Aug 2nd, 2018
3 mins
Settlement Scheme for EU Nationals
By 30 June 2021, each EU national residing in the UK will need to have applied for settled or pre-settled status to be able to continue to live and work in the UK. This applies to people who may have resided in the UK for many years and those arriving up to the end of the grace period -31 December 2020.
Currently employers check and retain copies of passports/ ID cards of EU nationals to establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty for illegal working. Your organisation should have already done this for those currently working for you and this will be accepted until the end of 2020. However, in order to prepare for the 30 June 2021 deadline, employers will need to have checked that their existing employees have acquired either settled or pre-settled status. From 30 June 2021, any new employees will have to provide this evidence of status.
Those who have resided in the UK for at least five years will be eligible for settled status. Those who have not, will be granted pre-settled status taking them up to the 5 years required to obtain settled status. The UKVI states that the process will be streamlined.
To avoid problems we are encouraging our clients to start talking to their EU nationals now about the options available.
