If you applied for the EUSS before the 30 June deadline, you have a right to enter, work, live, study, and claim benefits in the UK (though this is a little more complicated if you have pre-settled status).
If you only have pre-settled status and want to apply for means-tested benefits (such as Universal Credit, Tax Credits, or Housing Benefit), you will also have to pass the Right to Reside test. This usually requires you to be in work, to have a history of work, or to be the family of a worker. You won’t need to pass a Right to Reside test if you apply for non means-tested benefits (such as Child Benefit).
Yes you do. In September 2021, there were as many as 450,000 applications waiting on a decision. These applicants still have the right to enter, work, rent, and claim benefits. The only thing that is different is the process for proving these rights (see below). Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and get in touch with our team if this happens.
If you haven’t yet applied, get appropriate immigration advice and make an application as early as possible (see our late applications section). Your current employer or landlord may not check your status. But new employers and landlords most likely will. Without status, they will not be able to enter a lawful agreement with you.
Rules on international travel depend on your immigration status. If you have been granted status under the EUSS and want to travel to or from the UK, you'll need to travel with the document you used to apply to the scheme. If travelling on a different document, you must update your UKVI account to add that document before you travel.
There are two ways to do this:
If you are an EUSS status holder but not an EEA national, and you have a biometric residence card (BRC), you should travel with that valid BRC and present it at the border.
If you are a visa national (i.e. a national of a country that normally requires a visa to visit the UK) you'll need to produce a valid visa or visa exemption document (i.e. a BRC, EUSS family permit or EUSS travel permit) in order to travel to the UK. You can check whether you are a visa national here.
If your BRC has expired or been lost, damaged or stolen, you should apply for a replacement or updated BRC on GOV.UK while you're in the UK and ensure you have it with you when you travel. The same applies if you have changed your personal details.
If it expires or is lost or stolen whilst you are abroad, you can apply for a free EUSS travel permit to return to the UK at www.gov.uk/euss-travel-permit. Once back in the UK, you can apply for a replacement BRC.
Please note: if your BRC is lost or stolen, you should report this to the Home Office – details of how to do so are available here on GOV.UK.
This depends. If you have already obtained pre/settled status, go to the government page to log in to your EUSS application. You will need your date of birth, and details of the ID document and phone number / email address you used when you made your application. You will be able to issue a share code with a limited 90 day validity. With this share code and your date of birth, an employer, landlord, or education provider can check your right to live and work in the UK. Learn more from the video.
You may have trouble logging in if you lost your ID, the phone number, or email address you used when you first made your application, or when the details you provide don't match the details the Home Office holds for your application. The only way of proving your identity and re-setting your login details is to call the EU Settlement Resolution Centre at 0300 123 7379. Opening hours can be found here.
Your employer can check your right to work by accessing the Government’s Employer Checking Service. They will need your personal details and a Home Office Reference number - which can be found on your Certificate of Application (COA), email, or any letter you received from the Home Office confirming that your application has been made. The same applies to landlords, who can use the Landlord Checking Service. You should have received your COA a few days after you applied. If not, call the EU Settlement Resolution Centre, and ask your employer to be patient. The Home Office is processing a huge backlog of applications.
Remember: There is no requirement for employers and landlords to carry out a retrospective check on EEA+ nationals who entered into a work or rental agreement before 30 June 2021. Being singled out on the basis of your nationality and subjected to unfair treatment constitutes a form of discrimination. Remind your employer or landlord that, as per the Equalities Act 2010, discrimination on the basis of nationality is unlawful, and carries serious consequences.
If you’re looking for new employment but haven’t applied to the EUSS, you will not be able to pass the right to work check, and your employer will not be able to hire you. You can learn more on p 45 of the Home Office Guidance to Employers. Your only option will be to obtain appropriate advice, regularise your status, and look for work again once you have the right to work.
If you are looking to rent somewhere new but have not made an application to the EUSS by the 30 June 2021 deadline, you won’t have the right to do so unless you have another form of UK immigration leave. It is imperative that you apply to the EUSS, even if it is a late application.
