Brexit Frequently Asked Questions 1. For Permanent Residency - how do you calculate any absences when qualifying for the five years? When assessing whether you have been resident in the UK for the necessary period the relevant legislation provides that the following will not break the continuity of residence for the purpose of acquiring Permanent Residence: periods of absence from the UK which do not exceed 6 months in total in any year, or any one absence from the UK not exceeding 12 months for an important reason such as pregnancy and childbirth, serious illness, study or vocational training, or an overseas posting. You should provide as much information of your absences from the UK as you are able. There is no easy answer to the question of how to deal with your travel history. However, it is only really an issue if you are close to the maximum number of days' absence (i.e. the 450/90 days limit, plus a 10% discretionary increase). If you are concerned by your level of absence, you should seek specific advice. 2. How can we show that we meet the residence requirements? (450 days over the five years and no more than 90 days in the last year) and what is the level of evidence required for short spells of absences? In terms of evidence of absences from the UK a list of dates is usually sufficient when you are not close to the limits. You can also use records from HR systems, sign off for conferences, travel and bookings to assist you with formulating your list of absences from the UK. The University may be able to provide a letter confirming the duration of your employment, when you commenced work and some form of schedule detailing the annual leave you have taken during your employment. Where you have undertaken a lot of business travel you should confirm the dates which you were undertaking business travel, the reason for this business travel and the benefit to the organisation. 3. What documents are acceptable to prove that I have been living in the UK? You may wish to contact your bank and/or HMRC for copies of old payslips/p60s etc. as well as providing old utility bills or other documents that link you to your residence in the UK. Any, or as many as possible of, the above should be submitted with your application. The important point is to be able to provide documentation that satisfies the relevant condition. Unless a specific document is requested, you should seek to provide the proof as best you can. 4. Are you allowed dual or multi citizenship or do you have to give up your own nationality and your other passports? This depends on the countries involved. Whilst the UK allows dual citizenship, you need to assess the rules of your home country to see whether or not they allow dual or multi citizenship and whether you would be able to keep your other passport(s). 5. Would you recommend the submission of a Freedom of Information Act request to Border Control?
No. Such requests often take a long time to be processed and may not be as helpful as you would hope as the information is often in difficult format to understand. The information you need to submit in your application needs to be to the best of your knowledge and belief and so doing the best that you can is usually sufficient, taking into account the earlier points about seeking additional guidance/assistance. We would recommend keeping an electronic log of absences going forward so that such information is easily obtainable when required to document absences from the UK in the future. 6. I've been living here for 20 years what do you recommend? The options depend on a number of factors such as, for example, what, if any, immigration documents you currently hold. It is also important to consider what the desired outcome is, and to then work backwards from there. It may be that certain options are not possible because of the desired outcome, or the history of your residence in the UK. In any event, where an individual has been in the UK for this length of time it is important to submit a cover letter with your application, giving as much information as possible regarding your stay in the UK. 7. I have a large number of documents from the last five years what should I do? Permanent residence applications are often quite document heavy, therefore the best advice is to be organised and submit a cover letter with your application. This cover letter should set out the nature and justification of your application with specific reference to the relevant documents. We would recommend filing your documents within a folder and splitting the documents into sections within that folder. Once you have done this you should review all the documents to ensure you have all the required documentation. It is often easy to overlook a document when documentation is not set out in a logical order. Once you are satisfied that all the necessary information is within the ringbinder you should take a copy of all of the documents for your records. You should then send all the documentation to UKVI. 8. I arrived before the proposed "specified date" but at the point of Brexit I won't have been in the UK for five years. What will happen? It is first important to remember that the "specified date" has not yet been confirmed or even discussed with the EU negotiating committee. What we know currently is that if there is a "specified date" it will likely be no earlier than the 29 March 2017 i.e. the date the formal Article 50 process for exiting the EU was triggered - and no later than the date of the UK's withdrawal from the EU (currently set at 1 April 2019). The current UK proposal suggests that those EU citizens who were resident in the UK before the "specified date", but who will not have obtained settled status or met the five years residence requirement by the end of a 2 year grace period post-brexit, will be allowed to stay in the UK until they reach the five year point. They will need to apply to the Home Office for permission for this. Then at the five year point, they will be able to apply for settled status. However, the final position remains unclear. Therefore, it is important that you stay up to date with the current position and how this impacts upon your visa status. Please see links above for relevant information.
