I have waited so long for this moment.
So long.
Hey guys, welcome back to the Girl Gone London Channel.
If you're new here, my name is Kalyn.
I'm a dual American and UK citizen.
For real this time.
For this time, I've been able to be a legitimate dual citizen in my videos.
And today I'm telling you all about my UK citizenship ceremony as an American.
Okay, so I haven't planned this video out.
I've just come with my documents
from my citizenship ceremony because it was today.
So today is December 17.
I don't know when I'm going to post this
video because I have some Christmas ones that I want to post because it's festive
and citizenship is nice, but not very festive.
So I don't know when you'll see this, but December 17 is today
and my citizenship ceremony was this morning at 10:00 A.m..
So you may have seen my video about being
approved for citizenship, but that doesn't mean that I was then a citizen.
I simply got an invitation via email to a citizenship ceremony.
You are not a citizen until you have
attended the ceremony and said your oath or affirmation, basically of allegiance.
So I thought this would be an interesting
video to kind of take you through what my ceremony was like.
It was slightly different because
of COVID, and I didn't bring in a camera to film it, but I did bring in my phone
to take a couple of pictures and I brought home all of my stuff.
So how did it start?
So I got the invitation and I had to book
on to a ceremony within three months of receiving the invitation.
As you may know, I have been in the US
for a while, so I wasn't able to book it until today, December 17.
I think I could have booked one
in January, but that was my last group ceremony option.
You can also book a private ceremony, but you have to pay extra.
And I didn't really feel like paying extra
considering how much I've spent on visas and citizenship so far.
Well, it's done now, so I guess in total.
So I just did the group ceremony.
So there were about 20 of us,
a couple of families, but mostly people attending by themselves.
And the one kicker was that we were
originally told we were going to be able to have two guests, so this was a limit.
Anyway, I think for COVID, normally you could have more guests than
that, but because of COVID, we were told we could have two guests.
So I was like, okay, so my husband would obviously be guest one.
And then I was going to have to awkwardly
make my inlaws choose who would be my second.
But then we got an email a couple of weeks
ago saying, just kidding, you can't have any guests.
So I could basically attend by myself and that was it.
So I think not to
put a damper on this video or my excitement about being a citizen.
But I think in my head, I had always really thought of this as
like an event to life looked forward to for years.
And so it was kind of as with anything that has been ruined by COVID.
It was a little bit disheartening to have
to just do it by myself, but we all clapped for each other, so it was fine.
But that's why I attended by myself.
Nobody could attend with me what actually happened in the ceremony.
So I go to the registrar's office
in my local town and they shuffle us into the Citizenship Ceremony room.
We have to check in and we have to decide
if you swear your allegiance or affirm
and the swearing one talks about Almighty God and the other one doesn't.
So you get to choose if you would like to include saying anything about God or not.
So whichever one you choose, you get this fun little piece of paper
that tells you what you're going to read later on in the ceremony.
So I had to go in, check in, decide if I was swearing or affirming.
And then I went and took my seat where I
had this whole package of stuff, which I will go through.
So the first thing that really drew my attention was the Citizenship Ceremony
pamphlet. You can see what County I live in here.
I live in Buckingham. Sure.
Shout out to any fellow Bucks people.
The first thing that happens is
one of the people who work at
the Council basically do a short introduction welcoming you.
She definitely didn't say exactly what was
written on here, but you can imagine we are delighted to extend a warm welcome.
Whether you are relatively new
to the county or have lived here for many years, we congratulate you.
They talk up the county that you're in a lot.
So they say Buckinghamshire is a county with a wonderful heritage,
which is steeped in history and has a great future.
So she starts off by introducing
that and then we move on to a representative of the Queen,
Her Majesty herself, and she does a speech about it was actually really nice.
It was about her
welcoming you as a citizen, but also she had moved to the county from Scotland.
And so she was kind of talking about her experience being someone new and kind
of integrating into the community and different things to get involved in.
It was a very good speech.
It was pretty uplifting and you could tell that she probably gives it at a lot
of different ceremonies, but it was particular to her.
She wasn't just reading, like off of a pamphlet,
so she does her spiel and then all eyes are at the front where the Queen
on a picture is sitting there staring at you the whole time with flags.
It looked exactly like I pictured
in my head with the picture of the Queen because I had seen this in other people's
videos, but it was definitely pretty funny to kind of have her,
like presiding over the ceremony via this picture taken.
I'm not sure when her official photo, but she wasn't like zooming in from her bed.
