Thousands of EU children in UK risk becoming illegal immigrants on July 1 even if born in the country

Thousands of EU children in the UK may accidentally lose the right to live, study and, in the future, work in the country if they do not apply for their post-Brexit residence status by 30 June 2021.

Many parents are still not aware that their children need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, the new residence system that would safeguard their rights. When they do, many underestimate the procedure. Campaigners are also concerned about children in care being left out.

According to the 2017 Labour Force Survey, there are more than 900,000 children of non-Irish EU parents living in the UK. It is estimated that 80% (around 727,000) are EU citizens and 239,000 are born in the UK from EU parents. Some of the latter may have a right to UK citizenship, while others may not and therefore need to apply for ‘settled status’ to stay lawful.

The Settlement Scheme was created to continue residence rights of EU citizens after the UK exit from the EU. But eligible people have to apply for the new status, and the deadline is less than two months away. 

In December 2020, the Home Office had received 717,080 applications from citizens under the age of 18. Of those, 628,250 were concluded: 616,240 were granted pre-settled or settled status, and 12,010 were refused, withdrawn or considered void or invalid, according to the quarterly statistics released in February 2021.

This would mean some 100,000 children at least were missing from the scheme. The lack of a UK population register, however, makes it difficult to fully understand the gap.

Read the full article from: https://europestreet.news/thousands-of-eu-children-in-uk-risk-becoming-illegal-immigrants-on-july-1-even-if-born-in-the-country/

Brought to you by: https://ukimmigrationservice.net/