Hi everyone! I just wanted to share our journey into attaining my Citizenship Invitation. If there is a thread about this already I am sorry that I could not find it to comment there. Anyways, hope this helps someone in the future!
1st STEP: We applied for my citizenship exactly 1 year after I have received my ILR.
*on the form regarding references, we have used 1) Our family doctor from the Philippines and is a Filipino citizen, and yes, she is still residing in the Philippines until now and was in the Philippines at the time of my application; 2) A friend who knows me for 5 years now and is a British Citizen.
We struggled in filling out that part of the form as when you research on the internet some people said that a reference from outside the UK is not accepted by some NCS. We decided to take the risk as me and my husband both do not know any professional who fit the requirements listed and who had known me for more than 3 years.
We filed our application through the NCS service on 25/07/15. We paid £1005 for the citizenship and I just checked their website again the fee now for the checking of documents is £70. They go through your paperworks, make sure you have everything and you've filled in the application form properly. They photo copy your documents and certify it and then send it off to the UKBA for processing. They issue you a document saying you have paid for the citizenship along with an accomplished questionnaire. We paid by debit card and we were informed that the moment the money has been taken out of your account is the moment they start processing your papers. I was informed that sometimes you will get a confirmation letter saying they have received your application but sometimes you do not so I ended up routinely checking my bank statement, keeping an eye for when they take the fee out. Waiting time is anywhere from 3-6months.
The advantage of this service is that you get to keep your documents and thus allows you to still be able to travel for short holidays (and we have gone out of the country for a short holiday with this application pending). I was advised not to be out of the country for more than 7 days as all being well, I would need to do another BIOMETRICS registration. Yes. AGAIN.
2nd STEP:One week after the date on the letter which was 6TH OF AUGUST, I received an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT RECEIPT of my documents and payment of £1005. It comes with a letter which advised me that I have 15 working days (from the date of the letter) to register my BIOMETRICS.
A quick search made us decide to go to the PORTSMOUTH Post Office branch as other branches, specially those closer to London tend to be very busy. You cannot book an appointment for this service so we ended up taking a day's leave from work to accomplish this. We got to the post office early in the morning and there was no queue at all. it was pretty much a straight forward application. Remember to bring the letter from the Home Office as you will need it and your ILR residence card. The fee is £19.20 upon my application.
The waiting game then starts.
2 Months and 4 Days later we received a pleasant surprise. Dated 10th October 2015 but received 7 days later, my Citizenship Invitation came through the post. It then advised me that I have 21 days from the date on the letter to sort out your ceremony. It is Saturday today and the Register Office is closed so I have not booked one yet, hopefully I will be able to on Monday.
We know how stressful the process is and sometimes how confusing a straight forward question on the forms could be.
I hope my post helps someone, I will try to answer any questions if I can. Goodluck to everyone!
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Originally Posted by PAT
