Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether former higher education students who are EU nationals who apply for permanent residence in the UK are required to have held comprehensive private health insurance during the time during which they were in higher education; and if so, whether students from EU countries are notified of the existence of such a requirement when, or before, they begin their courses of study.

EU citizens and their family members have the right to enter, live and acquire permanent residence in other Member States when certain conditions are met, as set out in EU law. This includes a requirement to hold comprehensive sickness insurance where they have been exercising their Treaty rights as students and later rely on such periods to qualify for permanent residence.

Guidance on the conditions for exercising Treaty rights as a student has always been publicly available to EU nationals. This can currently be found from page 21 onwards of the guidance on ‘qualified persons’ available on the UKGOV website via the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/european-economic-area-nationals-qualified-persons

The guidance is also attached to this answer.