Citizenship Ceremony Invite & Pre-existing Travel Plans Conundrum

Hello All,

Hoping someone here can offer some advice, my wife is a USA Citizen carrying a US Passport with a Biometric Residency Permit with Indefinite Leave to Remain. During lockdown we decided to start the process of applying for her to become a British Citizen, as we finally found ourselves with enough time to go through the process. We both live and work in the UK.

In the meanwhile we have made travel plans to go to the USA in early February 2021.

We have just now been invited to attend a citizenship ceremony and our local council have even automatically enrolled us for a ceremony on the 30th November. The letter inviting us to the ceremony tells us that as soon as my wife becomes a citizen she MUST destroy her Biometric Residency Permit, and send it for secure destruction or face a fine of £1,000.

This leaves us in a difficult situation because of COVID I cannot foresee us being able to apply for a UK passport and receive back all of the supporting documents including her USA passport in time for our travel. Potentially it could happen, but is too close for comfort.

Any ideas what we should do? I'm concerned about how she can re-enter the UK on our return journey, if we do not yet have a UK passport for her.

The options we're considering:
1. Going through with the ceremony on 30th, and applying for a UK passport. Risk not getting UK passport or USA passport back in time for travel.

2. Going through with the ceremony on 30th, and applying for Right to Abode. Costs more money. Risk might not get Right to Abode in time for travel.

3. Going through with the  ceremony on 30th, and flying to USA, and returning to UK on USA passport with hope that Immigration Control will accept documents we present.

4. Delaying the ceremony until after we return.

Wife is leaning towards option 4, but I've seen a few people online suggesting that Option 3 is viable.

Option 1 & 2 make me feel like we're gambling with processing times.

What is the deadline to do your ceremony?  Is it within three months of the invitation...?  Will you be back from your trip before that deadline?  If so, I would probably go with option 4 to avoid any worry.  Oh, I just counted... you don't even leave within three months of the invitation, do you? 

I'm pretty sure you should NOT do option 3.  UK citizens are supposed to enter the UK on their UK passport.  So she'll want to get that.

I don't know much about Right to Abode, and I can't research it just now, so I wouldn't suggest that one.  But you might know better and decide it's the option for you.

As for option 1, I'm assuming they've booked her for November 30th (you wrote September...?).  If she applies for her passport immediately after, I don't see why she wouldn't get her passport back well before your 21 February departure date, unless something weird with the pandemic.  I don't think processing times are very long for passport applications.

What is the deadline to do your ceremony?  Is it within three months of the invitation...?  Will you be back from your trip before that deadline?  If so, I would probably go with option 4 to avoid any worry.  Oh, I just counted... you don't even leave within three months of the invitation, do you? 

I'm pretty sure you should NOT do option 3.  UK citizens are supposed to enter the UK on their UK passport.  So she'll want to get that.

I don't know much about Right to Abode, and I can't research it just now, so I wouldn't suggest that one.  But you might know better and decide it's the option for you.

As for option 1, I'm assuming they've booked her for November 30th (you wrote September...?).  If she applies for her passport immediately after, I don't see why she wouldn't get her passport back well before your 21 February departure date, unless something weird with the pandemic.  I don't think processing times are very long for passport applications.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, sorry I meant November 30th and our trip is booked for Feb 6th.

The UK Passport websites warn that first passport applications can take 6 weeks, and could be longer due to COVID. Also I've seen reports that returning supporting documents can take 2 weeks more. That works out at around 8-? weeks before we have the USA passport back in our possession. And we need that to travel to the US. That means in best case scenario we should get our documents back 1 week prior to travel. I don't know about everyone else but that makes me quite nervous!

Right to abode means we can at least apply for a document equivalent to a UK passport, but it gets put inside the US Passport from what I understand, and should be OK to present at UK border control to prove right to reside and work in UK.

Travelling anyway appears to be against the literature, but as I said, a few people even those on forums here seem to have managed to enter the UK this way. And a lot of Brits seem to move around with a huge amount of Entitlement of their "rights" I was thinking maybe we could just act like a pair of entitled Brits 

The Home Office have extended ceremony attendance to 6 months, but that has not been reflected in the letter we have received from our local council. I am likely going to call them on Monday and ask about simply delaying the ceremony until April 2021 as this would fit.

I think it's funny that we applied for citizenship to prevent headaches, and have landed ourselves in this situation 

Would appreciate if the process for naturalisation made life easier, like issuing the passport in addition to the citizenship certificate, surely would save everyone time and money!

