Citizenship

Ours was dated the 10th April and arrived yesterday, so just a week or so on that one (!) - we'll try to arrange things this week. I'm hoping this helps you with your timeline as well - and, after our journey over the last six years or so has revolved so heavily around everything being paper, it's nice to have a piece of paper to affirm this (nice though emails are )

Fantastic! Congratulations. I want to hear all about the ceremonies. It really is something to celebrate.

Ours was dated the 10th April and arrived yesterday, so just a week or so on that one (!) - we'll try to arrange things this week. I'm hoping this helps you with your timeline as well - and, after our journey over the last six years or so has revolved so heavily around everything being paper, it's nice to have a piece of paper to affirm this (nice though emails are )

Congratulations!!

We were never hearing anything about the ceremony date so my husband emailed the council, here is the reply he got:-

I understand that you have been in touch regarding an update on your application for British Citizenship.  As confirmed in an earlier conversation I advised that I had not yet received the appropriate paperwork from the Home Office.
 
However, your Certificate of Naturalisation arrived this week and although your original date in which the ceremony had to take place was 13th May the Home Office are granting a 6 month extension to ceremonies due to the pandemic.  For many months no citizenship ceremonies were taking place and am sure you can understand there is a backlog of ceremonies to work through.  Social distancing at ceremonies also applies which limits the amount of people we can have in the room so this is also adding to the timescale for ceremonies taking place.
 
Once I am in a position to offer you a ceremony date I will be in touch but in the meantime would be useful if you can let me know if there are any dates in the coming months where you are unavailable.  I can then take this into account when planning a ceremony date.

So it looks like its not happening anytime soon..

We were never hearing anything about the ceremony date so my husband emailed the council, here is the reply he got:-

I understand that you have been in touch regarding an update on your application for British Citizenship.  As confirmed in an earlier conversation I advised that I had not yet received the appropriate paperwork from the Home Office.
 
However, your Certificate of Naturalisation arrived this week and although your original date in which the ceremony had to take place was 13th May the Home Office are granting a 6 month extension to ceremonies due to the pandemic.  For many months no citizenship ceremonies were taking place and am sure you can understand there is a backlog of ceremonies to work through.  Social distancing at ceremonies also applies which limits the amount of people we can have in the room so this is also adding to the timescale for ceremonies taking place.
 
Once I am in a position to offer you a ceremony date I will be in touch but in the meantime would be useful if you can let me know if there are any dates in the coming months where you are unavailable.  I can then take this into account when planning a ceremony date.

So it looks like its not happening anytime soon..

Well this truly SUCKS for you guys. I am so sorry!

We were never hearing anything about the ceremony date so my husband emailed the council, here is the reply he got:-

I understand that you have been in touch regarding an update on your application for British Citizenship.  As confirmed in an earlier conversation I advised that I had not yet received the appropriate paperwork from the Home Office.
 
However, your Certificate of Naturalisation arrived this week and although your original date in which the ceremony had to take place was 13th May the Home Office are granting a 6 month extension to ceremonies due to the pandemic.  For many months no citizenship ceremonies were taking place and am sure you can understand there is a backlog of ceremonies to work through.  Social distancing at ceremonies also applies which limits the amount of people we can have in the room so this is also adding to the timescale for ceremonies taking place.
 
Once I am in a position to offer you a ceremony date I will be in touch but in the meantime would be useful if you can let me know if there are any dates in the coming months where you are unavailable.  I can then take this into account when planning a ceremony date.

So it looks like its not happening anytime soon..

How upsetting. I'm sorry to hear that Kezzie62 - there is clearly a huge difference between councils now in this, as we were contacted the following week by ours, and now have a date for the official (virtual) ceremony. I hope that they get back in touch with you with something soon!

I received my citizenship invitation application today, but of course I have to wait until Tuesday to call and arrange my ceremony. It was mailed on 21 April and arrived on 1 May. That's pretty awful, but at least I'm getting closer!!!

I received my renewed US passport on Friday as well. It has been an eventful week for me.

