According to the latest figures from the British Home Office, by the end of the first quarter of this year, the number of EU citizens applying for a long-term residence permit in the UK exceeded 6.5 million.
At the moment, the statistics contain data on the nationality of applicants until the end of last year: according to this, the number of applications submitted by Hungarians by December 31 exceeded 160,000.
Britain withdrew from the European Union on January 31, 2020. However, EU citizens who have lawfully and habitually settled in the UK until the end of the 11-month transition period after the end of British membership in the European Union (Brexit) in 2020 can continue to stay in the country For the duration of their acquired rights, but indefinitely. They must apply for a residence permit, which is an official status.
The deadline for this was, in principle, June 30 last year. However, the UK government continues to encourage beneficiaries to apply in any event, as the authorities will accept and process legitimate applications for incorporation that meet the criteria, despite the deadline.
According to a new summary released by Britain’s Home Office on Thursday, citizens of the 27 EU member states living in the UK had received 6,546,200 applications by March 31, and more than 494,000 of those applications had been submitted after the 30 June 2021 deadline.
By the last day of March, 6,271,200 applications had been adjudicated; 827,200 since the June deadline.
In 51 percent of applications examined and approved by March 31, applicants were granted permanent — that is, no — status prior to settlement in 41 percent of cases.
The latter is available to those who arrived before 31 December 2020 with the intention of establishing themselves but have not yet lived in the UK for five years at the time of application. They can also wait until the five years have passed and then obtain a final residence permit. In the period until then, they are also entitled to the full enjoyment of the acquired rights.
According to a report on Thursday, the UK Home Office had rejected 4 per cent of applications examined by the end of March.
- 2% of applications were withdrawn by applicants,
- The extra 2 percent was invalid for some reason.
The dataset, which also includes the applicants’ nationality, will be included in Home Office statistics until the end of 2021.
Accordingly, as of December 31, 2021, 161,600 Hungarian citizens have applied for a permanent residence permit in Great Britain.
At the top of the list were the Romanians with 1,184,370 applications for settlement, followed by the Poles, with 1,375,570 of whom had applied for settlement status in the United Kingdom by the end of December.
Opening image: SHansche / Getty Images
