Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the eligibility criteria are for existing family members when applying for settled status after 31 December 2020 but before 29 March 2022.

The Government’s priority remains to leave the European Union with a deal.

In the event that we leave the EU without a deal, the EU Settlement Scheme will continue to operate for EU citizens resident here by exit. They would be able to be joined in the UK under the scheme, by 29 March 2022, by existing close family members (spouses, partners, children, parents and grandparents), where the relationship existed by exit (or where a child was born overseas after this date) and continued to exist when the family member applied.

Details of the policy on citizens’ rights in a no deal Brexit were published on 6 December 2018 and are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policy-paper-on-citizens-rights-in-the-event-of-a-no-deal-brexit.

Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 170, which would implement the relevant changes to the EU Settlement Scheme in the event of a no deal Brexit, was laid before Parliament on 24 October 2019 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-170-24-october-2019.