The United Kingdom has reached an agreement with the European Commission on citizens’ rights. The agreement will provide the millions of EU citizens and their family members living in the UK certainty about their future and most importantly, allow them to stay.
Agreement on rights for EU citizens and their families
The agreement we have reached for EU citizens and their family members is:
- People who arrive by 29 March 2019 and have been continuously and lawfully living here for 5 years will be able to apply to stay indefinitely by getting ‘settled status’. That means these citizens will be free to live here, have access to public funds and services and go on to apply for British citizenship.
- People who arrive by 29 March 2019, but won’t have been here lawfully for 5 years when we leave the EU, will be able to apply to stay until they have reached the 5-year threshold. They can then also apply for settled status.
- Family members who are living with, or join, EU citizens in the UK by 29 March 2019 will also be able to apply for settled status after 5 years in the UK.
- Close family members (spouses, civil partners and unmarried partners, dependent children and grandchildren, and dependent parents and grandparents) will be able to join EU citizens after exit under these rules, where the relationship existed on 29 March 2019 and continues to exist when they wish to come to the UK.
EU citizens with settled status and temporary permission to stay will continue to have the same access as they currently do to healthcare, pensions and other benefits. Irish nationals won’t need to apply for the new status.
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status is not affected by the UK’s exit from the EU. You will need 5 years of continuous and lawful residence in the UK as a worker, self-employed person, student, self-sufficient person, or family member of an EU citizen.
For EU citizens who arrive in the UK after the UK’s withdrawal on 29 March 2019, the proposed implementation period (announced by the Prime Minister in her Florence speech in September) will mean they can still live, work and study here after we have left the EU. How long this period lasts is subject to negotiations, however it is likely to be around 2 years.
