Ceremony transfer

[unfair]

Hi. Is it possible to transfer your ceremony to another council that has earlier available dates?

[alterhase58]

In principle yes - but it's unlikely to help with an earlier ceremony date. Your current council will have to return the certificate to the Home Office who will then process/assign to the new council, and this probably takes longer than waiting for appointment. Alternatively consider a private creremony with your council (extra charge).

[unfair]

Aaargh. I received my approval on 17/01/18 but the earliest date available at my council is 04/04/18. I've already booked my ceremony for that date albeit the impatience of having to wait for 2 months! Why is everything so suspense-filled in this journey? It's as if the HO is carrying out a large scale social experiment on human behaviour. I called the council to ask if the £80.00 ceremony fee that is included in the citizenship application fee would be deducted from the private ceremony fee if one chose to do one but the lady I spoke with said, "I couldn't tell you". The fee is £200.00 for Chrissakes!
Just one more hurdle...just one more.

[CR001]

Aaargh. I received my approval on 17/01/18 but the earliest date available at my council is 04/04/18. I've already booked my ceremony for that date albeit the impatience of having to wait for 2 months! Why is everything so suspense-filled in this journey? It's as if the HO is carrying out a large scale social experiment on human behaviour. I called the council to ask if the £80.00 ceremony fee that is included in the citizenship application fee would be deducted from the private ceremony fee if one chose to do one but the lady I spoke with said, "I couldn't tell you". The fee is £200.00 for Chrissakes!
Just one more hurdle...just one more.

The ceremony timescales and availability have absolutely nothing to do with HO. It is purely the relevant council. Some councils do a few a month, others only do one, it varies greatly.

The £80 is for the Group ceremony.

If you choose to do a private ceremony, you have to pay the full fee the council asks for as far as I am aware.

[unfair]

Aaargh. I received my approval on 17/01/18 but the earliest date available at my council is 04/04/18. I've already booked my ceremony for that date albeit the impatience of having to wait for 2 months! Why is everything so suspense-filled in this journey? It's as if the HO is carrying out a large scale social experiment on human behaviour. I called the council to ask if the £80.00 ceremony fee that is included in the citizenship application fee would be deducted from the private ceremony fee if one chose to do one but the lady I spoke with said, "I couldn't tell you". The fee is £200.00 for Chrissakes!
Just one more hurdle...just one more.

The ceremony timescales and availability have absolutely nothing to do with HO. It is purely the relevant council. Some councils do a few a month, others only do one, it varies greatly.

The £80 is for the Group ceremony.

If you choose to do a private ceremony, you have to pay the full fee the council asks for as far as I am aware.

I think it has all to do with the HO. If they charging a fee for a service, it is their responsibility to ensure that the service is streamlined across all the councils or better still, make the process more fluid to enable transfer across councils. In summary, one should be able to fill up the earliest available dates anywhere in the country without any hassle. Is that too much to ask?

At the moment, one is indirectly forced to pay for a private ceremony if they are unable to get a ceremony date before the expiry of their 90 day deadline. See my point?

[CR001]

Aaargh. I received my approval on 17/01/18 but the earliest date available at my council is 04/04/18. I've already booked my ceremony for that date albeit the impatience of having to wait for 2 months! Why is everything so suspense-filled in this journey? It's as if the HO is carrying out a large scale social experiment on human behaviour. I called the council to ask if the £80.00 ceremony fee that is included in the citizenship application fee would be deducted from the private ceremony fee if one chose to do one but the lady I spoke with said, "I couldn't tell you". The fee is £200.00 for Chrissakes!
Just one more hurdle...just one more.

The ceremony timescales and availability have absolutely nothing to do with HO. It is purely the relevant council. Some councils do a few a month, others only do one, it varies greatly.

The £80 is for the Group ceremony.

If you choose to do a private ceremony, you have to pay the full fee the council asks for as far as I am aware.

I think it has all to do with the HO. If they charging a fee for a service, it is their responsibility to ensure that the service is streamlined across all the councils or better still, make the process more fluid to enable transfer across councils. In summary, one should be able to fill up the earliest available dates anywhere in the country without any hassle. Is that too much to ask?

At the moment, one is indirectly forced to pay for a private ceremony if they are unable to get a ceremony date before the expiry of their 90 day deadline. See my point?

The ceremony availability is WHOLLY the council's responsibility. HO has no input or influence on availability or frequency of them. The ceremony fee of £80 is for the council to cover the cost of the group ceremony.

HO has no control over aspects of the Council and how they operate or how many ceremonies they offer per month.

Members have reported success and no issues with attending the ceremony slightly later than the 'within 90' days due to the fact that the ceremony was booked and confirmed.

[secret.simon]

I think it has all to do with the HO. If they charging a fee for a service, it is their responsibility to ensure that the service is streamlined across all the councils or better still, make the process more fluid to enable transfer across councils. In summary, one should be able to fill up the earliest available dates anywhere in the country without any hassle. Is that too much to ask?

You are looking at the wrong question to ask. Why do you think that the Home Office delegates it to the local council to arrange the ceremony? Indeed, why have a citizenship ceremony at all?

Before 2003, if a person's naturalisation application was successful, he got the certificate in the post. Citizens of countries other than Commonwealth Realms (countries which share the Queen as head of state) would take their Oath of Allegiance before a local solicitor or Justice of the Peace in a low key private ceremony. Citizens of Commonwealth Realms (such as Canada, Australia, Jamaica, etc) did not need to take the Oath at all; after all, they already owed allegiance to the Queen.

The idea of a citizenship ceremony is to have a focal point, a celebration of being welcomed in a new persona as a British citizen AND as a part of your local community. The idea is not for you to slow your acquisition of citizenship, as another hurdle to jump, but to savour the moment, in the local community. That is most likely why you can go to any NCS to submit your citizenship ceremony, but can only take your citizenship ceremony at either your local council or one nominated by you (in your naturalisation application) as being more relevant to you (perhaps you are planning to move soon or perhaps you feel more connected to your place of work than a rented residence).

So, slow down, relax and reflect on the fact that you have come to the end of your immigration journey and a new phase of your life is starting.