Immigration: EU Nationals

(asked on 2nd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the deadline for Surinder Singh applications to the EU Settlement Scheme beyond 29 March 2022.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 7th February 2022

In April 2019 the Government announced transitional arrangements for the family members of qualifying British citizens living in the EEA or Switzerland by 31 December 2020 to enable them to return to the UK under EU law terms. This means they have had nearly three years in which to decide whether to return to the UK on this basis.

Family members who apply by 29 March 2022 for an EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) family permit to return to the UK in order to apply to the EUSS will be considered to have reasonable grounds for applying to the EUSS in the UK after the deadline, provided they do so without delay. An application to the EUSS can also be made from outside the UK where the family member has previously returned here with the British citizen and is currently outside the UK within the absence periods permitted under the Scheme.

In the interests of fairness, it remains the Government’s approach to align under the family Immigration Rules the family reunion requirements for all British citizens, wherever they and their families reside.

Reticulating Splines