Becca Jane St Clair

I became eligible for my UK citizenship in January 2013 after three years of residency, but we did not submit my application until September 2014. At the time I submitted my application, I was quoted as it taking 3-6 months to process, but closer to six….so imagine my surprise on Saturday when I got my acceptance letter! Total time from application being submitted to letter arriving on my doorstep was 6 weeks and 6 days!

The application itself is pretty straight forward. You download it off the gov.uk website. Don’t forget to download the guide and booklet to filling out the application as well as the payment form*! The current fee is £906, but this usually increases every 6-12 months, so it’s a good idea for you to double check with the website. I think the most frustrating part for me was finding the application online as UKBA used to have it’s own separate website and sometime between getting my ILR in 2012 and now, they moved all their files over to gov.uk. Google to the rescue!

You can either send your application in on your own (and send all your original documents) or you can pay £50 to your local council for a Nationality Checking Service. At this appointment, they will photocopy all of your documents and send those so you will not need to send in your originals.

Before you start to fill out the application, you need to get your photograph taken. I went to Snappy Snaps and had 4 photos done for £10. I’ve since used one for my provisional driver’s license and will use the remaining two when I apply for my British passport. You also could use one of those £5 machines in Tesco, Asda, etc. but every time we tried to get mine done the machine seemed to be down. I also preferred having mine done by a person and not a machine, because this ensured my photograph met the exact standards. Photos in hand, I was ready for the second important part of my application: your references.

You need to have two references. Both references need to have known you for at least three years. One needs to fit some very specific criteria** such as being a business owner, and the other reference needs to hold a valid British passport. Your first reference does not necessarily need to be British, by the way and neither referee can be related to you, even by marriage. Fortunately for me, I have been friends with the owner of MediVisas (BTW, an excellent source of advice!) for well over three years and I used one of our local 16mm members who I have known since I was first a visitor in 2008.

Before you sit down to fill out your application, you should first make sure you fit the residency criteria. As the spouse of a British citizen, I was eligible after three years of residency. Even though I waited longer, they are only interested in the past three years. You must have been in the country (not travelling) on the date exactly three years before the date of your application, and in the past three years you must not have been out of the UK for more than a total of 270 days and no more than 90 in the past 12 months. You also will need to know the exact dates you were out of the country (if you didn’t keep track, just go back through your passport stamps). Days spent partially in the UK (date you left and date you returned) do not count. You will need to enter the dates (for the past three years only if applying as a spouse) on page 7. If you run out of space, you can add additional details on page 13.

In addition to needing to know when you were out of the country, you need to list all of your UK addresses for the past 5 (three as a spouse) years. This can prove difficult for people who have moved multiple times. If you are reading this now with an eye to gaining citizenship, start keeping track of your addresses!

If you didn’t need to take the Life in the UK test for your ILR, you will need to take this test before you can apply for citizenship. If you are not from an English speaking country, you also will need to take an English language tests. Details for both of these can be found on the website. Hopefully, you kept hold of your LitUK test result paper, because you will need to send it with your application. If you don’t have it, you will need to take the test again, as they do not re-issue pass certificates.

You also will need to know your parents full names (including maiden for mother), birth date, nationality, and birth place, as well as all of this information for your spouse.

If you book a Nationality Checking Service appointment, you will need to bring:

-Your current passport and your passport with your current visa (if it’s in an expired passport)
-Your expired passport if it shows dates you were out of the country in the past 3 years***
-Your birth certificate
-Spouse’s current passport
-Spouse’s birth certificate
-Marriage certificate (the certified one, not the pretty one)
-Life in the UK Test pass certificate
-English language test results (if applicable)
-Proof of current address+
-Any other documents showing a change in identity (examples: adoption certificates for you or your spouse, divorce papers if either of you were previously married)
-Any other travel documents as issued by the Home Office. If you have a biometric card, bring it (I don’t have one).
-£50 to pay for the Nationality Checking Service (My council only accepted cash)
-Completed Application
-Payment slip for citizenship plus payment (No cash accepted. Card or Cheque only)

Please note that if any of your documents are in a language other than English, you will need to get them translated.