9. If I am made redundant after being issued with a document certifying permanent residence, can I stay in the UK indefinitely? Do I need to prove that I can support myself? You will only lose permanent residence by absence from the UK of more than 2 years or on grounds of public policy, public security or public health. You will not need to prove that you can support yourself, but may have issues in relation to the claiming of benefits/income support etc. Please take specific advice in this regard. 10. My child was brought up in UK but is a German national. She wants to do a year abroad and will be out of the country on Brexit day. What should we do? The advice is dependent on what immigration documentation, if any, your child currently holds and whether the year abroad would be part of a programme of study. If, when your child was born, neither you nor your partner were British Citizens or settled in the UK you would first need to apply for a document certifying permanent residence (if you do not already hold this). The residence requirements that must be met when applying for permanent residence are set out in earlier answers. Provided that your child has a permanent residence document and has had permanent residence for the last 12 months they could apply for citizenship. One of the requirements to quality for citizenship is that you must have spent no more than 450 days outside the UK during the relevant five year period and spent no more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months. Therefore, if they are able to, the child should apply for citizenship ASAP, certainly before undertaking the year abroad. You will also need to consider the impact this would have on your child's German nationality. We recommend seeking further legal advice on your situation. 11. I ve paid into a pension scheme for the last 10 years while I've been in the UK? What would happen to this if I lose my right of residency post-brexit and cannot get citizenship? There are specific considerations here which are outside the scope of this document and which are not Employment law points. Therefore, I would recommend that you seek advice from a Pensions specialist. 12. If you came to the UK 20 years ago as a student you would not have taken out comprehensive sickness insurance. Where does that leave you? Papers published by the government suggest that the system the UK establishes for applications from EU residents, once the UK has left the EU, will no longer require evidence that economically inactive EU citizens have previously held comprehensive sickness insurance. Therefore, if the current proposals are adopted, it would not be an issue that you did not hold comprehensive sickness insurance. However given the current level of uncertainty it is impossible to suggest the way forward. In any event, it may be that this earlier period of time is not relevant to establishing your current permanent residence, as it is only the last five years that need to be taken into account. 13. I am about to retire and I cannot afford to leave the UK due to personal circumstances. What happens to me as a retiree? There are particular rules and considerations on this point. These are specific to the facts of the case and it therefore difficult to give any kind of generic answer. We advise that you seek advice from a Employment law/pensions specialist.
14. What will I need to apply for after 1 April 2019, how long will the process take and will we have to send passports? On the current proposals, after 1 April 2019 every EU citizen will be required to hold a UK immigration status to lawfully stay in the UK. Therefore EU citizens will need to make an application for a status in UK immigration law. Such applications will likely have to be made within two years from the date of the Brexit date. The exact documentation you will need to apply for will depend on your current immigration status, when you arrived in the UK and the length of time you have been in the UK. It is unclear at this stage how long the process will take and whether applicants will be required to submit their passports. Please refer to the links above for further and updated information on this point. 15. Will there be restrictions on movement during the post-brexit period? At present we do not know the answer to this. I would recommend staying up to date with the current Brexit publications to see whether they shed any further light on this. 16. What about children born in this country? Advice is dependent on the nationality of the parents and their immigration status at the time the child was born. Please seek specific legal advice in this regard. 17. Does having a family in the UK (i.e. a British National daughter) help my case / make the application process easier? No, this will have no effect on the outcome other than to prove that you will be able to show an intention to reside in the UK if you are making an application for citizenship, for example. 18. If you apply for British Citizenship would you lose freedom of movement post-brexit? This will depend on a number of factors. For instance whether you are able to remain a dual national of another EU member state and what the UK negotiate as the terms of Brexit. In terms of the position of British Citizenship and free movement it is not possible to provide a concrete answer at present. We will have to wait and see what the agreed Brexit terms provide for. 19. Should you consider legal advice when applying for Permanent Residence? The form is quite lengthy, 85 pages in total and it is quite a document heavy application. Therefore we would recommend seeking legal advice as a solicitor will be able to review the documentation you are planning to submit, assess whether any further documentation is needed and can also draft a cover letter to assist with the processing of your application. If you decide not to seek legal advice, please do submit a cover letter with your application as this will help signpost the relevant points and documents. You should make it as difficult as possible for UKVI to reject your application. 20. Is there an Executive Route through certifying Permanent Residence and then citizenship (e.g. for people of certain income/tax contribution etc.)? No, there is no such option. However, you can obtain a quicker decision if you are happy to pay the increased fee of submitting your application via a Premium Service Centre (the fee is currently 500).
21. I was unemployed for two weeks in 2008. I was actively looking for work but I don t have any documents to support it. I found a job after those two weeks. Is it going to have a big impact on my application? This could potentially be an issue if you did not register as a jobseeker during those two weeks and if you do not also have evidence of your job searches. I would advise you obtain specialist advice on this point. 22. How does a spouse who has not worked prove their residency? This is a complicated and disputed area. It is also dependent on the nationality of the spouse. If the spouse is the non-eea national family member of an EEA national, they will be able to apply for a document certifying permanent residence based on their link to the EEA national and their residence in the UK. If the spouse is the EEA national family member of another EEA national, the position is less clear. It is theoretically possible to the spouse to still apply based on their link to their EEA national family member. However there is also a school of thought that all EEA nationals will be assessed on the basis of their own individual circumstances, rather than the circumstances of any other individual even if that other individual is their spouse. As such, we would strongly recommend seeking legal advice in this regard. It may be that you decide to wait until we are clearer on what the UK's position will be post- Brexit. 23. Based on the UK's current proposals, what is the position if you are married to a British Citizen? Depending upon your current immigration status and the length of time you have been in the UK you could potentially apply for Settled Status or a Spousal Visa after Brexit. 24. What is the position if you are insured in your own country and do not use the NHS? Please note that the European Health Insurance card does not count as comprehensive medical insurance. If you have medical insurance in your own country and they would pay for medical treatment in the UK that would be acceptable. If you have queries around your eligibility to qualify for permanent residence, please seek specialist legal advice.