Citizenship delayed for longer than a year and a half now

[ccka]

Hi,

My application for naturalisation has now been delayed for longer than a year and a half since submitting the biometrics and it's starting to really worry me. It's incredibly frustrating that I haven't received a decision on the application yet. I think my application is fairly straightforward, so I can't think of any reason why this delay would be justified.

So far:
- I've submitted 3 complaints to HO, 3rd complaint included a final response
- I've submitted a complaint to the IEC (currently in progress)
- I've contacted my MP a few times, they tried to chase HO, but without much success and told me they will refer me to the Ombudsman
- I've spoken to a solicitor about serving a PAP letter to HO, they told me to first follow through with all the other complaint avenues

Any advice would be welcomed, thank you in advance.

[contorted_svy]

Did you receive a review of your initial complaint? You need to request one before escalating to the IEC.

I can suggest:
- trying to get a SAR and see if that helps in any way
- emailing the HO secretary and undersecretary of migration/nationality with your full history and text of the complaints/responses
- review this thread and the links inside it https://www.immigrationboards.com/month ... 43483.html to see if there is anything else to potentially try.

I hope this helps.

[ccka]

Thank you!

I have received a review to the complaint from HO and IEC has accepted the case.
I will also write an email to the Home Secretary.

[contorted_svy]

Good luck. Getting the review accepted by the IEC happens to very few, I hope they understand what went wrong with your application.

[ccka]

Hi! IEC got in touch with UKVI, who advised that a decision was taken on the application yesterday.

Weirdly, they did not provide what the decision was, but UKVI also accepted to provide an apology letter.

It's a bit nerve wracking to wait for the outcome, knowing a decision has been taken, any idea how long I will be waiting?

Thank you!

[contorted_svy]

That sounds like progress - I would imagine UKVI will be in touch fairly soon, maybe a couple of weeks at most, but hard to know. Check your spam folder and your physical mail, you never know. Fingers crossed for you.

[samory2]

Hi ccka, do you know please the reason why it took the HO such a long time?

[ccka]

No, unfortunately I don't. In my two complaints submitted to HO they kept saying that in some cases the checks they run take longer, but I found it to be a fairly general excuse, without getting into detail about what exact checks have not come back in time.

I don't know if their apology letter will include any of it (probably not), but I haven't received it yet. IEC did not request access to the case, because HO took a decision on the citizenship as soon as IEC got in touch with them.

[contorted_svy]

This is something we don't have many instances of, but it looks like once a case manages to get to the IEC, UKVI all of a sudden produce an outcome. Well done for persevering, though you shouldn't have had to wait this long. Now waiting for hopefully positive news.

[samory2]

No, unfortunately I don't. In my two complaints submitted to HO they kept saying that in some cases the checks they run take longer, but I found it to be a fairly general excuse, without getting into detail about what exact checks have not come back in time.

I don't know if their apology letter will include any of it (probably not), but I haven't received it yet. IEC did not request access to the case, because HO took a decision on the citizenship as soon as IEC got in touch with them.

Okay, all the best, hopefully you receive a good outcome.

Can anyone point out what checks they normally do? thanks.

[contorted_svy]

We don't exactly know for sure, as we are not caseworkers. I imagine they will check criminal records, your trips abroad, your data with HMRC/DVLA/NHS and similar.

[ccka]

Also, they claim to check data with other governments, presumably from the countries you've lived in the past.

[gingerbread777]

Apologies for my ignorance but what is IEC? And how does one get in touch with them?

[contorted_svy]

It is the Independent Examiner of Complaints. One can only contact them if they have already complained, received a response, asked for a review of the complaint and still could not resolve it. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-comp ... complaints