My Nationality Checking Service appointment was on a Wednesday morning. I did not need to bring my spouse along with me, but I did need to bring his documents. My appointment took about 15 minutes because I had organized everything ahead of time in a document folio in the exact order it would be needed. The woman who did my review praised my organisation….I couldn’t imagine doing these things without keeping my paperwork organised! As we went through my application, she had a checklist of documents and after we made the stack, she left the room to photocopy everything and returned all of my original documents to me. If you do not use the checking service, you cannot send copies and would need to send your originals.

At the appointment, I was told I would hear from them in about 2 weeks letting me know the payment had been taken, and then I wouldn’t hear again for 6 months as that was how long it was taking to process applications. Well, I must be lucky as my letter arrived this weekend — what a perfect fifth anniversary present for us!

First thing Monday morning (today!) is ringing up the county council office to schedule my citizenship ceremony! Unfortunately, I can’t apply for my British passport right away as I am travelling to the US in January and I do not think I would have my passport back in time, but at least I will have my new passport before my trip to the US in May! (and yes, I will keep my blue US one too! I get to be a dual citizen!)

***

*When I went to my appointment, they had copies of the payment form, but to be on the safe side I would print one out.
**The guide claims there is a “list on our website”, but I could never find it. However, the full list if acceptable referees can be found here.
***If you have travelled to a country that is part of the CTA (such as Ireland) it’s a good idea if you have copies of your boarding cards if you flew or took a ferry to show the dates you entered and left. I’m not sure if this was a requirement, but I submitted the information as I listed Ireland on my dates out of the UK.
+This is not listed as a requirement, however I was asked for this at my appointment. Fortunately, I had with me the letter I recieved with my ILR that listed my current address, although she did tell me it would have been okay if I didn’t.

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I got an update from my tech contact at O2, Tony, and I thought I would pass it along…

I still cannot receive international text messages on my phone. They are unsure when the problem will be fixed, but they know what the problem is, and really, that’s half the battle right there.

Basically, when I rang up to complain, this was the FIRST time they started looking deeper into the issue. It helped that Tim is also an O2 customer (personal AND business) and they were able to see that he was getting international texts. It also helped that I’ve been so patient with them throughout this.

The problem has been traced to affecting all numbers recently ported over from Orange.

When a text message is sent from the US to the UK, it goes to a central hub for distribution over the UK networks. There is more than one hub available to use. Vodaphone and O2 use one of the hubs, and Orange/T-mobile use the other (I’m not sure who 3 or any of the other smaller companies use). While my phone number was ported over to O2 and uses the O2 network for everything domestically, international messages were still going to the hub Orange uses, and then not being delivered since O2 doesn’t connect to that hub.

The issue has been escalated as high as it can go within O2 and they are currently in negotiations to get it resolved. He couldn’t give me a timeline, but told me he would keep me updated as he could. I also told Tony I’d be willing to switch to an O2 number if it came down to that, but for now I’ll be patient and wait. Not being able to get international messages is an inconvenience, but everyone who texts me can reach me via email.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

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Here’s an update on my friend, Miss M. She’s received the bill from the hospital for her ER stay, and including a 40% non-insurance discount, the total for that bill is over US$8,000. This means Miss M now needs to raise over US$10,000 before she can even schedule her surgery. The goalpost just jumped by over 375% (Tim says about 384%). Again, this doesn’t include ANY of the fees/charges involved with her eventual surgery or interim OB/GYN visits.

