Transitional EU Migrant Scheme…Still in progress

Six months ago we optimistically suggested that legions of government policymakers were no doubt working around the clock to define a post-Brexit immigration strategy. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case.

Despite the Prime Minister making it clear that any EU national arriving after March 2019 will be treated differently, her senior officials appear to be stumped as to how to establish separate systems to register both existing EU citizens and those new arrivals after March next year. With time running out, the government is now under pressure to confirm whether this immigration conundrum will be solved ahead of the country entering the proposed Brexit transition period early next year.

Mrs May’s vision requires a means to differentiating between those EU nationals who were ‘resident’ in the UK prior to Friday 29 March 2019 and those entering the UK after this date. Given the proposed retention of an open and fictionless border during the transition period, this is easier said than done.

The government has previously stated that a new system for EU nationals to register a claim for settled status will be made available later this year. However, since there is no requirement for those EU nationals currently residing in the UK to file this application prior to Brexit, not every EU nationals’ status will be fully documented upon our departure from the European Union.

Not only will this cause headaches for the Home Office but it will also prevent UK employers from establishing whether they will be able to employ certain EU nationals on a permanent basis post-Brexit.

Unfortunately, an even darker cloud could be waiting on the horizon for the senior officials tasked with plotting the UK’s future immigration strategy. Once the proposed two-year transition period ends in 2021, Immigration Officers may find themselves having to juggle a three tier system of border control for EU nationals namely: 

• Those EU nationals returning to the UK with Settled Status;
• Those EU nationals returning to the UK having originally entered the UK during transition; and
• Those EU nationals seeking to enter the UK for the first time.

Will EU nationals entering the United Kingdom during transition be able to continue working in the UK beyond 2021? Does every UK port of entry intend to stage three different immigration channels for EU nationals (depending on their UK status) to proceed through?

It seems nobody knows. Not even the senior officials working for Mrs May.