Naturalisation timeline

The Home Office Web site says today:
"If you send your application to us today, the expected times for a
decision are as follows:
"Naturalisation 4.11 months ... "

It took them a month to acknowledge receipt of fee and documents from a
friend. She (and other inquiring minds) want to know: does one measure
the 4.11 months from the date the recorded delivery envelope reached
the Home Office, or from the date (a month later) that this letter was
sent out?

Methinks the application wasn't even opened for a month; certainly they
didn't charge the credit card till then.

Isn't it fairly clear from the language that it is from the date of sending
the application? A far cry from the days when the length of time it took
would have been measured in years rather than months.....


paul

However the 4.11 months probably does not include the time to wait for a
ceremony (up to 3 months)

JAJ wrote:



That is right, it won't. The frequency of Citizenship Ceremonies varies
considerably. As a rough guide the bigger the town or city the more
frequent its ceremonies will be. So anyone living in a more rural area
should consider filling in that part of the AN(NEW) application form to
indicate they wish their ceremony to be in a different place from where
they actually live. For example, someone living in Dudley in the West
Midlands (ceremonies about every 6 weeks) might consider getting their
ceremony done in Birmingham (twice a month).

I "checked" the documents for her, and made sure she included
everything called for: a British university diploma, birth certificate,
old passports dating from her first entry in 1984, the fee... Whether
that will equate to the effect of a "document checking service" remains
to be seen. It presumably was cheaper; there's nothing cheaper than
gratis so long as there aren't costly unintended consequences.

Presumably she gets her other-country passport back within those 4.11
months and the "ceremony" only validates the administrative act? On the
assumption that asking it back for travel in the interm will disrupt
the timeline she is staying put. I was surprised that she's not even
allowed to go to the Republic of Ireland (the Home Office is quoted as
saying that) but told her she can probably go to the Channel Islands
with just a driving licence and lots of money.

(I wonder whether the necessity for "swearing allegiance" will be an
obstacle to Islamists who would otherwise naturalise, even though their
true allegiance is to the Khilafa. In general, according to Eurostat,
Muslims are the least likely to naturalise in any EU country (it has to
do with a perceived conflict of their "perpetual allegiance to the
Umma" and the perception that "nationality" is anyway a Christian
concept, which I suppose it is).)

kuacou241@yahoo.com wrote:


It is far better to use the new nationality checking service - you take
the documents in and they are checked before being sent to the IND.
There are reports of approvals coming back within a few weeks.

A.

The difference being that (unless you're not telling us something!) "The
Kuacou Checking Service" doesn't get priority treatment once the papers
arrive in Liverpool, whereas the official one does.

Seems pretty clear from your original post that the delay is happening at
the beginning of the process. So from the point of view of the applicant in
a hurry who is prepared to shell out a few quid on having the application
officially checked, the NCS leapfrog wins hands down.

paul

kuacou241@yahoo.com wrote:



Not quite right. Swearing the oath, or making the affirmation, at a
Citizenship Ceremony, and then being handed the Certificate defines the
person as being British. The administrative act was "merely" to offer
the person the chance to go along to a Citizenship Ceremony and go
through that procedure.

That is, the person is not British until their Citizenship Ceremony.

As for the other-country passport, and indeed other supporting
documents, yes all those will get returned. Dependent upon the country
that issued the other-country passport, dual nationality might well be
what the person ends up with. The UK certainly has no objection to dual
nationality. Some other countries around the world do not have the same
policy, but many do.

Mine took 16 months (filed in January 1999; granted at the end of May, 2000).
Not only that, but they managed to misplace my US passport and I never got it
back.

4.11 months! What a great improvement.
--

Christian Hansen wrote:


Isn't it! The time has steadily come down. When my wife applied in April
last year the average was said to be 8 onths. In fact it took only 5 weeks.

And now, yes the average is 4.11 months but many hear VERY much quicker
than that, especially those applying using the NCS service. The quickest
I have heard of is a mere 5 days ... yes days!

The application fee is now a lot higher. I think it is clear that IND
has actually invested quite a bit of that extra income into ensuring
that a reasonable service is provided.

Last history class I attended described the last khalifa in Spain before the
inquisition . So I guess we will be able to swear allegiance to the Queen
for the time being _hhehehee

In general, according to Eurostat,
Muslims are the least likely to naturalise in any EU country (it has to
do with a perceived conflict of their "perpetual allegiance to the
Umma" and the perception that "nationality" is anyway a Christian
concept, which I suppose it is).)[/quote]

With the ummah ( community of faith ) there are many nation or nationalities
, now I am confused allegiance to the khalifa or to the ummah ?