Half a million EU citizens are still waiting and wondering if they will be granted UK’s settled status. Home Office data shows that about 569,100 cases were pending in July.
Thousands of people are being left without the ability to work or rent due to delays in processing their applications for residency.
The Home Office, however, has promised that most simple cases will be solved within five days and they have already deployed extra resources for dealing with these types of requests.
After Brexit, many European citizens were left in a state of legal limbo and uncertainty. The automatic right to live and work in the UK for EU-citizens ended.
In order to stay in the UK, European Union citizens had to apply for legal permission under what is known as the EU Settlement Scheme.
A total of 6,015,400 applications were made between the launch in March 2019 and the deadline on June 30th 2021 with an additional 58,200 coming after that date!
The top three countries for citizenship applications were Poland, Romania and Italy.
Following the unprecedented surge in applications ahead of the 30 June deadline, the government increased both caseworkers and resolution agents to help respond to the queries.
However, immigration lawyer Bhavneeta Limbachia has warned of the possibility that EU citizens might experience delays in obtaining their Certificate of Application.
For foreign nationals, this document is required to demonstrate they have the right to live and work in the UK.
“This bottleneck in the system is failing EU nationals, especially when employment has had to be temporarily suspended,” she said.
“The delay is also prejudicial to landlords and employers, who are left in a predicament when assessing whether an applicant is legally permitted to continue renting or working in the UK”.
Immigration minister Kevin Foster said that anyone who makes a late application will receive temporary protection until it is concluded.
“I’m delighted thousands more EU citizens have had their status secured through our hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme, and we continue to work as quickly as possible to conclude all applications received,” he added.
