Online NI CF83 - Completed - Next step? Not yet contacted by HMRC

Hello. I completed the CF83 online a few months ago with the understanding there is a huge backlog that will take up to a year to work through before reaching my application. However, I checked in recently out of curiosity to see if there have been any updates and noticed that it has been marked as 'completed', which was really surprising given the relatively short time between my application being submitted and it being marked as completed, based on what I know about the current backlog. Before I completed the CF83 online, my online NI contribution situation defaulted to me paying Class 3 contribution due to the HMRC not having current up to date information about me. When checking now though, I have noticed that my online pension forecast still has me listed as needing to pay Class 3 contributions, but my situation should have me paying Class 2 contributions instead, so I suspect that the system hasn't been amended yet. However, without receiving any post or emails from HMRC it's impossible to know if me still being listed as needing to pay Class 3 contributions is due to the system not being updated yet or whether this was unchanged event after my application was completed. This is a long way of asking, what is the typical estimated time frame from an application being marked as 'completed' to the applicant receiving notification and the results in the post? Thank you.

Hi ToBeFair,
If you have not yet received a letter from us about your voluntary National Insurance contributions then may I ask that you call the National Insurance Helpline and they will be able to issue a duplicate to you.
Their telephone number is 0300 200 3500 (from the UK) or +44 191 2037010 (from overseas).
We can however, advise that your Personal Tax Account (PTA) will always show shortfalls of voluntary contributions at the class 3 rate.
If you are able to pay at the Class 2 rate then please use the details shown on the letter rather than use the amounts shown on the PTA.
Thank you. 

 

Thank you for your response. I received my recently received the letter in the post but now I have a further question. I tried to sign in to do an online payment but it asked for an 18-digit reference number. I've looked through the letter and through previous communications that I have received from HMRC and there is no 18-digit number to be found. Could you tell me where I would find this number?

Hi,

As you are wishing to pay overseas voluntary National Insurance contributions, the 18 Digit Reference Number that you would use is:  Your National Insurance Number, followed by the initials IC, then your surname and Initial.  If your surname is too long then please use as much of it as possible.

Thank you.