EU migrants welcome to remain in UK indefinitely as Prime Minister outlines special settled status deal

Prime Minister Theresa May announced today plans to allow EU citizens living in the UK to remain here as residents following Brexit designed to put their "anxiety to rest".

Prime Minister Theresa May

Briefing MP’s in the parliament on the outcome of Friday’s EU summit, Mrs May confirmed that all EU nationals lawfully resident for at least five years will be able to apply for "settled status" and to bring spouses and children, the BBC reports.

EU migrants who arrived after a date yet to be agreed will have two years to "regularise their status" but will not enjoy the same rights.

The government has published a document summarising the UK's offer to EU citizens, which you can read here.

May said she wanted to give reassurance and certainty to the 3.2 million EU citizens living in the UK - in addition to citizens of the three EEA countries and Switzerland – as they are an "integral part of the economic and cultural fabric" of the UK.

However, she wants any deal on their future legal status and rights to be reciprocal and also give certainty to the 1.2 million British expats living on the continent after the UK leaves the EU - expected to be on 29 March 2019.

This promise could prove difficult to keep, as EU countries, such as France and Spain, already have less advantageous conditions for British expats than offered to EU citizens living and working in the UK. 

For instance, retired Brits are now facing the bleak prospect of paying for expensive health insurance or jumping on an Easyjet flight home every time they need treatment. This option could become closed to them if they are no longer resident in the UK.

The main points of the UK's proposal to EU citizens are:

• EU migrants granted settled status will be able to live, work, study and claim benefits as they can now
• The important cut-off date for eligibility will be no earlier than 29 March 2017 and no later than 29 March 2019
• EU family members of EU citizens living abroad will be allowed to return and apply for settled status
• Those EU nationals in the UK for less than five years at the specified date will be allowed to continue living and working in the UK and once resident for five years, they can apply for settled status
• Migrants arriving after the cut-off point will be able to stay temporarily, however, they should have "no expectation" that they will be granted permanent residence
• A period of "blanket residence permission" with less of the onerous requirements may apply to give officials time to process applications to stay in the UK
• The Home Office will no longer request evidence that EU citizens who weren't working held "comprehensive sickness insurance"

Those granted settled status, which is the same as ‘indefinite leave to remain’ (ILR) or permanent residence, will be "treated as if they were UK citizens for healthcare, benefits and pensions".

Mrs May added that the process of application – currently an 85-page form - would be simplified and a "light touch" approach applied to EU citizens, although she did say that criminal record checks will still be carried out when pressed by opposition MP's. 

Non-EU citizens will continue to endure the ever-changing lengthy Home Office forms and increasing high fees in order to gain indefinite leave to remain in the UK.  

"Under these plans, no EU citizen currently in the UK lawfully will be asked to leave at the point the UK leaves the EU," Mrs May said.

The widely expected plan should be good news for migrants worried about their post-Brexit status in the UK. Since Britons voted to leave the EU last year there has been a sharp increase in applications for ILR and UK citizenship. It has been suggested that those who have already obtained ILR may still have to apply for settled status.

Croatian citizens are currently subject to a 7 year restriction - similar to those imposed on previous EU entrants Bulgaria and Romania - on working from the date Croatia joined the EU.

Despite fears that hundreds of thousands or European citizens living here would return home, most seem to have remained as they have already made their life in the UK either running businesses or holding down good jobs.

UK property prices have started to fall slightly following the Brexit vote and recent general election which saw the Conservatives lose their overall majority.

See also:

UK election splits the country and calls for a softer Brexit approach

Cyprus, the fastest route to EU citizenship and European passports for you and your family

Fines issued to landlords under right-to-rent offences

Turn Your Passion into Profit

EU migrants welcome to remain in UK indefinitely as Prime Minister outlines special settled status deal

Prime Minister Theresa May announced today plans to allow EU citizens living in the UK to remain here as residents following Brexit designed to put their "anxiety to rest".

Briefing MP’s in the parliament on the outcome of Friday’s EU summit, Mrs May confirmed that all EU nationals lawfully resident for at least five years will be able to apply for "settled status" and to bring spouses and children, the BBC reports.

EU migrants who arrived after a date yet to be agreed will have two years to "regularise their status" but will not enjoy the same rights.

The government has published a document summarising the UK's offer to EU citizens, which you can read here.

May said she wanted to give reassurance and certainty to the 3.2 million EU citizens living in the UK - in addition to citizens of the three EEA countries and Switzerland – as they are an "integral part of the economic and cultural fabric" of the UK.

However, she wants any deal on their future legal status and rights to be reciprocal and also give certainty to the 1.2 million British expats living on the continent after the UK leaves the EU - expected to be on 29 March 2019.

This promise could prove difficult to keep, as EU countries, such as France and Spain, already have less advantageous conditions for British expats than offered to EU citizens living and working in the UK. 

For instance, retired Brits are now facing the bleak prospect of paying for expensive health insurance or jumping on an Easyjet flight home every time they need treatment. This option could become closed to them if they are no longer resident in the UK.

