More than 140,000 EU citizens applied last month to live and work in the UK after Brexit

  • Polish, Romanian and Italian nationals have submitted the highest number of applications
  • There is a backlog of more than 360,000 applications where people are still waiting for a decision
A poster for the Government's post-Brexit EU settlement scheme
AFP/Getty Images
Stephanie Cockroft17 December 2019

More than 140,000 EU citizens applied last month to live and work in the UK after Brexit.

The Home Office said it received 142,300 applications for the EU Settlement Scheme in November, compared to more than half a million submitted in the previous month.

This takes the total number received by the end of November to almost 2.6 million (2,592,800).

Overall, the number of applications finalised in that time was more than 2.2 million (2,230,900).

Of these, 59 per cent were granted permanent leave to remain in the country, called settled status, and 41 per cent were granted pre-settled status - which means they have temporary leave to remain and would need to apply again for permanent permission at a later date.

Five applications were refused on "suitability grounds", a Home Office report published on Thursday said.

Some 305,600 were processed in November alone.

This means there is a backlog of more than 360,000 applications where people are still waiting for a decision.

Polish (483,800), Romanian (411,000) and Italian (272,600) nationals have submitted the highest number of applications, according to the figures.

The majority of applications were received from people already living in England (2,372,700), with 127,900 from Scotland, 42,000 from Northern Ireland and 41,500 from Wales.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "Millions of the UK's EU citizens are now once again facing increased uncertainty about their future.

"It is completely unacceptable that nearly one million of the UK's EU citizens and their families still need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

"We have more than one million EU citizens living in London who belong in this city, are part of what makes it so special, and rightly call it home.

"While the Government is putting all of its focus on Brexit, this is the biggest change in rights and immigration status in our country for a generation.

"The Government are sleepwalking into another Windrush scandal and we can't allow that to happen."

"I'm doing all I can to support Londoners with our EU Londoners Hub, but the Government must urgently step up their efforts and back their warm words with action to provide the security our European Londoners deserve."

Home Office minister Brandon Lewis said: "EU citizens have made an enormous contribution to the UK and we want them to stay.

"2.6 million applications to the EU Settlement Scheme have already been submitted and I encourage people to keep applying. It's free and there is plenty of support available.

"We are leaving the EU on 31 January 2020, but people have until at least 31 December 2020 to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme."

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