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Hi All,

I am an EU national, I came to the UK in June 2018 and I have a full-time job since June. I am planning to apply for EU pre-settled status.

will I get pre-settled status for 5 years from the date of my application approval

(or)

from the date of my arrival in the UK(which is June 2018)?


Thank you

Since the day 1 you started to exercise your EEA treaty rights.

No, that is incorrect. Pre-settled status (in my experience) will be valid for five years from the date of the decision letter.

But you might have spent about 4 years before getting your PSS? Does it mean even as a EEA citizen, the time you spent here is reset and you need to wait for another 5 years for settlement/ILR and eventually naturalisation? Doesn’t make sense!

Settled Status is governed by UK Immigration Law, Appendix EU, not by EU regulations.
You could however still apply for PR but time is running out.

@bobnl

It91 is correct the day you started exercise your treaty right.

E.g:

You came to UK in June 2018 and the day you got your NI number for instances in august 2018.

You applied for pre settled status and got 5 years today but you can apply for SETTLED STATUS in august 2023.

I have seen some cases personally.

it91 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 18, 2019 11:10 am

But you might have spent about 4 years before getting your PSS? Does it mean even as a EEA citizen, the time you spent here is reset and you need to wait for another 5 years for settlement/ILR and eventually naturalisation? Doesn’t make sense!

Ah, that's two different questions!
One question is how long pre-settled status is valid for. This is, as far as I know, five years from the date of decision.
The other question is when are you eligible for settled status. This is five years from when you started exercising treaty rights, assuming you exercised them continuously and didn't have excess absences etc.

So if you arrived here four years ago in 2015, you could apply for pre-settled status now (2019), and once you get it it will be valid for five years, so until 2024.
Then, five years from when you arrived here, so in 2020, you become eligible to apply for settled status.
You could then apply for settled status any time between 2020 and 2024. You would need to apply for settled status, or apply to extend pre-settled status, before 2024, before your pre-settled status expires.

It's not that "pre-settled status is valid for five years from date of decision" means you can't apply for settled status until it's epxired. Rather the opposite, you will have to apply for settled status before your pre-settled status expires, otherwise you'd be here without any status.

Does that make sense?

Indeed