The BBC’s Home Affairs and Justice correspondent, Dominik Kashani, notes: “According to many experts, there is a high probability that there will be tens or even hundreds of thousands of EU citizens who will suddenly become illegal immigrants by Thursday morning.” He notes that a large proportion of non-registrants for the new status could be among those receiving social benefits. It cannot be ruled out that some wealthy EU citizens living in the UK simply did not think that their old permanent residence permits would no longer allow them to do so. Many non-registrants will only find out that they are no longer entitled to reside in the UK at all when they enter a new job or seek medical help.
After Brexi Citizens of EU countries living in the United Kingdom, the countries of the European Economic Area – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, as well as Switzerland – and their family members had to register for the status of accommodation required by EU Settlement Scheme Regulations. Government data show that since registration began in March 2019, by the end of May this year, 5,605,800 people had registered for settlement status. A decision was taken on 5,271,300. 2.7 million have been granted permanent residence status. Another 2.2 million allocated pre-settled status, which means that they must apply for long-term resident status after five years of living in the UK. Polish citizens (975,000) and Romanian citizens (918,000) have the highest number of registered residents.
94,000 applications were rejected, 72,100 were withdrawn and 74,900 were declared invalid – the officials considered that the applicants were not entitled to submit them or that there was no proof of their residence in the United Kingdom.
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