Concerns have been raised about the future of elderly EU citizens settled in the UK after a Dutch widow who has lived in the country for 50 years said she feared she could be deported because she has not kept paperwork showing she is here legally.

Elly Wright came to the UK in 1967 after marrying a British serviceman in Germany and spent most of her adult life working in the NHS and public housing. She retired in 1993.

“It never occurred to me at the age of 75 that I would have to prove my right to live here. I stopped working 24 years ago, I just don’t have those papers,” she said in her Surrey home.

“The leave vote came as a tremendous shock to me. I woke up at 4am on the 24th of June and thought to just quickly see the result of the referendum and then go back to sleep.

“I can honestly say that I have hardly had a good night’s sleep since. I wake up after two or three hours’ sleep, actively worrying about where to find proof of my 50 years’ of life and work in Britain, and even if I were to get PR [permanent residency], for how long would that keep me safe?” said Wright.

Her marriage to an army intelligence officer was shortlived but she could not leave the UK because they had a son together and an English court ordered her to stay in the country as part of the divorce settlement.

She worked as an administrator and medical liaison officer in the NHS for seven years and met her second husband, Michael, a psychiatrist, in 1981.

She switched to work in public housing at the Notting Hill Housing Trust and went on to study art and become a painter when her husband retired in 1993.

“Life was not always easy, but the three of us were together, loving and secure. Both my husband and I worked hard, he in the NHS and I in public housing. I had become totally immersed in British culture and its way of life,” she said.

“I identify more with the UK than the Netherlands. However, I still have a Dutch passport. It never occurred to me that at the age of 75 and having lived here for 50 years, being Dutch could one day make me ‘the other’.”

On Tuesday Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, tried to put clear water between the party and and the Conservatives by pledging a unilateral guarantee for EU citizens’ rights after Brexit.

Wright’s case illustrates the practical challenge faced by EU nationals trying to get ahead of the pack and find paperwork to prove they have been lawfully resident in the country before Brexit.

EU citizens say the permanent residency application requires a huge amount of paperwork on employment and tax records.

“I have no bank statements, the bank doesn’t supply them; I have tax records, but not for the qualifying period when I was working, and that worries me,” said Wright.

Her second husband died five years ago and she wants to stay in the country to be near his grave and near her son.

“We had to change our house when Michael got ill. He couldn’t walk very well, so we had a stairlift put in and a toilet downstairs and changed the whole top floor, but it meant we had to get rid of a lot of stuff like books – he studied right to the end, into his 80s. We had to create a lot of space for the changes, so we got rid of documents I no longer needed. I rang the HMRC before I did this and they told me I only needed to keep documents for seven years.

“Now because my qualifying period [for PR] is 1988 to 1993, I have to give the Home Office P60s and bank statements for that period. Well, the banks won’t give you statements going back that far. It is 24 years since I stopped work. I’ve got lots of things for the last 10 years, all my tax records, but not back to the period when I was working.”

In addition Wright needs to prove she has not left the country for a period longer than two years since 1993, the last time she worked.



Wright said she was exhausted from the sleepless nights and anxiety. “If I had applied for British citizenship when he was alive, I would have been allowed to keep my Dutch citizenship, but if I apply now the Netherlands will no longer allow dual nationality because my husband is no longer alive. It’s a horrible situation and I can’t be the only person in this situation.

“I’ve worked hard in this country, I’ve worked for the NHS and you don’t do that for the money, and my husband was a doctor, a psychiatrist. He never did any private practice because he believes in the public health service, although he did treat people privately in their homes who didn’t want employers knowing about their mental health, but he never ever charged them.

“I haven’t got anything for nothing, I’ve contributed. I paid national insurance from 1968 to 2001.”

She said she could go back to Holland after 51 years. “I would if I had to but I don’t want to, not just because of my son but my husband is buried here. My friends are there that give me support and I give them support, they are here around me, not in Holland.”