Potentially, yes. If you plan to apply for settled status in the future, you should not accrue an absence of any more than six months, in any 12 month period (with the exception of acceptable ‘important reasons’, explained below). This is because to be eligible for settled status, you must have been continuously resident in the UK for a five-year period.
If you don't intend to apply for settled status later, you can spend up to two consecutive years outside of the UK before you lose your pre-settled status.
A five-year ‘continuous’ period starts when you move to the UK. You can leave the country, but only for up to six months at a time in each 12-month period. These six months can be taken at once, or in several shorter breaks that add up to six months. Absences are not calculated by calendar year, so if you were absent in 2019, for example, and then again in 2020, they will be added up if they happened within the same 12-month period. A new year does not reset the counter!
The Home Office provides a list of acceptable ‘important reasons’ for longer absences of up to one year. This includes things like studying overseas, being pregnant, ill, or unable to return due to travel restrictions. On 10th June, the Home Office confirmed that Covid-19 related absences also count as an ‘important’ reason. According to this revised guidance, your ‘continuity of residence’ won't be broken if you were:
You may still qualify for Settled Status if you can prove that one of these absences was because of Covid. Up to six months of your second absence will count towards your continuous qualifying period, but it will then be paused until you return to the UK, at which point it will resume.
Be as prepared as you can. Keep good records to show why you had to travel or why you couldn’t return sooner. For example: emails from your university, work, family or doctors that show why you had to travel, and any medical records or emails from airline companies to demonstrate why you couldn't return. Then seek advice from an OISC accredited adviser or solicitor. The Home Office makes it clear that applications for settled status are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. It is important to get the right advice for your case. See this list of evidence you can provide to prove a Covid-related absence
Yes, you can, under some conditions. If you got your own status under EUSS, close family members can join you in the UK (see Home Office guidance p 22). This includes your:
Yes, but the conditions are restrictive. You will need to prove that you have been in a relationship for at least two years, that your relationship started before 31 December 2020, and it is still ongoing (see Home Office guidance p 117). One way to prove it is with a document confirming this relationship exists in EU law (such as a residence card).
Alternatively, you will have to gather an evidence base. This can include: joint bank statements, utility bills, or a tenancy agreement in joint names. There are other serious grounds that could be considered even if you have not lived together for two years. For example, if you had a child together on or before 31st December 2020 and can evidence this with a birth certificate or custody agreement.
If your family members are from the EU/EEA/Switzerland, they must apply to the EUSS as joining family members. The application is made online. They will only need their biometric passport/ID and evidence to prove their relationship and, if needed, dependency to you.
If your family members are non-EU nationals, they must apply for the EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit first, before they travel to the UK. They’ll need a valid passport and documents proving the relationship (e.g. a marriage certificate or birth certificate). The family permit will give them leave to enter the UK, as well as work and study for six months. Once they’re in the UK, they have three months or until the expiry of the family permit (whichever is earlier) to apply to the EUSS.
They will also need to sign up for a biometrics appointment via the Home Office’s partner, UKVCAS, to be issued a Biometric Residence Card (BRC). The BRC will arrive by post within 10 days of receipt of the ‘decision letter’ from the Home Office. If their details change (for example, they changed their address), they can call the EU Settlement Resolution Centre. BRCs are not issued to EEA nationals.
Family members should make their EUSS application within 90 days of joining you in the UK. If they've missed that deadline, they can still apply. But they will have to include a cover letter showing that they had reasonable grounds for the delay (such as illness or digital illiteracy).
For applications made after 30 June 2021, parents and grandparents will need to show evidence of financial, medical or other dependency. You must also show that the relationship between applicant and sponsor started no later than 31 December 2020.
Yes. Unless children have British citizenship, they will need settled or pre-settled status to join you or to continue living in the UK. Children are considered to be any child of an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen under the age of 21. Older children of age 21 and over can also apply, if they can prove that they are financially or medically dependent on their parent/s, and on staying with them in the UK.
