Brexit: Less Than 30 Days to Apply for Post-Brexit Residency

British nationals who have moved to France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta have until 30 June to ensure they retain their rights to remain in the EU. The same applies to EU nationals who want to continue to live in the United Kingdom.

Under the terms of the Brexit, EU citizens already living in the UK and British nationals living in the EU by the end of 2020 can remain with guaranteed rights, with the right to apply for permanent residence after 5 years.

According to reports, tens of thousands of British nationals living in the European Union face a looming deadline to secure their post-Brexit residency rights. A bid to extend this deadline had been previously rejected in March.

Calls to Apply Now

Campaigners for EU nationals living in the UK and British citizens living on the continent have issued calls for people to act now to secure their post-Brexit residency status before application deadlines expire at the end of June.

The group representing EU27 citizens in the UK, the3million group, tweeted on to say that it was the final month to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Failure to do so would mean that from 1 July, people would lose essential rights they had enjoyed up to now such as the right to work or receive some hospital treatment.

A group campaigning for British nationals living in the EU, British in Europe, also took to Twitter to remind those living in France, Luxembourg, Latvia and Malta that they have until 30 June to apply, or “face waking up as undocumented immigrants” the next day.

The Netherlands has extended its deadline to 1 October while over a dozen EU countries like Portugal are implementing systems automatically granting a residence status for British nationals lawfully living in the EU before the end of 2020.

EU Settlement Scheme

By 31 March, there had been 5.2 million applications to the UK's settlement scheme for EU citizens, according to the think tank The UK in a Changing Europe. The numbers showed EU movement to the UK to be “much higher” than previously thought.

The3million group points out that from July, EU nationals in the UK will only have digital proof of “pre-settled” or “settled” status. It has argued that the lack of paper documents leaves many people vulnerable, and there have been many complaints about how the scheme has worked in practice.

The UK government has said that late applications will be considered where there are “good reasons” for missing the deadline, issuing guidance in April as to what such reasons might be.

EU nationals who have not applied under the EU Settlement Scheme and want to live and work legally in the UK will have to apply through the new post-Brexit immigration system.

British Nationals Living in the EU

Regarding British nationals living on the continent, a joint EU-UK report on the implementation of residence rights published in April found that fewer than half of all UK nationals living in France and Malta had applied for and received a decision on their applications.

Nearly 1 in 5 people living in countries with a 30 June deadline had not even applied, figures which British in Europe described as “shocking and should be a wake-up call” to member states.

It criticises EU countries for failing to deliver on pledges contained in the Brexit divorce deal to provide adequate information and raise awareness among British residents and calls on the EU and the UK to recognise their responsibilities towards them.

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Travel and Immigration Writer and Client Relationship Manager at IaM (Immigration and Migration)

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