According to the latest figures released by the British Home Office on Thursday, more than 140,000 Hungarian citizens have applied to British authorities for stable status so far.
Britain withdrew from the European Union on January 31 last year, but EU citizens who have legally and habitually settled in the country by the end of 2020, the end of the post-Brexit transition period, can continue to retain all their acquired rights. However, they must apply for an indefinite-term residence permit, formally known as steady state.
At the top of the list of countries for information are Poles and Romanians with 975,180 and 918,270 applications for incorporation, respectively. The top five fields include Italians with 500,550, Portuguese with 376,440 and Spanish with 320,850. According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, the Hungarians are in the middle with 140,460 applications for incorporation.
By March 31, the UK authorities had evaluated 4,977,740 applications and only 3 per cent of the applications submitted had been approved for some reason. In 53 per cent of the applications examined, the applicants were granted permanent status, and in 44 per cent of the cases, they were granted pre-determined status.
The latter is available to those who arrived before 31 December 2020 with the intent to establish themselves but have not yet completed five years of lifestyle in the UK 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.
Those who were already living in the UK on 31 December 2020 can apply for settled status by 30 June this year.
