Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how continuous residence in paragraph 6 of his Department's policy paper entitled Safeguarding the position of EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU, published on 26 June 2017, is defined.

Any EU citizen in the UK before the specified date with five years’ continuous residence will be able to apply for UK settled status. Other EU citizens who arrive before the specified date will be able to stay until they have the five years’ residence to apply for UK settled status.

Five years’ continuous residence is the period in EU law required, in most cases, for acquiring permanent residence status, and also under UK law for non-EEA nationals acquiring indefinite leave to remain.

It is considered across the immigration system to be the period of time when an individual is fully integrated, and has contributed enough to the UK economy and society for restrictions on their immigration status to be lifted and for them to be able to settle here permanently.