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Hi All,

I am working through my options of who can become a professional referee for my Naturalisation application which I am planning to make in couple of weeks. This will be a joint application for my family i.e. my wife and children.

My wife has spoken to a GP in the surgery where we have been registered for last 5 yrs. He has agreed to sign the application as a referee (and mentioned there is a standard charge (£20) payable for this as per the surgery policy).

My query is that

1. can he act as a referee given that he knows us only to the extent that we would have visited him at the surgery whenever required which is not many times. I am not even sure if UKBA asks him to cross verify our identity he will be able to. When my wife asked him if he was comfortable with the fact that UKBA might revert back to him to confirm our identities etc, he asked us to leave an extra copy of application and photograph at the reception and that should be fine.

2. Is this quite common with regards to GP acting as a professional referee. ( I am not talking about the fees but them being able to act as a referee with only medical information and background)

I am worried about the application stating following criteria

" • they have known the applicant personally for more than 3 years;
• they are willing to give full details of their knowledge of the applicant;
• they will advise the Home Office of any reason why the applicant should not be naturalised."

Any feedback will be much appreciated.

nmehta wrote:Hi All,

I am working through my options of who can become a professional referee for my Naturalisation application which I am planning to make in couple of weeks. This will be a joint application for my family i.e. my wife and children.

My wife has spoken to a GP in the surgery where we have been registered for last 5 yrs. He has agreed to sign the application as a referee (and mentioned there is a standard charge (£20) payable for this as per the surgery policy).

My query is that

1. can he act as a referee given that he knows us only to the extent that we would have visited him at the surgery whenever required which is not many times. I am not even sure if UKBA asks him to cross verify our identity he will be able to. When my wife asked him if he was comfortable with the fact that UKBA might revert back to him to confirm our identities etc, he asked us to leave an extra copy of application and photograph at the reception and that should be fine.

2. Is this quite common with regards to GP acting as a professional referee. ( I am not talking about the fees but them being able to act as a referee with only medical information and background)

I am worried about the application stating following criteria

" • they have known the applicant personally for more than 3 years;
• they are willing to give full details of their knowledge of the applicant;
• they will advise the Home Office of any reason why the applicant should not be naturalised."

Any feedback will be much appreciated.

1. Yes its no prob.
2. Yes its quite common.

Sorry, I was away and hence a delayed reply, thanks for your response.

Also I am not able to reach my UK born daughter's health visitor. Can GP act as a professional referee for her as well.

Thanks

The GP I had spoken to is on leave and I getting very close to my application date.

Just going through some other options -

1. A friend of mine who is an IT consultant (on contractual assignments) has setup his own company for 2-3 years and therefore is Director of a vat registered company. Technically a director of a vat registered company can act as a referee but can he ? - given that his company is just a one-man company and not a well-know listed company.

Thanks in adavance

Yes, he can act as a referee.

Okay, finally couple of days back I managed to get in touch with my GP and paid the required fees at the reception. The GP has confirmed he will sgin the forms and hand it over to me early next week.

Now, I just read the following thread and again the same question comes back ..

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... be2b76de9a

Although, the above mention thread is about passport application, I am not sure if the case worker in naturalisation application will not accept GP reference given that he knows me only as a patient.

Any thoughts?

i am in the same situation that's why very confused. As far as I can gather from this board's experienced members that it's OK to get application signed by GP for naturalisation application but not OK for IPS. I don't know why this discretion is but that besides the point. The important thing is success of the application.

But I would love if some Seniors make it more clear.

GP should be OK.

I have no idea why IPS have refused to accept it in the one occasion that was reported in the forum. I got my child application countersigned by a child's teacher. Surely this means the teacher only knows the child in a professional context, the same as GP do. IPS had no problem with that.

Thanks Jambo.

I have now got my referee form signed by my GP and he was only happy to state that he knows us as a patient.

On checking if he would mind stating "personally", he said something like "it is common for us to fill this way and nobody has ever come back stating this as an issue; It would be assumed that if we are signing this form we have known you long enough"

I hope he is right. I will update this forum when there is any progress but I guess that will take some time .

I have my application next week and in the meanwhile can anyone post with positive/negative responses due to GP acting as referee.

I have also got my application signed from my GP and he has mentioned 'Patient' in the box. I am also going to apply next month. Let's see what turns out to be. I am very hopeful that it will go through without an issue of GP being a referee, but I would avoid using GP as referee again in IPS application.

Sorry but can anyone please help me to understand what does 'Personal Licence Holder' mean?

Personal Licence Holder is one of the professionals who can act as referee, according to the accepted referees list.

I'm applying for citizenship in last week of this month (October 2012) and one of my friends (British National) holds a personal licence to sell alcohol and works as a night manager at SPAR store. Can he act as my referee? Or does personal licence holder is someone else?

Sorry again if my question sounds daft, I just need some reassurance.

Sorry but can someone please help me to understand what does 'Personal Licence Holder' mean?

Personal Licence Holder is one of the professionals who can act as referee.

I'm applying for citizenship in last week of this month (October 2012) and one of my friends (British National) holds a personal licence to sell alcohol and works as a night manager at SPAR store. Can he act as my referee? Or does personal licence holder is someone else?

My GP tells he doesn't give any such references anymore so I'm kind of stuck with my application.

Sorry again if my question sounds daft, I just need some reassurance.

personal license holder can be a bar manager or anyone who holds a license in his/her name to sell alchohol at a particular premises.

adamboston wrote:Sorry but can someone please help me to understand what does 'Personal Licence Holder' mean?

Personal Licence Holder is one of the professionals who can act as referee.

I'm applying for citizenship in last week of this month (October 2012) and one of my friends (British National) holds a personal licence to sell alcohol and works as a night manager at SPAR store. Can he act as my referee? Or does personal licence holder is someone else?

My GP tells he doesn't give any such references anymore so I'm kind of stuck with my application.

Sorry again if my question sounds daft, I just need some reassurance.

bobobo wrote:personal license holder can be a bar manager or anyone who holds a license in his/her name to sell alchohol at a particular premises.

adamboston wrote:Sorry but can someone please help me to understand what does 'Personal Licence Holder' mean?

Personal Licence Holder is one of the professionals who can act as referee.

I'm applying for citizenship in last week of this month (October 2012) and one of my friends (British National) holds a personal licence to sell alcohol and works as a night manager at SPAR store. Can he act as my referee? Or does personal licence holder is someone else?

My GP tells he doesn't give any such references anymore so I'm kind of stuck with my application.

Sorry again if my question sounds daft, I just need some reassurance.

Thank you bobobo

That means he can become my referee. I have now booked an appointment with NCS Oldham.

One more thing, do I need to include a copy of my referee's licence too in my application?

Thanks ever so much.