Brexit news: £200 to secure UK residence for EU families

European Union citizens living in Britain will pay less than £200 for a family of four to have the right to stay permanently after Brexit, under Home Office plans unveiled today.

Under the proposals, there will be a fee of £32.50 for every child and a £65 charge for each European adult seeking “settled status” in this country. The total charge of £195 for a family of four is less than the equivalent cost of £249 for two child and two adult British passports applied for online. Slightly higher fees are levied for paper form applications.

Applicants will also have to prove their identity — usually by using an app to scan their passport or identity card — and declare that they have been living in the UK for five years and have no serious criminal convictions.

The Government will use tax and benefit records to carry out residence checks, rather than requiring EU citizens to provide documents themselves, meaning most will have their status confirmed automatically.

Staff administering the scheme, which will be open to the three million EU citizens living here and other Europeans who come here before the end of 2020, will also be told to exercise discretion in favour of applicants if simple errors are made in the process. Announcing the scheme today in an open letter to EU citizens living in Britain, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the application process “is designed to be simple” and that he took “immense pride” that “so many” Europeans had made a home in Britain and that “safeguarding the rights of EU citizens in the UK has always been our first priority”.

Today’s blueprint follows persistent worries among EU citizens living in Britain about their status after Brexit.

To qualify, each applicant will need to have been living in this country for five years. Those who have been here for shorter periods will be able to obtain “pre-settled” status, which can be upgraded to full permanent residence rights if they continue to live here and reach the five-year qualifying period.

Family members from countries outside the EU will also be able to qualify, as will those who can show that they are “durable partners” of European citizens who have their own right to live here.

The application process will be phased in later this year and be fully operational by next March. The deadline for applications will be June 2021.