So I don't know, maybe she could have.
Maybe she should attend these things via Zoom.
Now she doesn't have to come.
But no, they sent a picture in her place.
So we've got the Queen at the front.
We've been welcomed by some representatives of her and of the Council.
And now it is time to affirm or swear our oath of allegiance.
So a couple of things here, we were wearing masks due to COVID.
So if you're watching this, like ten years from now,
I hope you still don't have to do this, but definitely a sign of the times.
But it is a legal requirement that they see you saying the oath.
So you have to take your masks down in order to actually say the oath.
Which I was like, this isn't there if we're going for no COVID here.
I feel like taking our masks down when
we're all talking is kind of Besides the point.
But it is a legal requirement, I guess,
for them to actually see you or hear you saying this oath.
So they first start by going around
the room and you have to say I and then you say your name.
So you have kind of started the oath.
So it would be like, I Sally Jones,
I Kalyn Frankie and I went on like that, and then everybody together says either
the oath or the affirmation, depending on which one or the swearing
in or the affirming, whichever one you've chosen.
So I chose the swearing in oath
of allegiance, which I will redo for you now as if you're there.
I, Caitlin Frankie, swear by Almighty God that on becoming a British citizen,
I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
II, her heirs and successors, according to law.
So we go around the room and we all do this and then we have to do the pledge.
Now, I had no idea that there was a pledge
involved until I kind of looked into citizenship ceremonies more because
in America, we all know and talk about the pledge of Allegiance.
There is not a pledge that British people say like in the mornings.
My husband has never said this pledge.
My British friends here think it's
a little funny because they've never had to pledge their allegiance.
But as a naturalized citizen, you say the pledge.
So the pledge to the United Kingdom is I
will give my loyalty to the United Kingdom and respect its rights and freedoms.
I will uphold its Democratic values.
I will observe its laws faithfully
and fulfill my duties and obligations as a British citizen.
So there's nothing about owning
an allotment in there, which is a little disappointing.
After we did that,
we got presented with our certificates, so we got called one by one.
You get to go up, you get your naturalization certificate,
which I don't have, which I'll tell you why in a second,
and you stand next to the picture of the Queen
and the representative and they take your picture.
Now because we didn't have guests,
there was nobody to take your picture except for the official photographer.
So you can guy
this comes in your pocket, you can guy your citizenship picture.
They offer professional citizenship
photography and the cheapest option is £15.
For an eight X six photo,
you can order lots of different options unmounted framed.
I did not choose to order a picture,
not because it doesn't mean something to me, but because it was a little bit,
I don't know,
a little bit of a Downer with COVID I didn't necessarily feel like I needed
a framed picture of this event that my family and friends couldn't come to.
So I didn't get a picture of myself.
My husband did get a picture afterwards outside that I will keep for myself,
so I will not be ordering the official photos anyway.
So you go up, you get your photo taken.
We all clapped when everybody got called and then you clapped as they go back down.
It's very clap heavy, which as an American, I appreciate.
And after that, we all stood up again.
And it says in the ceremony booklet
that we were going to sing the national anthem, but there was no singing involved.
They didn't specifically say don't sing, but we just didn't.
People kept their masks on and they played the music of the first verse
of the national anthem, but they didn't play like the words.
Nobody sang the words on track.
So we kind of just like listen to the background and read the words
ourselves, which was a little disappointing because my husband and I
have practiced this the day before, so I knew the words and could participate.
So I kind of did it in my head under my breath.
But fun story for those of you who don't
know, is the tune to God Save the Queen is the same as the tune to an American
patriotic song called My Country Tis of the.
I'm pretty sure the Americans ripped
the tune from the UK, but as this background music is playing,
because the lyrics aren't playing in my head, I'm doing
the American patriotic song and the British National anthem at the same time.
So another example of being stuck
in between two worlds, having all these different things going on.
So we all did that.
And then it was a very brief closing speech and they let us go.
And because we didn't have guests, it was
pretty much just have a nice life.
The door is here and some people stuck
around for tea and coffee, but again, my husband was outside waiting for me,
so I wasn't going to really have tea or coffee with myself.
So I then probably exited with my certificate and was a British citizen.
I have waited so long for this moment, so long.
It's taken five plus years
for the official visa process towards citizenship.
But we have basically approached ten years since I first moved to the UK.
And through that entire time, I have had to deal with visa stress,
with making decisions based on being allowed back in the country,
just all kinds of things that were wrapped up in this identity as somebody who was
a visitor and then a visa holding resident of UK to now be a citizen,
and to have all those restrictions gone, to never have to make a decision again
based on visas is the best feeling in the world.