Children can apply individually. Or, as a parent or guardian, you can link their application to yours. You don’t need to wait for a decision from the Home Office. You just need your Unique Application Number and an email address. You will also need proof of your relationship to the child via a birth certificate and, if you have pre-settled status, proof of your child’s residence in the UK. This could be a letter from their school or GP.
With a linked application, your child will receive the same status as yourself, regardless of the child’s length or residence in the UK.
Apply anyway. You can do so via a paper application (available for download online). You will just need to include a cover letter to explain why the child does not have an ID, and demonstrate that you have attempted to obtain one. This could be a letter, email or a screenshot from your consulate, showing that you were unable to book an appointment.
There are two different Home Office application routes for children joining you in the UK.
For children joining under the family members route, you should apply for pre-settled status for them. The second option is for the child to apply for an EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit while they are still abroad, then make the EUSS application once they are in the UK, within the 90 day window.
Being born in the UK does not automatically make a child a British citizen. Children acquire British citizenship in a more limited set of circumstances, depending on their parents' status. In summary, the children of EU/EEA/Swiss citizens may be British if at least one parent held British citizenship, or was settled in the UK at the time of their birth. Children born from 01 July 2021 whose parents subsequently become settled under the EUSS will become automatically British at the point that the parent becomes settled.
If you aren’t sure, check and get advice from an OISC-accredited adviser.
Free movement with the European Union (EU) ended on 31 December 2020 and there are now new arrangements for EU citizens who have not been to the UK before (or visited briefly in the past, but who are not eligible for an EUSS status).
If you just wish to visit from 1st Jan 2021 you can do so for up to 90 days without a visa as a tourist/visitor, but you will not have the right to work.
If you are looking to come to the UK to work and live, you need to apply under the new immigration system. Employers will need a sponsor licence to employ someone from outside the UK. This includes citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland who arrived in the UK after 31 December 2020. Always clarify with a potential employer how they will sponsor you as a worker.
If you previously lived in the UK for five years and have not been absent for more than five years in a row you can claim settled status under ‘historic residence’.
For more information: https://www.gov.uk/uk-visa-sponsorship-employers
The most frequent reason for refusal is eligibility, which includes things like not submitting enough evidence of your time in the UK. If that is your case, you can:
Your decision letter will specify whether you can request an administrative review, make an appeal, or both. If you are given a choice, administrative reviews tend to be quicker, less costly, and less adversarial than the appeal process. We recommend that you find a suitably qualified immigration adviser or solicitor to support you in understanding your options.
You can find a list of all Home Office accredited immigration advisers, including our team, online. It's important to understand if your application is ‘simple’, or ‘complex’, and to get a suitably qualified adviser. If your application is simple, any adviser who holds OISC Level 1 should be qualified to help. For complex cases, speak to an adviser with OISC Level 2 or above.
An application is considered simple and within the remit of OISC Level 1 advisers, if it is for an EEA national, or anyone with a permanent residence document or Indefinite Leave to Remain. Read the guidance here.
An application will require an adviser qualified above Level 1 if it refers to someone who entered illegally, who overstayed a visa, where durable partners and other ‘dependent relatives’ do not have the necessary documentation, where you are unable to prove required documentation (for example, you don’t have a valid identity and nationality document), or where a non-EEA applicant does not have evidence relating to their EEA family member. Read the guidance here.
For complex cases, you can contact our friends at Settled, as well as immigration solicitors at Seraphus and Here for Good.
We can help with applications for settled or pre-settled status under the EUSS scheme when there are no ‘complex’ issues; where you meet the qualifying criteria, have supporting evidence and no criminal history. We are also able to advise on family permits and applications via the ‘joining family members’ route where the relationship between applicant and sponsor is a direct one (i.e. a child under 21, a dependent parent or a spouse). If your case exceeds our limit, we will do our best to refer you to a suitably qualified adviser or solicitor.
Applying for the EUSS
EUSS and absence
EUSS for family members
EUSS for children
Late applications to the EUSS