Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government's statement of 11 July 2016, The status of EU nationals in the UK, setting out the criteria under which EU nationals automatically have a permanent right to reside, whether EU nationals that (a) fulfilled those criteria on 23 June 2016, (b) fulfil those criteria on the date when Article 50 is triggered and (c) fulfil those criteria on the date when the UK leaves the EU will be required subsequently to register for documentation to confirm their resident status at those respective dates.

At present, the UK remains in the EU. This means that EEA and Swiss nationals in the UK, as well as UK nationals in other Member states, continue to have the same rights and status that they had before the referendum. Until the UK leaves the EU, an EU national who meets the conditions set out in regulation 15 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 automatically acquires a right of permanent residence. They may obtain confirmation of this status by applying for a Document Certifying Permanent Residence, however, such documentation is not mandatory.

The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn't be possible is if British citizens' rights in European Member states were not protected in return. Following the UK’s exit, we will decide for ourselves how we control immigration and we will be free to pass our own laws.

There are a number of options as to how EU migration might work once we have left. We are considering various options and it would be wrong to set out further positions at this stage.