EU

Change to the continuous residence requirement for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme

14th July 2025 By Katie Dilger

A welcome change is being introduced to the continuous residence requirement for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. The change takes effect on 16 July 2025.

The EU Settlement Scheme allows qualifying EEA nationals and their family members to continue living in the United Kingdom post-Brexit. Broadly, under the Scheme individuals who have completed a continuous period of five years of residence are granted settled status (indefinite leave). Those with a shorter period of continuous residence are granted pre-settled status (limited leave).

Under the rules in place since the Scheme’s inception, continuous residence is broken if a person’s absences exceed six months in any rolling 12-month period. Absences longer than six months within a 12-month period are disregarded only in very limited circumstances.

As the Home Office has recognised [1], this strict definition of continuous residence has resulted in numerous EU citizens and their family members inadvertently breaking their continuous residence in the United Kingdom.

From 16 July 2025, the continuous residence requirement will therefore include a concession for those who have exceeded the current absence limit. Going forward, continuous residence will not be broken by absences of up to 30 months (2.5 years) in total within the five years prior to the date of the application.

As a result of these changes, many EEA nationals and their family members who were otherwise ineligible may find themselves able to meet the rules for settled status.

If you would like further advice on how the changes to the continuous residence requirement will affect you, or you wish to make an application for settled status, please feel free to contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com to arrange a consultation with one of our team.

References

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-/e-immigration-rules-hc-836-24-june-2025/explanatory-memorandum-to-the-statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-836-24-june-2025-accessible

The EU Settlement Scheme – Late applications and Administrative Review

28th September 2023 By Caroline Asken

There have been recently announced changes to the Immigration Rules relating to the EU Settlement Scheme and specifically in relation to late applications and the right to administrative review.

Late Applications for EEA nationals in the UK

EEA nationals in the UK prior to 31 December 2020 had to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue their legal residence. The deadline for most people to make an application to the EU Settlement Scheme was 30 June 2021. If an application was made after this date, it was considered to be a late application.

Generally, the Home Office took a very lenient approach when assessing the reasons for a late application and granted the vast majority of applications. At this time, the provided reasons for delay for the application were evaluated under the eligibility requirement which meant that an applicant would have a right of appeal or could apply for an administrative review if the application was refused.

The Home Office EU Settlement Scheme caseworker guidance has been updated and makes the Home Office’s approach to late applications far more restrictive. Since 9 August 2023, the requirement for applications to be made by the required date, unless there were reasonable grounds for delay, is now a so called validity requirement. If the Home Office do not consider that the applicant has provided reasonable grounds for their delayed application, their application will be considered not to be valid and the application will be rejected rather than refused meaning there is no way of challenging the decision. Furthermore, the applicant will not receive a Certificate of Application which is the document which allows them to show they are legally in the United Kingdom and entitled to work.

Applicants must therefore ensure that they are preparing well-reasoned and verifiably evidenced applications in line with this new guidance to ensure that they make an application that is deemed valid.

For applications made on or after 9 August 2023, guidance suggests that:

if no information is given as to why there has been a delay, or the information that is given does not constitute reasonable grounds in line with the guidance, it can be immediately rejected.
if information is given which does seem to constitute reasonable grounds, but no or insufficient evidence is provided, a caseworker should write to the applicant and give them 14 days to provide that evidence.
if a caseworker has doubts about the authenticity of evidence, they can reject the application immediately.

The applicant must prove using objectively verifiable evidence that there are reasonable grounds for their application being submitted late. The updated guidance gives some examples of reasonable grounds, but they are extremely limited and it is clear that the Home Office will be taking a restrictive approach as to what it deems reasonable.

Challenging a decision

The Home Office has also announced changes to the Immigration Rules which will remove the right of administrative review for refused EU Settlement Scheme applications where decisions were made on or after 5 October 2023. This means that even if an applicant made an application before 5 October 2023, if the caseworker decides to refuse an application on or after 5 October 2023, the applicant will not have the right of administrative review. However, there will still be a right of appeal and it is important if an application is refused that an applicant who wants to challenge the decision moves swiftly to lodge an appeal before the deadline.

