History of the Citizenship Office
The Citizenship Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network is a young institution, but the Register it keeps is not: the earliest entry carried forward into it records a citizenship that took effect long before the Office existed. The milestones below record the establishment of the Office and the making of the single register, and will be extended as its first ceremonies are held.
Before August 2026
Citizenship administered by member organisations
Before the Office existed, each member organisation of the Network dealt with the citizenship of its own staff and of those resident at its site. Applications were decided against requirements that differed from one organisation to another, particulars were kept in records that were neither consistent nor open to inspection by the citizens themselves, and there was no single register by which a question of citizenship could be answered. The earliest entry now carried in the Register, numbered 1927, dates from these arrangements.
10 August 2026
The transition period begins
Member organisations began transferring their citizenship records, the particulars of existing citizens and the applications then outstanding to the Office in formation. Applications continued to be received and determined under interim arrangements throughout the period, and each transferred application kept its original date of receipt.
10 August to 5 September 2026
Records reconciled and renumbered
The transferred records were compared with one another, duplicate entries were resolved and the whole was renumbered into a single series. By establishment 96 per cent of the records had been reconciled. In the same period 2,486 applications were received and 1,932 determined, of which 1,704 were approved.
6 September 2026
Office established
The Citizenship Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network was formally established, with responsibility for determining applications for citizenship, maintaining the Register of Citizens, holding the ceremonies at which new citizens make the affirmation, and issuing certificates of citizenship.
6 September 2026
Official website launched
The Office launched citizenship.gov.vin, carrying press releases, official statements, guidance on eligibility and residence, the steps of the application process and the schedule of ceremonies.
6 September 2026
Register of Citizens opened
The Register opened with 8,740 entries and began issuing certified extracts. From this date a question of whether a person is a citizen of the Network is answered by reference to the Register alone, and the particulars recorded in it are disclosed to a third party only with the citizen's written consent.
6 September 2026
Ceremony schedule and first statistical release published
On the day of its establishment the Office published the schedule of six ceremonies to be held between 19 September and 14 November 2026, offering 540 places at five principal sites, and published its first statistical release covering the transition period.
19 September 2026
First citizenship ceremony
The first ceremony of the Office is to be held at the Assembly Hall, Central Exchange, at which the first entries made under the Office's own procedure will take effect. Invitations are issued on 12 September 2026 to approved applicants whose applications were determined during the transition period.
Forthcoming
Quarterly reporting and the ceremony schedule for 2027
The Office's first full quarterly statistical release, covering the quarter ending 31 December 2026, and the schedule of ceremonies for the first half of 2027 will be announced in the Newsroom. An annual review of the Register is to follow in September 2027.
Announcements are published in the Newsroom. For the Office's present responsibilities, see About the Office; for the figures behind these milestones, see Statistics; for the record the Office keeps, see The Register of Citizens.