Thousands of EU citizens ‘at risk of losing legal status after Brexit’

Thousands of EU citizens ‘at risk of losing legal status after Brexit’

Domestic abuse victims, children and the elderly are among those who could be vulnerable, according to experts.

Thousands of EU nationals could inadvertently become illegal residents in the UK after Brexit, a new report warns.

Domestic abuse victims, children and the elderly are among those at risk of losing their right to remain in Britain despite meeting the required criteria to stay, according to experts.

This could be because they struggle to provide documentation and complete a registration process, or do not realise they need to apply to continue living in the UK legally.

The potential gap was highlighted in a paper by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

Its director Madeleine Sumption said: “The Home Office is clearly keen to create a system that is easy and straightforward to use, and most EU citizens should be able to sail through a simplified application process with little difficulty.

“But for a minority of people, the process will be more difficult.

“Many of these are already society’s most vulnerable — whether it is because they are socially isolated, have been victims of exploitation, or face personal barriers such as mental health or poverty.”

Many people simply won’t realise they need to apply, Ms Sumption added.

She said: “We know from other government programmes like child benefit that people often don’t apply for something even when it’s really in their interests to do so.”

Later this year the Home Office will launch an application system for EU nationals seeking to remain in Britain after Brexit.

Those who have been in the country for five years by the end of 2020 will be able to apply for settled status – meaning they are free to continue living and working in the UK.

People who have arrived by December 31, 2020, but do not have five years’ residence will be able to apply to stay until they have reached the threshold, at which point they can seek settled status.

The Migration Observatory analysis said a “potentially significant” number of individuals may not be aware that they can or need to apply.

One group in this category are children whose parents do not themselves apply, do not realise their offspring need to or mistakenly believe their UK-born children are automatically UK citizens.

There are more than 900,000 children of non-Irish EU citizen parents living in the UK, born either here or abroad, according to the report.

This includes an estimated 239,000 UK-born children whose parents report that they are UK citizens – but the paper says available data suggest that tens of thousands may not be.

Also in this bracket could be 140,000 people who have lived in the UK for more than 30 years, 56,000 people aged 75 or over, and more than 145,000 EU nationals who have already been granted permanent residence but still need to apply for settled status, the study adds.

It highlights how some applications may be more difficult for those who are vulnerable or have “reduced autonomy” – such as domestic abuse victims who rely on a partner to provide documentation.

Researchers also noted that some people may struggle to navigate the application process because of language difficulties, age, disability or a lack of computer literacy or online access.

More than three million EU nationals living in the UK will be able to apply to stay when an online application form goes live towards the end of this year.

Applicants will have to provide an ID document and a recent photograph, as well as declare any criminal convictions.

The scheme will remain open until the end of June 2021 to ensure people have time to apply.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are well aware of the challenges of ensuring that three million EU citizens and their family members living here understand the need to apply and have the ability to.

“That is why we have already launched a national awareness campaign, are holding monthly meetings with EU citizens’ representatives to understand their needs and are planning a range of support for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children and families, victims of domestic violence and those with English as a second language.

“We will be setting out further details before the summer and EU citizens will have plenty of time to make an application.

“But we have also been clear that we will exercise discretion if there are good reasons why someone has not been able to make an application before the June 2021 deadline.”

Campaign organisation the3million, which represents EU citizens living in the UK, said: “As per the report, we know not everyone will be able to apply using the app and the Home Office should fund access to local face-to-face support for all applicants, so no-one is left behind.

“We need a settled status grace after the transition period, so vulnerable EU citizens, who haven’t applied for whatever reason, are not penalised.”

Imagine waking up one day and being told you have to apply to live in the country you already live in – and have lived in – for decades. No longer can you rest comfortably in your ignorance about the impossibly complicated immigration system. You can't rely on the status quo – that doesn't exist for you anymore.

You have to navigate the gov.uk website – and not just once a year to slog through your tax return – but to apply to continue with your life as you know it. Suddenly you have to prove something so second nature to you it seems impossible to know where to start.

This is the reality for many of the 3.4 million non-Irish EU citizens living in the UK. After months of deadening silence and obfuscation, the government eventually came up with a plan to allow for indefinite leave via something called “settled status”, for which the vast majority of those people qualify.

The former head of the Home Office has said that he is “very worried” about the ability of his old department to register more than 3m EU citizens currently living in Britain after Brexit.

David Normington said it could take years to process all of the applications from EU nationals hoping to acquire the new “settled status” being offered by the government.
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“Imagine if each of those individuals have to fill in just one form and produce one bit of evidence. That could be 6-7m pieces of documentation. Any administrative system would struggle with that unless it was properly resourced, the people were properly trained, and you had time — and I mean a number of years — to implement it.”
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Cleo22 wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 12, 2018 10:13 pm

Hi guys,
I have read as much as I could about the new scheme for settled and pre-settled status but one thing I could not understand. At the moment, an EU citizen is required to have lawfully resided, exercising treaty rights, in the UK for 6 years and to have acquired Permanent Residence, before they could apply for naturalisation. Now that settled status is going to replace PR (is it really?), what happens to the naturalisation? Would a person who's acquired settled status be able to apply to become a British citizen a year later?

alterhase58 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:54 am

@cleo22
people on ILR now must have held ILR for a year before applying for citizenship (unless spouse of a BC). So I would expect no difference there, as "settled status" is basically the same as ILR.