I can't even believe the constant never-ending ineptitude of the UKVI! If anyone else applies from the US, they should expect to be in for quite a wait.

That's just BS an it took them so long to tell you. Hopefully it will be in place by October

[Antsmall]

That is grotesque. I know that I gripe a lot about all these bureaucrats and their almost inevitable incompetence, but seriously, am I wrong?

And when they say 'expected to be in place by October' that means they'll fail to have it there by October and they'll keep alternately ignoring us and claiming that they're working on it. Far be it from them to a) do their job and b) create some sort of a workaround that a normal person could invent easily - for instance, having their consulates do SOMETHING for a change, at least until they set up whatever they're promising (the British consulates these days don't do citizenship, visas, passports... all things which I know for a fact that other consulates do, leaving me wondering what these people actually do, then).

My birthday is in October. To think that I had the stupid hope of having my father's country accept me as a full human being before my next birthday (after being kept waiting a full year, containing yet another birthday, yet more encroaching decrepitude, before they could even bother to make the law active while instead they immediately activated far nastier laws). Don't worry, glitchy little robots. We have infinite time. It's not as if we're getting older and older and older waiting for you to grant us our birthright after fighting for decades to get the law changed in the first place. It's not your pain, so it doesn't count.

[anahamilton]

Hey everyone, I have also applied for citizenship through form UKF. Here is my timeline:

documents received: 28/05/2015
acknowledgement e-mail: 17/06/2015
money debited from bank account: 17/06/2015

After that, nothing happened. No contact, no news. I am SO frustated after hearing that they haven't set up the biometrics procedure in the USA. I live in Brazil, and I believe I might be one of the only ones in the country that is going to apply through this form.... Not sure if they can collect my biometrics here, bur hardly believe so, since we have such a small british comunity here... Does anyone know whether it would be possible to travel to the UK to have the briometrics collected? I have also lived in England for quite a long time under the Tier 4 visa, would any of you know whether I would have to have my fingerprints taken again since they have already took them for the visa?

wish you all good luck guys!

[anahamilton]

My recent update just compounds the insanity of my application. I just finally got a response from the NationalityBiometrics email address saying:

bfrenchfry, did you send them an e-mail regarding your application and this was their reply or they sent it to you spontaneously?