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18 December 2017

The Right Honourable Brandon Lewis MP told a Select Committee last week that ‘a very simple, quick and easy system’ will be developed to enable the 3 million EU nationals currently residing in the United Kingdom to register for settled status. The Immigration Minister explained that the streamlined service will go live in late 2018 and be similar to the one currently offered to those renewing their passport online.

Further details in regards to the system and process are to be announced early in the new year. However, the Minister was keen to reaffirm to peers present at the meeting that EU citizens will only need to confirm they do not have a criminal record and have been living in the UK for five years in order to qualify for settled status.

The cost of the settled status application will be no more than the cost of a British passport (currently £72). This fee will be waived for those EU nationals who had already secured a UK permanent residence document and are therefore applying to transfer to settled status.

18 months on from the UK referendum, it will be a relief to many that the government is finally able to set out its plans to confer settled status on those EU citizens covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. With the registration system going live ahead of the date of the UK’s departure from the Union, the content and style of the Home Office’s communications during the months ahead will be crucial.

The news that every EU national will be asked to make an application to the Home Office has been nervously received by many especially the significant number of EU citizens who have lawfully resided in the UK most of their lives without any previous form of documentation.  If the government is therefore going to reassure the millions of EU citizens currently living in the UK that their future status is assured, the hard work starts now.

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