Immigration

(asked on 21st September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to remind people with pre-settled status to switch to settled status when necessary to do so.


Answered by
Kevin Foster Portrait
Kevin Foster
This question was answered on 29th September 2021

Since the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) opened in March 2019, the Home Office has undertaken a broad range of communications and stakeholder engagement activity to encourage EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to apply for status under the EUSS. Extensive, and regularly updated information, factsheets and leaflets on the EUSS (including pre-settled to settled status conversion) have also been made available on GOV.UK. Stakeholders, including the Grant Funded Network of 72 organisations, have also been provided with regular updates, including on considerations for pre-settled status holders.

As of 30 June 2021, the Home Office had granted 206,490 applications for settled status from pre-settled status holders.

The Home Office also continues to communicate with EUSS status holders with information relevant to their status, including pre-settled to settled status applications. This currently includes an email exercise to all EUSS status holders, being sent throughout late September to October 2021 with reminders on key information, including pre-settled to settled status conversion.

When a person is granted pre-settled status, they also receive notification of what pre-settled status means, including the option to apply for settled status as soon as they qualify for it. This will generally be once they have completed five years’ continuous residence in the UK. Pre-settled status holders’ online UK Visas and Immigration account also provides key information on what a status holder can do in the UK, explains they can apply for settled status once they have lived continuously in the UK for five years and provides a link to GOV.UK with further information on how to do so.

The Home Office intends to provide individual pre-settled status holders with a timely reminder to apply for settled status before their pre-settled status expires. We will set out the arrangements for this in due course.

Reticulating Splines