Applying for British Citizenship/UKM form/Ceremony?

good morning PORTICO, thank you! you've been very helpful with your advice & own experiences with UKM.

I did read that I will get my return of documents from Washington in a matter of days, then the next I'll be receiving the Passport directly from the UK. States up to 6 weeks, possibly longer for 1st time passport application. So I'm bracing myself for 8 weeks as you also wrote. I didn't know about getting the "new fancy one" however.

When your wife applied, how much documentation did you send with her Passport application? From what I can see they require the Registration certificate & my long form birth certificate. Should I be sending extra documentation i.e. my mother's UK long form BC, marriage cert, my Canadian passport? I've been thinking that I will send these additional things, if only to be extra safe & they return the documents within the week anyway.

my wife over did it

Just give them what they ask for in the first time application in that first link that I provided in my last post

Originals of your long form Canadian birth certificate & British citizenship registration certificate are the key ones

We also sent originals of her mothers birth certificate as well as certified copies of ... her mothers marriage certificate, my wifes drivers license, her Canadian passport & of course the original of our marriage certificate (as would be applicable for each particular case)

As I said - we over did it or maybe not

Good luck to you again

Thought I would update my story to British Citizenship -

Had my British Citizenship ceremony here in Vancouver yesterday at the British Consulate.

Was with 5 others in a very informal ceremony at the British Consulate, on arrival showed proof of identification, made payment then all of us were brought to a boardroom & sat at a long table with the Consular officer on the opposite side swearing us in one by one. Took under 10 minutes for all of us & we each were granted the beloved Registration Certificate, then each of us returned the certificates to be officially stamped. Everyone posed for photographs by the flag, photo of the Queen & at the British Consulate entry. All in all, about 30 minutes.

At the end, the Officer gave us all the passport speech - She gave us each a big brown envelope with the C1 form in it & had already photocopied our Registration Certificates & wrote "original seen by 'her name' & dated it' & did the same with each of our identification. She said our Registration Certificates are like "gold dust" & *not* to send the original with our c1 passport application & also no need to send further ID as they will have it all in Washington DC & we've already submitted these things which they will have. Said to expect the passport process to take six weeks, include the 2 photos, one signed, etc. The fee.

Having my C1 already filled out, photos etc, I also included a photocopy of my drivers license & as she said, the copies they made & marked at the Consulate of the certificate & my passport ID. Felt very strange to go against what they claim on the website, on the form, about sending originals etc. Yikes!

And now the final wait!

Thought I would update my story to British Citizenship -

Had my British Citizenship ceremony here in Vancouver yesterday at the British Consulate.


At the end, the Officer gave us all the passport speech - She gave us each a big brown envelope with the C1 form in it & had already photocopied our Registration Certificates & wrote "original seen by 'her name' & dated it' & did the same with each of our identification. She said our Registration Certificates are like "gold dust" & *not* to send the original with our c1 passport application & also no need to send further ID as they will have it all in Washington DC & we've already submitted these things which they will have.

Congratulations

On the "not to send the original registration certificate" - now thats a first for me!

I suppose the High Commission knows what its doing, after all, she confirmed & sealed it with the high commission signature

Once you have the sparkling passport you will be so relieved ... drinks on you eh!

Yes, that's great! Congrats.

And it is sparkling! It's really really lovely. Every page is like a painting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/galler ... 70&index=0

Here is my final update about my journey to British citizenship.
I'm so pleased! I was nervous about having sent the signed photocopies that the British Consulate here after the ceremony told me to send (instead of the originals)... but it turned out to be a non issue, and they were accepted. Huge sigh of relief!

applied via UKM: June 23/24
fees charged on VISA: July 18
UKM application approved: October 24
British Citizenship ceremony in Vancouver: Nov 10
Sent for UK passport: Nov 10
Return of documents/receipt from Washington DC: Dec 5
Arrival of UK passport from UK: Dec 7 (two days later!)

A hearty congratulations

And ... I'll bet you are treasuring the passport, which BTW came real fast

Yes, that's great! Congrats.

And it is sparkling! It's really really lovely. Every page is like a painting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/galler ... 70&index=0

Indeed. even my current UK PP puts the CDN and my son's US one to shame. the new one is brilliant.