The main points of the UK's proposal to EU citizens are:

• EU migrants granted settled status will be able to live, work, study and claim benefits as they can now
• The important cut-off date for eligibility will be no earlier than 29 March 2017 and no later than 29 March 2019
• EU family members of EU citizens living abroad will be allowed to return and apply for settled status
• Those EU nationals in the UK for less than five years at the specified date will be allowed to continue living and working in the UK and once resident for five years, they can apply for settled status
• Migrants arriving after the cut-off point will be able to stay temporarily, however, they should have "no expectation" that they will be granted permanent residence
• A period of "blanket residence permission" with less of the onerous requirements may apply to give officials time to process applications to stay in the UK
• The Home Office will no longer request evidence that EU citizens who weren't working held "comprehensive sickness insurance"

Those granted settled status, which is the same as ‘indefinite leave to remain’ (ILR) or permanent residence, will be "treated as if they were UK citizens for healthcare, benefits and pensions".

Mrs May added that the process of application – currently an 85-page form - would be simplified and a "light touch" approach applied to EU citizens, although she did say that criminal record checks will still be carried out when pressed by opposition MP's. 

Non-EU citizens will continue to endure the ever-changing lengthy Home Office forms and increasing high fees in order to gain indefinite leave to remain in the UK.  

"Under these plans, no EU citizen currently in the UK lawfully will be asked to leave at the point the UK leaves the EU," Mrs May said.

The widely expected plan should be good news for migrants worried about their post-Brexit status in the UK. Since Britons voted to leave the EU last year there has been a sharp increase in applications for ILR and UK citizenship. It has been suggested that those who have already obtained ILR may still have to apply for settled status.

Croatian citizens are currently subject to a 7 year restriction - similar to those imposed on previous EU entrants Bulgaria and Romania - on working from the date Croatia joined the EU.

Despite fears that hundreds of thousands or European citizens living here would return home, most seem to have remained as they have already made their life in the UK either running businesses or holding down good jobs.

UK property prices have started to fall slightly following the Brexit vote and recent general election which saw the Conservatives lose their overall majority.

See also:

UK election splits the country and calls for a softer Brexit approach

Cyprus, the fastest route to EU citizenship and European passports for you and your family

Fines issued to landlords under right-to-rent offences

Turn Your Passion into Profit

Unfair family migration Rules

Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said during the coming year the organisation will focus on campaigning against the Government’s restrictions on family migration. Speaking at the JCWI’s AGM in London last night, Mr Rahman said the Immigration Rule changes, in particular the minimum £18,600 income requirement to bring in a non-EU spouse or partner, introduced by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in July were dividing families and hitting British. Mr Rahman also referred to an article in yesterday’s Evening Standard "Tough New Visa Rules put Foreign Students off London”, where an unlikely ally Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson called on Prime Minister David Cameron to remove students from net migration targets. Speaking in India, Johnson accused the Government of causing “unnecessary alarm” with tough immigration rules, which have already resulted in a 9% fall in student visas, expected to rise to 25% next year. Last week the outspoken London Mayor strongly criticised his own party’s target to slash net immigration, claiming that visa policies were preventing the City and universities from recruiting the brightest talent, and were “a block to growth”. One of the guest speakers at the meeting was Emma Ben Moussa, a British bride of a Moroccan husband, who has just given birth to their first child nine weeks ago. Emma tried to live in Morocco with her husband, but found the life hard and had no chance of finding well paid employment. She returned to her home in Kent this year during the middle of a complicated pregnancy, but could not return to her job as a store manager at WH Smith. The couple found themselves caught in the £18,600 trap and even if she returned to work immediately she would not be able to show 6 months payslips required to sponsor him on a spouse visa. Her husband’s prospective income cannot be taken into account or the fact that she would be able to work full time if he could be here to look after the baby. They obtained a visit visa after what Emma described as a very difficult experience dealing with the British Embassy in Casablanca, Morocco. The JCWI are currently helping the couple to stay together in the UK and have submitted an “outside the Rules” application for further leave to remain. Should this be refused, her case will almost certainly go to appeal and could end up as a test case in the High Court. The second speaker, Professor Eleonore Kofman of Middlesex University, highlighted the discriminatory nature of the new Rules, which will adversely affect 61% of women, double the rate of men, due to lower earnings. Professor Kofman noted that it was not just the arbitrary £18,600 income requirement which was splitting families. Other restrictions contained in the Rules include not allowing a partner’s prospective earnings to be taken into account and length of time needed to prove income. She said the UK was now the second hardest country to sponsor a spouse after Norway. Raza Husein QC offered some hope pointing to two upcoming cases challenging the Rules in the Upper Tribunal and High Court early next year. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, said the Rule changes were rushed through by the Executive without a vote or proper Parliamentary scrutiny. He was disappointed that a “Negative Prayer” or objection laid down in Parliament was only signed by 7 MP’s. Corbyn said it was easy for the Government to be “tough” on poor migrant families and reminded us that the UK was built on immigration and would be a “wet and insular little island” without it. Referring to the London Metropolitan University’s licence revocation, which is in his constituency, he claimed that the UKBA had not acted rationally and had done spot checks on overseas students during the holidays. The meeting ended with a lively question and answer session in which Habib Rahman defended JCWI’s record of campaigning against the UKBA’s onslaught on private colleges and international students. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) is an independent national charity which campaigns for justice in UK immigration, nationality and refugee law and policy.
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