The government has laid out what EU citizens living in Britain can expect after the UK leaves the European Union

In its offer to EU nationals living in the UK, the British government says it recognises the need to “honour the expectation” that they moved on the basis that they would be able to settle permanently before the Brexit process was triggered.

The Home Office also says that more than 1 million UK nationals live in other EU countries and their ability to stay and live life much as they do now depends on the agreement reached between the EU and UK. It has set out the following key provisions of its offer:

Settled status

All EU nationals who have five years’ continuous residence will be invited to apply for “settled status” in UK law. This is essentially the same as indefinite leave to remain under the 1971 Immigration Act, which can be granted to some non-European Economic Area nationals after five years’ residence. This means it will cover the right to reside, to undertake any lawful activity, to access public funds and apply for British citizenship. The settled status will be enshrined by the EU nationals’ residence document – essentially an ID card – which will be backed by an entry on a Home Office database.

The proposal does not discriminate between different EU nationalities, so eastern Europeans will not be “second-class citizens”, as claimed by some. The term settled status is used because it was felt that indefinite leave to remain was too technical.

Legal basis

The proposals exclude the rights of British and Irish citizens, which will be protected by the common travel area. There will be no need for Irish citizens to apply for settled status. The rights of people in Northern Ireland to identify as British or Irish or both will be unaffected.

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New rights created for EU qualifying status after Brexit will only be enforceable in the UK legal system. Commitments made in the withdrawal agreement will have the status of international law but the European court of justice will not have jurisdiction in the UK. The proposal will also apply in Gibraltar.

What EU nationals settled in UK will lose after Brexit



They will lose the right to bring in a spouse – wife or husband – to live with them without meeting a minimum income threshold of £18,600, bringing them in line with UK nationals. They may also lose the right to vote in local elections, but this is not specified in the 15-page Home Office policy paper.

Who can apply?

To qualify, the EU citizen must have been resident in the UK before the specified cut-off date and must have completed five years’ continuous residence in the UK before they apply for settled status – at which point they must be in the UK. The cut-off date is yet to be agreed but will be between 29 March 2017, when article 50 was triggered, and the date of withdrawal. An EU national will be able to leave Britain for up to two years without jeopardising their permanent residence status. This rule also applies in counting the five qualifying years.

EU citizens who arrive before the cut-off date but have not built up five years’ continuous residence at the time of Brexit will be able to apply for temporary status in order to remain resident in the UK until they have accumulated five years. Once they have qualified they will be able to apply for settled status. They will be able to access the same benefits as now, including equal access for workers and self-employed and limited access for those not working.

Those who arrive after the cut-off date will be allowed to remain for at least a temporary period and may become eligible for permanent settled status depending on their circumstances. But the Home Office adds that they “should have no expectation of guaranteed settled status”.

Family dependents who join before Brexit will be able to apply for settled status irrespective of the specified date. This includes non-EU family members who have “a genuine relationship” with an EU citizen.

Those joining after Brexit will be subject to the new immigration rules. The Home Office document says a range of options is being considered on how EU migration will work “for new arrivals post-Brexit” and proposals will be published as soon as possible.

Those who are “serious or persistent criminals and those whom we consider a threat to the UK” will be excluded from the right to apply for settled status and will be liable to deportation. This maintains the current situation under which 3,500 EU offenders were deported last year.

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How will it work?

On Brexit, the Home Office will assume that all EU nationals and their families have a blanket generic status of “temporary leave” and will be given up to two years’ grace to apply for a resident’s document – in effect an ID card proving their settled status in the UK.

The Home Office intends to set up a different system to the much criticised current process of applying to the Home Office for permanent residence certificates. There will be no need, for example, to demonstrate past comprehensive health insurance cover for those without NHS eligibility. It will operate under UK rules rather than the existing EU freedom of movement directive.

A “light touch” online digital application system is being set up, which is expected to use HMRC income and wages and other official data sources to minimise the need to produce wage slips or other documents to prove five years’ continuous residence. Those applying through the digital system will need to produce a passport and have their biometric prints taken.

The Home Office acknowledges this new system will be challenging and hopes to run it as a digital database rather than an old-style paper application system. The previous 85-page form will not be used. The fee for applications is to be kept low, at about the existing level of £65 for permanent residence cards.

Those who hold Home Office residence documents will have to reapply as their circumstances may have changed, but the process will be streamlined for them.

The Home Office says EU nationals will be able to apply for settled status before Brexit but it will not be mandatory. They say a settled status residence document will enable them to carry on working lawfully and demonstrate to employers and public services their ongoing right to be in the UK. Those who do not apply at the end of the two-year grace period “will no longer have permanent right to remain in the UK”. However, the Home Office document makes no mention of what enforcement action might be taken against them.



Students

EU nationals arriving before Brexit will be eligible for higher education and further education student loans and “home fee” status and for maintenance support where it is available. EU students starting courses in 2017/18 and 2018/19 will continue to be eligible for the duration of their courses.

Pensions, social security benefits and healthcare

The UK government commits to continue to uprate the UK state pensions paid abroad and to honour “accrued pension rights” – that is, rights built up during a working life in other European countries.

Existing rights to “export UK benefits” to other EU countries will continue so that an EU citizen who acquires settled status will be able to continue to send child benefit payments to another EU country where his or her children live. However, new applications will not be allowed after Brexit.

The UK will “seek to protect” healthcare arrangements for those in the UK before the cut-off date and for Britons in Europe. For temporary stays, including holidaymakers and students, this means continuing the European health insurance card scheme whereby countries usually reimburse one another for healthcare costs incurred by their nationals. The same applies for resident retired pensioners.

Evidence of comprehensive sickness insurance will not be required by those applying for settled status, as was previously the case for some permanent residence documents.

Professional qualifications and self-employed

These rights are also not guaranteed by the UK offer. Instead, the UK says it “seeks to ensure” that professional qualifications remain recognised so that British engineers can practise in Germany and French vets can work in Britain. Rights of the self-employed and to start a business are also on a “seek to protect” basis.

• This article was amended on 28 and 29 June 2017. An earlier version mistakenly said countries reimbursed healthcare costs for their nationals in long-term residence in other countries. This has been removed.

