The number of EU citizens who have applied to UK authorities for a permanent residence permit has passed 5.4 million, according to figures released by the UK Home Office on Thursday.
The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on January 31 last year, but EU citizens who have settled legally and habitually in the country until the end of 2020, the end of an 11-month transition period after the end of British membership in the European Union (Brexit), can still stay. in the country. while retaining all their acquired rights. However, they must apply for an indefinite residence permit, a status that is created under an official legal name.
According to a monthly summary from the Home Office in London on Thursday, 5,423,300 of the 27 EU citizens living in the UK had done so by April 30.
By the end of last month, the UK authorities had already processed 5,118,300 applications, almost all of them in favor: the rate of rejected applications was just 1 per cent.
Applicants withdrew an additional 1 percent of applications submitted, and 1 percent were found to be invalid for some reason.
According to a UK Home Office report on Thursday, 52 per cent of applications assessed by the end of April had been granted permanent status and 44 per cent had pre-established status. The latter is available to applicants who arrived before 31 December 2020 with the intention of establishing themselves but who have not yet completed five years of UK lifestyle 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 up to then, they are also entitled to the full enjoyment of the acquired rights.
The UK Home Office does not provide country-by-country data on the number of citizens of each EU Member State who have applied for a residence permit in the monthly average statistics; This is only included in the comprehensive quarterly summaries. The next quarterly statistics are expected to be released on May 27th.
According to the latest quarterly summary published at the end of February, 131,120 Hungarians living in the UK had applied for settled status by January 31.
EU citizens living in the UK must provide reliable proof of identity and lifestyle status in order to obtain established legal status. They must also report whether they have ever been convicted by a court. This may be grounds for exclusion in some cases, such as when someone has been sentenced to more than one year in prison for past offenses.
Those who were already living in the UK as a lifestyle on 31 December 2020 can apply for settled status by 30 June this year. The detailed guide developed for this purpose has been available in Hungarian since the end of March on this On the UK government website.
Since the first day of this year, the British government has introduced new and unified immigration regulations for new arrivals from the EU and non-EU countries, which use a system of registration criteria to assess foundation applications, which are mainly based on the qualifications of applicants. and English language skills.
