Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme who are third country dependents of EEA nationals are required to provide more extensive evidence than proof of their relationship with an EEA national residing in the UK.

Our aim is to process all applications to the EU Settlement Scheme as expeditiously as possible. Complete applications are usually processed in around five working days. More information about processing times for applications under the scheme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-application-processing-times/eu-settlement-scheme-pilot-current-expected-processing-times-for-applications.

Where a non-EEA national is applying as the family member of an EEA citizen and does not already hold a permanent residence document, they must provide evidence of the family relationship for the relevant period, and in some cases, evidence of their dependency on the EEA citizen during the relevant period. The non-EEA national applicant will also need to provide proof of the identity and nationality of the EEA citizen and evidence of that person’s residence or status in the UK. Such cases can therefore be more complex and take longer for caseworkers to process.