UKM success in record time!

When I got home tonight there was a message on the answering machine. 
It was from the British Consulate in Chicago, IL..... 
Phillip's UKM application was approved and can he please come to Chicago for the citizenship ceremony on October 5! 

This is great news.  And it was so quick.  We sent the application to the Washington DC office on July 27.  His personal documents were sent back on August 3 with a note stating that the application would be forwarded to Liverpool.  The call came today, September 26.  Just 62 days! 

Unfortunately, we cannot travel to Chicago on October 5.  Hopefully there is a ceremony in November that he can attend.  I thought I read somewhere that there is only a short amount of time from when they call you to when you are allowed to go to the ceremony - otherwise the whole application is thrown out.  Does this sound familiar?   We'll find out tomorrow when he calls back.   

Hi Jill!  Congrats!

Wow, I thought my hubby's was fast-I think it was 9 weeks but don't recall exactly.

Yes, there is a time limit-I think it's 30 days.  They may be willing to work with you if you live away and need to really travel-we only had to drive to Orlando (2 1/2 hours or so).   I don't know that they throw out the application, but I'd definitely try and see if there's any way you can get to Chicago within that 30 days.

Congrats! 

Hey! they must be processing them all pretty fast now. We sent the paperwork for my two grown sons UKM,s in August. Got a letter back saying it might be up to six months wait. Got a call yesturday for their ceremony Oct 3 in Orlando!! Great news for me as I leave here Nov. 1 and really wanted to attend the ceremony. SO glad it came through so quickly.

Congratulations! Thats great news!

Congratulations Jill & Phil

Nice to see you back on here too!

A little bit of frustration...... 
It turns out that the approval from the Home Office was dated August 22.  I'm not sure if it left Liverpool on August 22 or if it arrived in Washington DC on August 22.  In either case, it did not make it from Washington DC to the Chicago Consulate until September 26.  (The woman in Chicago does not know why it took so long to get from DC to Chicago.)   

There is a time limit - 60 days from August 22.  He has to complete the ceremony by October 22, but the Chicago consulate will only do the ceremony on the first Wednesday of the month: October 5, which is just a week away.  It's not a huge deal for us to drive to Chicago; it's about four hours away if we need to go all the way into downtown.  The problem is that Phillip travels regularly and a couple times a year his regional manager from St. Louis travels with him.  Well, guess when that is going to happen.  Next week.  His manager already has air tickets from St. Louis to come up here and drive around with Phillip for a couple days next week.

I talked to the woman in Chicago.  She said we can petition the Home Office in Liverpool to extend the date or in RARE circumstances they would consider a private ceremony or he could find a way to make it on October 5.  I also asked her about the possibility of just skipping this session and then re-applying on the UKM (paying the fees again).  She said that was not possible, that a person is only allowed to try for British Citizenship once.  Is this true?  Has anyone heard of this? 

Anyway, I wasn't going to plead with her.  I called up Phillip on his cell and told him that he was going to have to explain to her why he couldn't make it on October 5.   He ended up calling me back after he had talked to her and she said that she was going to check with someone to see about a private ceremony and that she would call him back today regardless of the answer.  To my knowledge she didn't call him back!   

He'll call home later tonight, so hopefully he will have heard something.  I'm sure that he is not going to like telling his manager about this in the event that we have to go on October 5.   

Nonetheless,  I'm happy!!!!   

I hope it all works out Jill. I'm sure they should consider the fact that it took so long to get to you. Only giving you a weeks notice to go to Chicago is awful.  Congrats on your hubbys  UKM though

Yippee. 
They scheduled a private ceremony on October 6th. 

woohoo great to hear