And so then we got home and my husband got me a few gifts,
including some Bake at home cookie from Waitrose, which is right up my alley.
And then I'm left with this packet of stuff.
Now I'll show you some more of what's in this package.
But the reason I don't have my citizenship certificate to show you in person,
but I'll put an image here is because I had to send it off to get a UK passport.
So you become a citizen.
You're like, yes, I'm done.
No more paperwork and I have to think about it ever again.
And then you're like, oh, wait, if you want a passport to leave
the country or to travel as a UK citizen, you need the passport.
So I did my whole passport application today, which is like £80 more.
I had to fill out an online form, have somebody a test that it was me.
And then I sent my American passport
and my naturalization certificate off to the UK Passport Processing Center.
So that's why I don't have it.
I'm hoping it comes back within
the allocated five to six weeks because it's really weird not having either my new
naturalization certificate or my American passport.
I basically feel like I have nothing.
So hopefully that will come back soon.
But the other things I received in this fun little packet.
So I've got a home office.
You can now apply for a British passport.
So I already went through all this because I was like, I need a passport.
I'm not going to wait for the written instructions.
So I found them online.
And then there's some information for British nationals that answer
questions like, what if I have more than one nationality?
British law allows you to retain any other nationality you may already hold.
Some countries don't let you have dual.
As I talked about in my video, America does let you have dual.
I would not be getting UK citizenship if I had to give up my American citizenship.
So I am now a dual citizen and it just talks about like
that I have the right to live here.
What passport you should travel on things like that.
So that was some fun information.
I got a welcome letter from the Home Secretary.
We're not going to get political in this video, but thank you.
And she is welcoming me.
My choice to be a British citizen, blah, blah, blah.
Again, talking about like, we're all in this together.
Ties to the UK.
Fundamental, rights, fairness, democracy, blah, blah, blah.
Then
my final little token,
which is my favorite part of the whole entire ceremony, is this little pin.
I don't know what I'm doing here, so let's see if I can show it.
There we go.
So this says, Congratulations on becoming a British citizen.
We wish you all the best in the future.
Nice little Union Jack there.
And yeah, so it's a little pin,
which I think is really cute and a really nice touch.
So that was something that I was really happy to get.
Makes it feel like more of an occasion.
I don't know, got like a memento from this whole ordeal.
So that was my citizenship ceremony as an American.
They did say my name wrong,
so I don't know if I've actually said
my full name on YouTube, but my name is Kayla Franke, and it's spelled well.
People think it's Frank because it's F-R-A-N-K-E.
It's German. It was Franke.
But then
the history of my family came to America and it became Frankie.
But that's why a lot of people think it's
Frank, because you wouldn't pronounce the E.
But anyway, so they said Kalyn Frank.
And I was like, that's me. I'm used to this.
So yeah, so it went well.
Not as exciting as I would have hoped because of the last minute lack of guests.
However, some people have had to do virtual ceremonies during the pandemic.
So I'm glad that I got to at least go
and put real clothes on and into the outside world and make
kind of something of it instead of just sitting on Zoom.
So I'm very grateful for that.
But not necessarily the huge
shebang that in my head all these years I had pictured and people in general aren't
looking to mingle and get together a lot right now.
I think I'm going to post this after
Christmas, so I'm not sure if I will have held it yet or not.
But I think I'm going to do a YouTube live celebrate with me to try and share this
kind of celebration and journey with everybody who watches me on YouTube.
I think I've come to the end again.
I say a lot.
I really realized that the other day when
I was editing I need a new word to say Besides, but stick with me.
I'll have to think of one. I think that's it.
If you have any questions about the ceremony, feel free to leave them below.
It was something that I'm really glad to have accomplished.
It hasn't quite sunk in yet,
probably until I get my passport that this is my life now as a dual citizen.
Probably when I get to use it at an airport it will feel even more real.
But for now I'm going to celebrate with fish and chips,
with my husband and in laws and yeah, just look at all the different things I
can do now that I'm a citizen, I need to register to vote.
That's weird. I'm going to get to vote in the UK
which I've lived here for almost ten years and have never been able to vote.
When we're talking about like mortgages or
buying property, I never have to be limited of who I can
borrow money from in terms of banks because of my visas.
Just all sorts of things that will change for me now that I am doing so.
Thank you guys for watching this video and I will see you next time.