[photo above © M. Turner]

I know you’re probably getting sick of seeing me post about this, but M is one of my nearest and dearest. I won’t beg for you to help her, but new items have been added to PhoenixFunds, including some photographs I have submitted. Please take a look at either Miss M’s shop, PhoenixFunds, or her direct website. Again, if you are a crafter or artist and would like to donate an item to be sold for Miss M’s benefit, please contact me in the comments..

Her Website: http://giveneyestosee.com/blog

Blow-by-blow: http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/hysterectomy/

Donation Storefront: http://PhoenixFunds.etsy.com

Her Storefront: http://PhoenixFireDesigns.etsy.com

Her Website: http://www.phoenixfiredesigns.com

Please pass these links along, re-tweet them, put them on Facebook, write a blog entry about Miss M, pass along my blog links…anything we can do to “boost the signal” and to help get M the help she needs. Especially if you’ve got any crafty friends because we are in need of crafty items!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

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So, after bouncing back and forth about switching from Orange to O2, I finally made the definite decision. Because it will take 2-3 business days to transfer my number between the networks and because Orange still hasn’t sent me the damned return package for the phone I don’t want*, I’m not switching yet. After we return from our holiday in Austria (end September), I will be heading into the 02 shop with my PAK code and will be purchasing the LG Cookie.

I popped into the O2 shop last week and spoke with one of the sales associates – a woman who was older than the average mobile phone seller age, which was nice because I sometimes feel the young ones (hah! They’re not that much younger than me!) try to pressure you into buying things you don’t want/need…and at least in the case with the young guy at Orange, didn’t listen and was no help at all. Anyway. I explained to her the situation and she let me play with the Cookie – O2 has LIVE PHONES on display, whereas Orange only has the mock phones. After playing with the Cookie for about 10 minutes, I told her I wanted it but couldn’t buy it until the new Orange phone gets returned. She understood completely, and told me she would see me end September/beginning October.

Because of switching networks I will be current number less for 2-3 business days. BUT, O2 will give me a temporary number that I can use for a few days while it switches over. Better than being totally phoneless for a few days. I’ll probably do the switch the Thursday after we return from Scotland (going to see my favourite band, Barenaked Ladies the weekend after we come back from Austria!) and then be temp numbered over the weekend. I don’t use my phone a whole lot to begin with, but I always like knowing I have it and can use it when it’s needed.

So, final decision made. Not using Orange for mobile anymore. Funny, I almost had Tim convinced to switch HIS mobile to Orange so we could try to package bundle with Internet/Phone. Hah! We do still have Internet through Orange, but we never have any problems with it.

*Even better? After I send the phone back, it can take 30 days for the credit to show up on my card!

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I’m pretty sure I’ll be switching to O2. Today AGAIN my phone is having problems with texts, particularly texts from Facebook and Twitter. And honestly? I’m fed up and tired of calling customer service.

I was reading the instructions on the O2 website and it seems pretty straightforward for keeping your number, you just need a PAC code and then fill out a form.

Plus, O2 has the LG Cookie in PURPLE, as well as the LG Chocolate. I think I want the Cookie. (Me want cookie!)

So…there you have it. I just need to decide if I want to go into town and buy it at the shop or order it online….

I contacted Boots via email about the face wash, and got a very nice apology email and was asked for my mailing address for them to refund the cost of the original product. Imagine my surprise when I received a gift card in the mail for £15 – twice the amount of the original product!

I have to say, Boots went over and beyond the call of duty on this one. Both times I spoke with someone from Boots – in store and in email – I made it clear that I had purchased BOTH bottles with £5 vouchers and both times I was refunded the full price of the product and then some.

I have switched to a different No. 7 face wash that does not contain “Acer”. It doesn’t feel as nice as the foaming wash does, but it does the job. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the bumps left on my face from the old facewash!

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I think I’m all caught up on the UK trip that spanned October 2008 – April 2009! And just in time, too, since Tim arrives in ONE WEEK for his three week visit to me! 😀

Tim walking the boat:

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYNl5MnksI

It *does* get brighter at the end, I promise!