Is your status settled? Protecting EU residence rights after Brexit

The UK is due to leave the EU on or before 31 October 2019. As part of the draft withdrawal agreement, the UK government and the EU have agreed on a set of protections to enable EU citizens living in the UK to continue to reside here after Brexit. It would also introduce a Transition Period to extend current EU residence rights until 31 December 2020.

The UK government’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is designed to implement the citizens’ rights aspects of the withdrawal agreement, by allowing EU citizens and their family members to obtain either pre-settled status or settled status. In some respects, the EUSS is more generous than the withdrawal agreement. The government has confirmed that the EUSS will be implemented in a ‘no-deal’ situation, where the draft withdrawal agreement is not entered into (e.g. because the UK Parliament will not approve it). However, there would be some important differences, including bringing forward various relevant dates (as there would be no transition period).

Goodwille have worked with the expert immigration lawyers at North Star Law on flowcharts which look at 3 key questions that EU citizens, family members of EU citizens, and their UK-based employers should be asking about the EUSS and protecting their status after Brexit. These flowcharts are intended to represent a broad overview of the most common situations and are not intended to be relied on as a fully comprehensive statement of the relevant law.