Citizenship certificate sent back to UKVI

[maverick278]

Dear gurus,

My wife received an email from ukvi on July 16 2022 asking to provide explanation as to why she did not pay heed to her ceremony invitation. We were shocked coz we had applied for naturalisation in October 2021 and have been diligently following up since April 2022 after the 6months SLA expired. Apparently her application was approved back in December 2021 itself!

We responded to that email, but a few days ago, she again received an email from the same person who sent the first one seeking an explanation as to why we have not responded! We were puzzled coz we responded almost immediately. We then attached all our follow ups and again responded but no reply from home office.

They had given an ultimatum to respond within 17/8 or they will cancel the application when we have been doing just that for so long.

There is no contact number as none of those numbers actually are useful or puts us through to the case worker. So we called citizenship enquiries and they suggested we write a physical letter to their Liverpool office. We sent a signed for letter explaining all of this, but they witheld that letter from being delivered to that address. So that option is also a no-go.

What kind of a service is this where we pay so much, and have no email,no telephone contact or no way to reach them via physical letters? Why are we to put up with such shoddy service?

Has anyone gone through this? What are our options? We are at our wits end coz her Indian passport has expired and she can't renew it now that she's a citizen of UK (in theory) and the Indian passport application specifically asks if the applicant is in the process of applying for citizenship of another country - so we can't lie there. So we are effectively stuck with no light in sight!

Any pointers to progress with this would be greatly appreciated!

[secret.simon]

she can't renew it now that she's a citizen of UK (in theory)

She's not yet a British citizen. She only becomes a British citizen after she attends a citizenship ceremony and receives a naturalisation certificate.

In fact (not merely theory), she is still an Indian citizen and should be able to renew her Indian passport even if she is in the middle of a naturalisation application.

we called citizenship enquiries

Most Home Office telephone support lines are outsourced and they may not be able to access or update the status of your applications anyway.

Other members of these forums have reported that the following email addresses are more helpful.

NationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk
FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk
Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gov.uk

Email them (ideally separately) with as detailed a list as possible of your various correspondences with the Home Office.

[alex79]

Funny enough, I made similar thread with the same issue last month and I've seen few other people complaining about it. I received email last week saying they have reissued the invitation which I received. However I tried to book the ceremony with council and they said it expired in February, so I have explained the situation and they said come back next week because there might be a delay. So I did and the council is again saying they don't have it and come back in 2 weeks. This assures me of massive incompetence that is happening in Home Office.