Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Citizenship ceremonies

Citizenship ceremonies are a vital part of the processes of becoming a British citizen and are designed to aid the integration of those who adopt the United Kingdom as their permanent home. To new citizens, these ceremonies mark a momentous life event.

Step one - acquiring citizenship

You must contact the Home Office about citizenship - we can only advise about the Citizenship Ceremony.

Gov.uk: citizenship information

Step two - the ceremony

When you apply for British nationality, you must make a citizenship oath and pledge at a ceremony as the final part of the naturalisation process. Attendance at a ceremony is mandatory for anyone 18 years and over.

To arrange a Citizenship Ceremony you must first be in possession of a reference number allocated by the Home Office.