Who is considered settled in the uk

In some circumstances, you may be required to apply for settled status, under Appendix EU, but in others you may not. It is no longer possible to make an application for a document certifying permanent residence under the EEA Regulations. If you have a document certifying permanent residence, you must either apply to the EU settlement scheme or apply for British citizenship if you have been deemed to have acquired a right of permanent residence over 12 months ago or are married to a british citizen.

However, an application for british citizenship does not extend leave to remain in the UK. Therefore, if you do not have a decision on a citizenship application prior to 30 June , you should apply for settled status in order to preserve your position in the UK. If you entered the UK before the EEA Regulations came into force, you may have obtained indefinite leave to remain rather than a right of permanent residence.

If you do not have evidence of your ILR status or have evidence in the form of a letter, passport stamp or vignette, you may wish to consider any of the applications below. You can indicate on the EU Settlement Scheme online application form that you already have indefinite leave to remain. An advantage of applying to the EU Settlement Scheme is that you should be able to spend up to 5 years in a row outside the UK without losing your settled status instead of 2 years with indefinite leave to enter or remain.

Again, you will need to apply for settled status to confirm your status. Following the end of EU freedom of movement and the introduction of a new points-based immigration system , new rules now apply to EU citizens in the UK. EU nationals already in the UK and their family members by 31 December are required to register for settled status by 30 June to safeguard their indefinite, lawful status in the UK.

EU settled status is the official grant of immigration status by the Home Office that will allow you as an EU citizen to continue to live, work and study in the UK on an indefinite basis. With settled status, you retain full access to healthcare and, where eligible, any public funds including state benefits and pensions. As such, those with settled status will continue to access to the same rights and benefits they were entitled to under the previous free movement rules.

They will also be entitled to leave the UK for up to 5 years without losing their status, and any children born in the UK will automatically be classed as British citizens. However — EU settled status is not an automatic right. EU citizens will need to apply for, and be granted, EU settled status.

From 1 July , EU citizens will be required to provide proof of their settled status, for example to their employer as part of a Right to Work check. The Government has advised that EU citizens who fail to apply for settled status before the deadline of 30 June will no longer have the right to remain in the UK lawfully.

To qualify for settled status under the EU settlement scheme you would need to show that you have lived in the UK for a continuous period of 5 years. To satisfy the 5-year continuous residence requirement, subject to certain exceptions such as time abroad in the armed forces, you must have lived in the UK for at least 6 months in any month period.

You have until the 30 June to apply under the EU settlement scheme. Special provision was made under the EU settlement scheme for EU citizens who have not attained the 5 years continuous residence required for full settled status. Those who moved to the UK prior to 31 December but who have not yet at the time of their application lived in the UK for 5 years, will be granted pre-settled status. This will give the successful applicant the right to stay in the UK for a period of 5 years, at which time they can apply for full settled status.

EU citizens with pre-settled status who left the UK in response to the COVID pandemic may find their eligibility under the continuous requirement has been compromised by their absence. Home Office guidance states that an individual with pre settled status who has been absent from the UK for more than six months within any month period of the 5-year qualifying residency will lose their right to apply for full settled status, unless they can prove exceptional circumstances apply.

Only absence due to illness with COVID or due to forced quarantine may be considered as an exception to the absence requirement. It does not matter if you are a non-EEA family member, you can come from anywhere in the world. The following non-EEA family members will be eligible for settled status:.

Applicants can apply online and will need to prove their identity and continuous 5-year residence in the UK, or less for pre-settled status. Criminal background checks will also be conducted for applicants over We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You can change your cookie settings at any time. If you already have pre-settled status, you can still apply for settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme. You must apply before your pre-settled status expires.

For some people, the deadline of 30 June does not apply. This only applies if you join them in the UK on or after 1 April If you joined them before that date, your deadline to apply was 30 June If they were born or adopted in the UK before that date, your deadline to apply was 30 June If you choose to do so, you can apply at any time.

If you stop being exempt, you will have 90 days to apply. In terms of children born outside the UK, they do not have to make an application within three months to be joining family member as they can make an application at the point when they want to enter the UK obviously if they wait until they are 21 years old they would have to show dependency but it seems unlikely that that situation arise generally.

They should not bring the child back in as a visitor as we know this will cause problems obtaining EUSS status in the UK. I am a citizen of an EU country and have lived in the UK previously but left again.

Now I want to return. Can I apply for pre-Settled or Settled Status, using those years against my application? If in the past, you have been residing in the UK continuously for longer than 5 years and, since then, you have NOT been outside the UK for longer than 5 years you can apply for settled status based on your historic residency.

For example, someone who has historic residence from then came back briefly in So the applicant needs to return briefly to the U. In your case, you arrived in the UK in and lived here until You have been outside the UK for less than 5 years. Therefore, if you meet the following three criteria you will be able to apply successfully to the EU Settlement Scheme:. You have documents that prove your continuous residence for 5 consecutive years in your case the past. You meet the requirements for good character.

You have to self-report to the Home Office any criminal convictions that appear in your criminal records in the UK and abroad.

If you have a passport with a microchip and you have all documents to prove your continuous residence. Please refer to link below for further info on how you can use your app on your phone:.

If their answer is not clear or your application is not successful, or the status offered not what you expected, do get in touch via advice settled. If you are unable to scan your ID documents, you may need to post your documents to the Home Office. When you post your documents, make sure that:. If you are planning to join in the U. The applicant will be asked to upload evidence of the relationship. This evidence can be scans or photos of documents.

The Home Office can require to submit the original document where it has reasonable doubt as to the authenticity of the copy relied upon. If you have pre-settled status, you will be able to apply for settled status as soon as you reach your 5 years of continuous residence.