I think it's funny that we applied for citizenship to prevent headaches, and have landed ourselves in this situation 

Would appreciate if the process for naturalisation made life easier, like issuing the passport in addition to the citizenship certificate, surely would save everyone time and money!

If you look in my signature, you'll see that when I applied in 2018, I used a service called JCAP... it was a joint citizenship and passport application.  They brought it in a couple of years before I was able to apply, then decided to phase it out.  I was one of the last people to use it.  I applied for citizenship at the end of October, did biometrics a week later, got my decision in November, ceremony in December, passport in hand on Christmas Eve.  I don't know why they dropped this service.  It was really convenient.

If you look in my signature, you'll see that when I applied in 2018, I used a service called JCAP... it was a joint citizenship and passport application.  They brought it in a couple of years before I was able to apply, then decided to phase it out.  I was one of the last people to use it.  I applied for citizenship at the end of October, did biometrics a week later, got my decision in November, ceremony in December, passport in hand on Christmas Eve.  I don't know why they dropped this service.  It was really convenient.

Wow, we envy that!

We were lucky to be one of the last couple on so-called "old rules". Things seem to switch and change so much in this arena that it seems to be a roll of the dice for families and couples. We are still overjoyed to be close to the final stage, and just trying choosing our next steps carefully.

I think they decided immigration was too easy, still, so they keep changing the application process just to make it sporting. Tick the moving boxes!

Congratulations !  Without a doubt I would go ahead with the ceremony and then apply for the passport.

All but essential travel is not recommended at the moment. Even if you receive the passport in time, I'd be thinking about postponing that trip.

Congratulations !  Without a doubt I would go ahead with the ceremony and then apply for the passport.

All but essential travel is not recommended at the moment. Even if you receive the passport in time, I'd be thinking about postponing that trip.

USA are accepting travellers, and we are going to self-isolate upon return. Let's assume 1 constraint of this scenario is: the trip is happening.

There is PLENTY of time for her to get her passport back. So attend the ceremony (which I’m shocked is happening during lockdown), and apply for the passport.

But take out “the impossible” travel insurance which would be insurance that will cover you while in the USA.  Remember so long as “essential travel only” is allowed, so much as a UTI or broken bone won’t be covered by insurance.  Money Supermarket claims there are no companies that will cover you while the FOC ban is in place.  Make sure you have a buffer for quarantine on the US side for 2 weeks.  We will have a president who is very likely to make Covid priority and place nationwide rules in place.  But I know you know all this already.

There is PLENTY of time for her to get her passport back. So attend the ceremony (which I’m shocked is happening during lockdown), and apply for the passport.

But take out “the impossible” travel insurance which would be insurance that will cover you while in the USA.  Remember so long as “essential travel only” is allowed, so much as a UTI or broken bone won’t be covered by insurance.  Money Supermarket claims there are no companies that will cover you while the FOC ban is in place.  Make sure you have a buffer for quarantine on the US side for 2 weeks.  We will have a president who is very likely to make Covid priority and place nationwide rules in place.  But I know you know all this already.

We were surprised too, but the Home Office delaying ceremonies leads to its own problems, so it seems they are doing their level best to keep them going. They are able to continue some ceremonies but only by reducing the number that are done within a single group session (I think we've been invited to take part, along side only 1 other person). This is obviously being done in such a way to make sure people can observe social distancing.

Health insurance companies in the USA care nothing for the UK Foreign Office advice, so we were able to buy insurance from them. Money Supermarket probably haven't extended their search beyond companies in the UK. We have read up on the CDC and state advice and will not be making unnecessary trips while in the USA. This is not a holiday, but a trip of necessity in some rather odd times. Yes there's a risk the incoming president may change policies that could cause us to make changes to our plans, we are making our plans with the information that's available to us now.

I think there's a fair chance we could apply for the passport and get the documents in time, we are still considering this but given we can't even make the application until after the ceremony. It's something for us to continue to consider

However if we can delay the ceremony it would offer us the opportunity not to gamble with processing times, and snail mail, etc. I usually try to find an option with maximum chance of success and minimal risk, hence why the option of delay is most compelling to us still.

Excellent point on a USA policy.  I hadn’t thought of that!  Primarily because I would have thought you need to be a resident to get one.  But that’s a good trick for those who can’t avoid travelling. 

Excellent point on a USA policy.  I hadn’t thought of that!  Primarily because I would have thought you need to be a resident to get one.  But that’s a good trick for those who can’t avoid travelling.

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