Not able to book Citizenship ceremony

[sharpec]

Hello all
I finally received my Home office invitation letter by Email about 2 weeks ago.
I have been trying to book the citizenship ceremony with Tower hamlets (london) for the past few days.
The email does say to give it a day so I presume this is long enough.
The council website needs you to enter the Home office reference number which looks like xxxx-xxxx-xxxx- xxxx (ie 16 digits separated every 4 digits by a dash). It also needs you to enter your name which i am doing exactly as addressed in the email.

However, the website keeps saying

Your record cannot be retrieved. There are a few reasons this could be.

You have inputted the incorrect Home Office reference
You have inputted your name differently to how it appears on the Home Office invitation
You already have a ceremony booked
Your certificate has not been received by us

Is this something of concern ? any advice is appreciated.
thanks.

[alterhase58]

Try and get in touch with the registry office dealing with ceremonies (it's a council service, not run by the Home Office).
It may be the council hasn't received the certificate yet from the HO - why the system doesn't recognise the ref number.

[atto_lost]

Hello all
I finally received my Home office invitation letter by Email about 2 weeks ago.
I have been trying to book the citizenship ceremony with Tower hamlets (london) for the past few days.
The email does say to give it a day so I presume this is long enough.
The council website needs you to enter the Home office reference number which looks like xxxx-xxxx-xxxx- xxxx (ie 16 digits separated every 4 digits by a dash). It also needs you to enter your name which i am doing exactly as addressed in the email.

However, the website keeps saying

Your record cannot be retrieved. There are a few reasons this could be.

You have inputted the incorrect Home Office reference
You have inputted your name differently to how it appears on the Home Office invitation
You already have a ceremony booked
Your certificate has not been received by us

Is this something of concern ? any advice is appreciated.
thanks.

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

[alterhase58]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

[kp_17]

Also experiencing the same thing, albeit with a different council in London.

Received approval email on 4 Dec, and haven't been able to book ceremony on the council's booking website since then.

Apparently, the council didn't receive my naturalisation certificate and many others' certificates are missing too (although they've been getting weekly deliveries).

They're currently chasing this with the Home Office to try and locate the certificates. If they can't find them, they'll be reprinted.

Quite frustrating, but nothing that can be done apart from waiting.

[atto_lost]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

Agree to council tax part. However not sure if we can chose different council out of convenience.

[kp_17]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

Agree to council tax part. However not sure if we can chose different council out of convenience.

Yup, you 100% can.

[contorted_svy]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

Agree to council tax part. However not sure if we can chose different council out of convenience.

Yes, you can select your preferred council when you apply. If you don't select anything it will be the one where your postcode is located It can't be changed after the application is submitted.

[atto_lost]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

Agree to council tax part. However not sure if we can chose different council out of convenience.

Yes, you can select your preferred council when you apply. If you don't select anything it will be the one where your postcode is located It can't be changed after the application is submitted.

ok, so in your Citizenship application you need to select right ? My entire point is once your application got approved, depending on the feasibility at that point of time you cannot apply to different council.

[contorted_svy]

Yes, that is correct. When you get your acceptance you can't change council from what you have selected when you applied.

[kp_17]

Also experiencing the same thing, albeit with a different council in London.

Received approval email on 4 Dec, and haven't been able to book ceremony on the council's booking website since then.

Apparently, the council didn't receive my naturalisation certificate and many others' certificates are missing too (although they've been getting weekly deliveries).

They're currently chasing this with the Home Office to try and locate the certificates. If they can't find them, they'll be reprinted.

Quite frustrating, but nothing that can be done apart from waiting.

We just checked our details tonight (as our council gets certificates delivered on Thursdays), and were able to book our ceremony today.

Good luck to the OP

[clawsie]

My council has also not received my certificate yet (Waltham Forest), though they state on their page "it may take at least 2 weeks for certificates to be received". Guess most delays are in the London area. Oh well, more waiting ...

[sharpec]

To close the loop here (I should have done this earlier - apologies)
I mailed the council directly. I got back an automated reply.
A few days later, I got a reply from an official saying 'try now'
And voila, it worked, and I booked a date. I have attended the ceremony, and have sent off the my non-uk passports. Fingers crossed!

For what it's worth, I waited approx 10 days after the original Home office mail, and then it took another 4-5 days to be able to find my name. Then I got a (free) date about a month away.

[PM74Juve]

Ceremony will be done at the Local Council where you live and pay Council Tax. It should be same as the one you provided in your application. Every city council has a dedicated number, all that you need to do is call them. You can get those details in council's website

Yes, but it's not linked to where you pay council tax.
Applicants are able to specify a council other than their own, for convenience probably.
Readers may think there's a firm link here. Some people don't pay CT....

Agree to council tax part. However not sure if we can chose different council out of convenience.

It makes sense to give choice precisely because of factors like convenience... and so there is that option in the application itself to choose local authority. If someone was imminently moving or had a particular attraction to, or work commitments in, a region other than where they live it could be useful option... I suppose some may even choose based on where the guests they want are based.

But threads like this do remind me there seems to be a real problem of timely admin in relation to approved applications... between the Naturalisations service and local authorities it does feel a bit Chuckle Brothers... with things in illogical order creating confusion and difficulties. I ain't looking forward to sorting it out when my partner is approved presumably in spring.

[contorted_svy]

To close the loop here (I should have done this earlier - apologies)
I mailed the council directly. I got back an automated reply.
A few days later, I got a reply from an official saying 'try now'
And voila, it worked, and I booked a date. I have attended the ceremony, and have sent off the my non-uk passports. Fingers crossed!

For what it's worth, I waited approx 10 days after the original Home office mail, and then it took another 4-5 days to be able to find my name. Then I got a (free) date about a month away.

Good it has been sorted! Congratulations.

[whatever32]

Weird stuff happened to me. I received an approval on Monday, tried to book my ceremony in Barnet Council, but my payment failed (presumably because of the weak internet connection). After I retried my attempt, the system stopped finding my records

Your records cannot be retrieved. Please make sure you enter the full name as it appears on the home office invitation email/letter and Home Office Reference number. Alternatively, your records may have not reached our office so please wait a few days.

I called the council and they said they don't have my records yet, retry on Friday. The question is how it was possible in the first place? Did anyone face the same issue?

[contorted_svy]

Seems an issue with your council's website, have you tried giving them a call?

[whatever32]

Seems an issue with your council's website, have you tried giving them a call?

Yes, I mentioned it in my previous message. I called them the next day

[contorted_svy]

Try again on Friday as they said, it is annoying but these mistakes happen all the time.