Applying for British Citizenship/UKM form/Ceremony?

Was wondering if anyone was in the same boat or has gone through the experience of applying for British citizenship from Canada. All the forms (& for UK passports too) go through Washington D.C. now, which is where I sent my UKM form (my mother is British).

Where would the citizenship ceremony take place?

and the classic question, how long did the process take you? They estimate a classic "6 months" time frame as from Washington D.C. the applications are forwarded to the Home Office in Liverpool.

YVRtoLHR,

Saw your post, and I am currently going through the very stressful procedure of organizing/filling out and completing my UKM form as well. (My mother is British) I started late last year and made the mistake of applying for a UK passport directly without supplying a "Registration Certificate" obtained through completing the UKM form. At the time Washington told me to go through my closest British Consulate in Canada to apply for a registration certificate. Due to rules changing, and the Canadian UK Consulates not processing info and passing off to Washington I held back since I couldn't get a clear answer on where specifically to send the UKM form and all my important info. I've needed my Canadian passport for travel and therefore wasn't willing to give it up with a potential 6 month delay.

Could you help by providing the address you sent your UKM form to in Washington and the specific name or division? Home Office for registering (UKM)? As opposed to UK Passport Service for the Americas/Caribbean? as I was told there is a difference.

How did you pay for the fees? Did you supply authorization forms to deduct fees from a credit card? Are there two forms? One for Washington USA, one for Liverpool in the UK?

I had a standard passport photo taken at Costco which was signed by my referee about 5 months ago. Did anyone ever specifically give you advice about a UK sized passport photo?

I have the UKM form completed all my certificates etc.. My biggest concern of course is having my information sent back unprocessed because of a wrong address, not paying a specific fee or a photo issue.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I too first went to my nearest British Consulate (in Vancouver) & was told there that all applications for UK citizenship & passports for the Americas & Caribbean are done via Washington DC. She passed me a paper with UK passport info & prices because it had the address to send my UKM form to, which was the UK Passport Service. I sent my application via UPS to the address she pointed out & it did get to the right place (eventually), but it wasn't until later (via the website http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-b ... tizenship/ ) that I found out it would best be sent to -

Home Office Application
Consular Section
British Embassy
19 Observatory Circle, NW
Washington DC 20008

As for the fees, I printed off the Waiver to use my credit card & wrote the 80 pounds to be charged that's listed on the website for current UKM fees. About 3 weeks after my application arrived, my credit card was billed about $116 US by the Embassy in D.C. The fee leaflet I used was the one off the UK gov website, that's after all the listed application fees, I submitted just the one page (& Washington DC processed it as I wrote above.) You can get the form here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... y-fees.pdf

I'm not sure whether there'll be more fees to pay to Liverpool as my application was sent from D.C to Liverpool & after calling the Home Office, all I know is that my application is being waited to be picked up by a case worker. From what I've read on message boards & the UKM guide, if any document or fee is missing, they WILL contact you.

As for the passport photo... no one ever gave me advice on the size. I didn't specifically ask for a UK size & so I submitted standard Canadian sized passport photo of myself. I also didn't get one of my referee's to sign the back, as on the form which they fill out, there is a place they confirm that the picture is myself. I also instead of clipping the photograph onto the form, I used stick glue to stick it on the form... I was horrified after I sent it this way, reading in the instructions that the photograph shouldn't been attached via paper clip. If any mistake needs to be rectified, I'm sure I'll hear about it... but so far so good!

"reading in the instructions that the photograph shouldn't been attached via paper clip."

I think you meant SHOULD be attached with paperclip.

I can share this from our own experience

As you know the rules under UKM for those born before 1961 changed & came into effect 2009 beginning 2010. We followed this through the steps & white paper trail as it tracked the UK parliament.

When the UKBA finally put this on their website early 2010 my wife contacted Ottawa at the time & sent along a load of documents

We found the more the better.

Her original Canadian long form birth certiicate
Mothers Long form UK birth certificate
Mothers UK Marriage cerificate (1944) married to a Canadian soldier
Copy of my UK passport & birth certificate [not required, but sent anyway]
two coloured photo's from the photo both in the local mall

At that time we were told 6 months wait time. She applied May 2010 and my wife was not notified unil the beginning September 2010. All the paperwork is checked at the consulate/High Commission.

File is checked at the consulate - copies of the file is sent by the consulate to the Home office in London UK - originals back to you.

When you send in the application & paperwork

a) keep copies of whatyou send in
b) sen via UPS
c) if paying by card- check when they cashed it. By money order - have your bank check & confirm when the money order was cashed.

The consulate says not to call or inquire how its going & any news - because once it goes to the UK .. its await & hear back

Generally for those apply from Canada - the citizenship ceremony [all 5 mintes worth] swearing alligence tothe Queen of England is hel in one of the major Canadian cities [last we heard]

The citizenship certificate is nice .. its simply states the nationality act of 1981 & persons name is registered as a British Citizen .. issued in London UK

As for the fees ... well, when my wife applied it was $845 + small money for attending the ceremony. Seems the fee is now much less than one-year ago.

On the passport. She applied on June 19, sent via UPS to Washington

It took the exactly 31 days to cash the money & we suppose its when they handled the file for the first time.

From date of sending to date the passport arrived, it was 8 weeks & 3 days

Hope this helps

Fantastic... Ok I'm getting back on track here... much appreciated.

So assuming everything goes fine.. the registration certificate gets mailed back to you from Liverpool and then you have to forward it back to Washington but this time addressed to the Passport specific division along with a completed passport application. Which I have already completed and processed as per my previous post basically completing step 2 before step 1. The registration certificate is all they were looking for to to proceed. Note the Passport application is another $200+ to process. The woman who contacted me from the passport office said I could fax the registration certificate to her because she had copies of all my other information.

Good luck.. and post any updates...I'll do the same

Thank Portico... somewhere in my post insert "Complete Ceremony"

lol

Thank Portico... somewhere in my post insert "Complete Ceremony"

lol

Sorry the "complete ceremony" was in Toronto - as I noted, it was all of 5 minutes & was 2 weeks after she was notified of her approval. Mid September 2010 was the ceremony

Nice folder with certificate inside

No tea or biscuits for my wife - others may have different experience

Again - good luck to you

On the passport application - again we sent $hit loads moe than needed - in fact it was xactly what we sent for the citizenship application + of course the original citizenship certificate {which they asked for in the passport application}

BTW, for photos for the passport - we used the remaining two [photo booth from the mall] of the two we sent with the citizenship application

Thanks to all for sharing their experiences...

Johndavidbrooks,

My understanding is that the naturalisation certificate is not mailed from Liverpool, but given to us at the citizenship ceremony. Liverpool sends an approved acceptance letter (or declined if the case may be) after reviewing the UKM form, then an invite to arrange the citizenship ceremony is sent as well & from there we arrange a date to attend it.

As you wrote from there the certificate is used to apply for a UK passport.

And yes I meant the passport photo *should* be attached by paperclip...