Citizenship and British Passport timeline (my experience)

Hi everyone. It's been awhile since I've posted but wanted to share my timeline for British Citizenship this year. I am pleased to say that everything went much quicker than expected, though YMMV.

My citizenship application timeline:
Online application submitted: 19 March 2022
Biometrics: 5 April 2022 (done via the app, which was good because I was really struggling to find an appointment that didn't involve a fair bit of travel)
Approval e-mail: 13 June 2022
Citizenship ceremony: 6 September 2022 (originally scheduled for 5 July but I caught Covid and then was away for the August ceremony in my county)

Passport application timeline:
Online application submitted: 6 September 2022 (I was very eager to get it in due to the 10 weeks projection for applications- I want to go home for Christmas!)
Identity confirmed: 6 September 2022
Documents sent: 8 September 2022 (just had to send my Certificate of Naturalisation and my US passport. Sent via courier due to Royal Mail strikes.)
Arrived at passport office: 9 September 2022
Documents received e-mail: 12 September 2022
Interview request received: 20 September 2022 (even though newly naturalised applicants aren't supposed to require an interview, the query line said I should book it if requested).
Interview: 1 October 2022 (done via TEAMS, 20 minutes, very quick and easy, just questions about myself (and the gentleman was so nice.))
Approval e-mail: 1 October 2022 (literally 10 minutes after my interview)
Passport printed e-mail: 4 October 2022 (at 1am)
Passport delivered: 4 October 2022 (the same day I received the e-mail!)

So just about two months processing for citizenship and then a very speedy month for my passport, a vast improvement to the six months for citizenship and ten weeks for the passport. And everything was much simpler than the other applications! Now I am breathing a big sigh of relief. I would definitely recommend paying the £5 extra to have your documents returned by courier because they arrived in the same delivery as my passport.

I just want to say a big thank you to this forum for their help over these last 8(!) years. Your collective assistance has been invaluable.

Cheers!

Feels great to be done, doesn't it? 

well done. That's awesome and really useful info. I'm going to cut and paste your timeline onto the reference doc thread if that's ok.

One question.  Did they contact your referees directly, and if so at what stage?

all the best,

Matt

Feels great to be done, doesn't it? 

It's very exciting! My savings account is no longer my visa fund!

well done. That's awesome and really useful info. I'm going to cut and paste your timeline onto the reference doc thread if that's ok.

One question.  Did they contact your referees directly, and if so at what stage?

all the best,

Matt

Thanks! And apologies- I should have checked if there was a current thread. Please do post; I know how helpful that is.

Neither of my referees were contacted during my citizenship application. Just during my passport application via an e-mail generated by my submitting the application.

Thank you, this is very helpful. I arrived in 2017, and after going through the usual steps, applied for citizenship on 4 July. I got the email saying the application was successful on 8 September (the day of the Queen's passing). Citizenship ceremony (via Teams, sigh) was 27 September. My passport application was submitted on 28 September and I got the email saying they received my documents yesterday, 5 October. So now I'm eagerly awaiting the next step and concluding this process. I hated having to send my documents to Liverpool, the naturalisation certificate and my US passport, but it's what we must do. I haven't been to the US since before Covid and really need to get back to visit. But, it will be so wonderful to be done, done with the Home Office. The rhetoric coming out of there most recently isn't too terribly encouraging for immigrants and immigration in the UK. So, I hope that I will be lucky enough for the process to go as quickly as did yours for the passport. The final piece.