Royal Mail failed to deliver approval letter from HO

[fiv]

Hi everyone,

I applied for BC in May. My application was "decided" on the 25 sep and I received an invitation to attend a ceremony from my local council on the 14 Oct.

However, the letter from the HO never arrived. So I rang them up on their enquiries phone call and they said that my letter was sent on the 3 Oct but was then returned by Royal Mail to them on the 11 Oct as they failed to make the delivery. The HO provided the correct address so how did Royal Mail fail to deliver the letter?

They have told me to send an email to further enquiries to ask them to resend the letter. But apparently they reply within 20 working days!

My council is waiting for me to book a ceremony but there is no way I will be able to do that within 21 days as 2 weeks have already gone and they might reply to me within the next 4 weeks.

Is there the possibility that the council returns my naturalisation certificate before I receive my approval letter?

[Shaolin]

Royal Mail ? I was under the impression that its DX who delivers all the HO correspondenc. I might be wrong but thats what my understanding was until I read your post.

[fiv]

Royal Mail ? I was under the impression that its DX who delivers all the HO correspondenc. I might be wrong but thats what my understanding was until I read your post.

That's what the HO person said on the phone. In any case whoever they use returned the approval letter back to them and didn't deliver it.

[bruteforce]

If you have received an invitation from the Council, can you not just book the ceremony with them?

[fiv]

If you have received an invitation from the Council, can you not just book the ceremony with them?

They want the ref number from the approval letter.

[bruteforce]

Ah, if I were you, I would First try ALL references numbers including actual application number and then phone HO to try and get the number over the phone. No harm in playing all the cards.

[CR001]

Royal Mail ? I was under the impression that its DX who delivers all the HO correspondenc. I might be wrong but thats what my understanding was until I read your post.

Approval letters are sent out standard 2nd class post in a brown A5 envelope.

DX Couriers are used for the BRP cards (visas and ILR)

[baddy]

If you have received an invitation from the Council, can you not just book the ceremony with them?

They want the ref number from the approval letter.

May be the people that have received their letters can help with this. HO ref will be the case ID I am assuming!. Those numbers that start with '2'.

[Aparva]

Approval letter is must for attending ceremony, Registrar will keep it after handing you citizenship certificate.

[fiv]

Approval letter is must for attending ceremony, Registrar will keep it after handing you citizenship certificate.

That’s right. I did manage to book a ceremony with the council for the 14 December. I emailed further nationality enquiries about resending it and hopefully it should arrive given there is a bout 2 months until the ceremony.

Why they failed to deliver is beyond me. The address was correct so my guess is a) someone at home office messed up or b) Royal Mail just decided not to deliver it for some reason lol.

[safatafa]

Hi

Email on this Citizenship Support <Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

this is the citizenship support line turnaround time i found is 24 hrs, but they can send you the letter by email.
use that if you don't receive a physical letter.

[fiv]

Hi

Email on this Citizenship Support <Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

this is the citizenship support line turnaround time i found is 24 hrs, but they can send you the letter by email.
use that if you don't receive a physical letter.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent an email to that address. I have a ceremony booked on the 14 Dec so I really need it by then.

[fiv]

Hi

Email on this Citizenship Support <Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

this is the citizenship support line turnaround time i found is 24 hrs, but they can send you the letter by email.
use that if you don't receive a physical letter.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent an email to that address. I have a ceremony booked on the 14 Dec so I really need it by then.

Just to provide an update for other people who may be in a similar situation.

I emailed the citizenship support email address and they replied within 4 working days and they sent me a scanned copy of the approval letter. Further nationality enquiries email still haven’t responded so I wouldn’t recommend emailing them.

[plabo]

Hi

Email on this Citizenship Support <Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

this is the citizenship support line turnaround time i found is 24 hrs, but they can send you the letter by email.
use that if you don't receive a physical letter.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent an email to that address. I have a ceremony booked on the 14 Dec so I really need it by then.

Just to provide an update for other people who may be in a similar situation.

I emailed the citizenship support email address and they replied within 4 working days and they sent me a scanned copy of the approval letter. Further nationality enquiries email still haven’t responded so I wouldn’t recommend emailing them.

Congrats. So you mean that a print out of the scanned approval letter will be enough to attend the ceremony?

[fiv]

Hi

Email on this Citizenship Support <Citizenship.Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>

this is the citizenship support line turnaround time i found is 24 hrs, but they can send you the letter by email.
use that if you don't receive a physical letter.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent an email to that address. I have a ceremony booked on the 14 Dec so I really need it by then.

Just to provide an update for other people who may be in a similar situation.

I emailed the citizenship support email address and they replied within 4 working days and they sent me a scanned copy of the approval letter. Further nationality enquiries email still haven’t responded so I wouldn’t recommend emailing them.

Congrats. So you mean that a print out of the scanned approval letter will be enough to attend the ceremony?

That’s right. When I called my council they said it’s fine and in the home office email they said I can take that to the ceremony.

Having said that they also sent me a physical letter in the post again so now I have a physical copy too.

When I say they gave me a scanned copy it’s not really a scanned as it is typed in pdf. I printed it and it looks identical to the one I received in the post. There no differences other than that the home office use some cheap paper where when I printed it at work we have very glossy paper which looks much better.

So either should work. But definitely I would recommend emailing the citizenship support mailbox. I got a reply within 3-4 days whereas I still haven’t heard anything from further nationality enquiries and it’s been 3 weeks. I wonder if they will ever reply. Or maybe they were the ones who sent me a letter in the post!

[PortugalMan]

Hi fiv
How long did it take for them to resend your letter ? Was the second letter , second class as well? Cheers

[Hstepper07]

Hi fiv
How long did it take for them to resend your letter ? Was the second letter , second class as well? Cheers

This is an old thread. You are unlikely to get a response.

[mrgs1]

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent an email to that address. I have a ceremony booked on the 14 Dec so I really need it by then.

Just to provide an update for other people who may be in a similar situation.

I emailed the citizenship support email address and they replied within 4 working days and they sent me a scanned copy of the approval letter. Further nationality enquiries email still haven’t responded so I wouldn’t recommend emailing them.

Congrats. So you mean that a print out of the scanned approval letter will be enough to attend the ceremony?

That’s right. When I called my council they said it’s fine and in the home office email they said I can take that to the ceremony.

Having said that they also sent me a physical letter in the post again so now I have a physical copy too.

When I say they gave me a scanned copy it’s not really a scanned as it is typed in pdf. I printed it and it looks identical to the one I received in the post. There no differences other than that the home office use some cheap paper where when I printed it at work we have very glossy paper which looks much better.

So either should work. But definitely I would recommend emailing the citizenship support mailbox. I got a reply within 3-4 days whereas I still haven’t heard anything from further nationality enquiries and it’s been 3 weeks. I wonder if they will ever reply. Or maybe they were the ones who sent me a letter in the post!

This was the thread I was referring to CR001 when I said someone attended their ceremony by printing a copy of the Home office email