I was able to email the council today to find out about the ceremony. It looks like they are holding them in person, but like Kezzie, I may have to wait up to six months for the ceremony. I am supposed to get a reply from someone in 10-20 days, so we'll see if Islington has its act together. I did receive an automated response, but that only had links for booking appointments for births, deaths, and marriages or civil partnerships. It did not include information about citizenship (other than EUSS, which has been suspended until further notice).

I'm so frustrated on behalf of both of you. That ours can handle virtual ones without appreciable delay and others can't I suppose is a fact of them being able to act pretty autonomously, but with something as big as this it really feels that the HO should be able to short circuit it and issue the certificates, waiving the ceremony requirement or make it conditional "down the line", or something...!

I was able to email the council today to find out about the ceremony. It looks like they are holding them in person, but like Kezzie, I may have to wait up to six months for the ceremony. I am supposed to get a reply from someone in 10-20 days, so we'll see if Islington has its act together. I did receive an automated response, but that only had links for booking appointments for births, deaths, and marriages or civil partnerships. It did not include information about citizenship (other than EUSS, which has been suspended until further notice).

Heidi, sorry to hear you are in the same situation as us.  We are hoping that they don’t call us for the ceremony just before we hope to go to the US in September, we have told them the dates we hope to be away and reminded them we would need time to get a passport as well.. fingers crossed we both hear soon.

Heidi, sorry to hear you are in the same situation as us.  We are hoping that they don’t call us for the ceremony just before we hope to go to the US in September, we have told them the dates we hope to be away and reminded them we would need time to get a passport as well.. fingers crossed we both hear soon.

Thanks guys. You are both so sweet.

I am not completely giving up yet, although I'm kicking myself because had I picked my council (Haringey), I may have been able to schedule my ceremony sooner. They are doing virtual ceremonies as well as in person, while Islington is only doing in person.

At the time I applied, I discovered I could select from a number of nearby councils, so I took a chance and selected the one that was closest to me (rather than selecting the one where I reside), knowing I'd have to walk there. Back then, I didn't know they were doing virtual ceremonies at all. I should have checked. Such is life.

Biscuits, have you had your virtual ceremony yet?

Thanks guys. You are both so sweet.

I am not completely giving up yet, although I'm kicking myself because had I picked my council (Haringey), I may have been able to schedule my ceremony sooner. They are doing virtual ceremonies as well as in person, while Islington is only doing in person.

At the time I applied, I discovered I could select from a number of nearby councils, so I took a chance and selected the one that was closest to me (rather than selecting the one where I reside), knowing I'd have to walk there. Back then, I didn't know they were doing virtual ceremonies at all. I should have checked. Such is life.

Biscuits, have you had your virtual ceremony yet?

That is a real twist. I had no clue that there may be options based on those councils for some - that's really unlucky. I hope that it comes along more swiftly for both of you.

We have not had the ceremony yet - it is scheduled for mid-June, so it was around six or seven weeks from when they sent the letter. We had to email them back a few details, mostly corroborative (the HO reference number and so on) but haven't been asked at all about which wordings to use or anything like that, so I presume they'll catch that up either nearer the time, or right on the day. They say it will last about 15 minutes, and gave us the option of Zoom or Teams.

Wow--I am shocked! I just received an email from the council stating that I have been booked for a group ceremony on 14 June 2021. Kezzie, I REALLY hope you hear something soon.

****UPDATE*****

We have just got an email inviting my husband to his Citizenship Ceremony on 10th June….. We are so excited! The end is in sight..

****UPDATE*****

We have just got an email inviting my husband to his Citizenship Ceremony on 10th June….. We are so excited! The end is in sight..

Fantastic! How odd we're all actually going to end up with about the same date after all that

****UPDATE*****

We have just got an email inviting my husband to his Citizenship Ceremony on 10th June….. We are so excited! The end is in sight..

This is fantastic news! I am so thrilled you guys are going in the home stretch at last. I think the three of us will all be having our ceremonies within a week of each other.