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My EU friend arrived to the UK and lived and worked here from 03/2017 till 10/2020. He had to leave back to his home country because of the family reasons.
Now he returned to the UK and wants to apply for Pre-Settled status. Is there any chance for him for positive outcome given his long absence if he can explain why he didn't apply earlier? Thank you.

You can review here who can apply after the 30 June 2021 deadline:

https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-ci ... ligibility

I don't see a clear route that applies to him, therefore he would need to show extremely compelling reasons for failing to apply after 4 years of the deadline.

Why did your friend not apply before leaving? On what grounds is he here now, I imagine as a tourist?