How can we help?

Individuals can still make applications to the EU Settlement Scheme. If you would like to discuss whether you are eligible to apply or if you need assistance with making an application to the EU Settlement Scheme, please do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@gryklaw.com or on 020 7401 6887.

The EU Settlement Scheme – where are we now?

10th July 2023 By Alison Hunter

As the EU Settlement Scheme approaches five years date its start date, it is an interesting point to take stock of what has happened and what is currently happening.

As of 31 March 2023, the EU Settlement Scheme had received 7.2 million applications, of which roughly 50% were granted settled status and just under 40% have been granted pre-settled status. The balance were refused, withdrawn, void or invalid applications.

For those who were granted pre-settled status early on in the process, and the first of those would have been in August 2018, their five years of this status will shortly be coming to an end. Had it not been for the judicial review brought by the IMA, to remain legally in the United Kingdom, they would now have had to apply for settled status. As we know from this case (which you can read more about on our previous blog), the Home Office has conceded that applicants with pre-settled status do not need to apply for settled status. However, as of yet, they have not provided any guidance or any indication of what they intend to do with people in this situation. It is therefore difficult to assess how easily these people are going to be able to prove specific rights that they have, such as the right to work or right to benefits or how they will show a landlord that they are legally residing in the United Kingdom if they do not apply for settled status. Our current advice therefore remains that people should apply for settled status before their pre settled status expires. We know that this will give our clients the ability to prove their immigration status. Obtaining settled status is also still going to be essential if somebody wants to naturalise to become a British citizen in the future.

One of the other difficulties that we are aware are the significant delays in administrative reviews. An administrative review is a way of challenging an initial decision made by the Home Office. Unfortunately, these are currently outstanding at the Home Office for roughly a year, causing clients to be left in limbo without knowing whether or not they will be able to gain status in the United Kingdom. Many clients may want to look at a different way of resolving their immigration issue such as reapplying and we can discuss that option with you if you find yourself in this situation.

Although the Home Office initially stated that the EU Settlement Scheme was to close on
30 June 2021 for new applicants, they have since then been accepting late applications. In general, the Home Office have taken a very reasonable view of how to deal with these cases and have not forced clients to provide detailed reasons as to why the application is late. However, we are finding that clients, for example who are not living in the United Kingdom but have a historical five-year period of residing here and have returned within five years of leaving the United Kingdom, are routinely having their applications refused. Our input has been used successfully to have such cases overturned.

If you are affected by any of the issues addressed above or anything else in relation to the EU Settlement Scheme and would like expert legal advice, please do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@gryklaw.com or on 020 7401 6887.

High Court Rules That Potential Loss of Rights For Those With Pre-Settled Status Under EUSS Is Unlawful

26th January 2023 By Beatrice Windsor

On 20 December 2022, in the case Independent Monitoring Authority v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the High Court found that the government’s use of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) was unlawful.

The background

Following Brexit, the Withdrawal Agreement was agreed by both the UK and the EU, which addresses various terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union. New laws were contained in the Withdrawal Agreement such as Part 2 of the Agreement which was drawn up to protect the rights of millions of EEA citizens (people from EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) living in the UK. The laws at Part 2 give these EEA nationals the right to continue to live, rent, work, study, and access state services in the UK, as they had been able to pre-Brexit.

Before Brexit, it was not necessary for EEA nationals to apply for any sort of immigration status in the UK to be able to access these rights. But Brexit threw up the question of how these EEA nationals’ immigration status would be defined once the UK left the EU. The UK Home Office created the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to address this question and to put into action the UK’s obligation to protect the rights set out at Part 2 of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The EUSS allowed EEA nationals who had lived in the UK for five years before 31 December 2020 to obtain settled status. Settled status means that you can stay in the UK indefinitely, and is a secure and permanent immigration status. Those who had been here for less than five years on 31 December 2020 could get pre-settled status. Those with pre-settled status were granted temporary status or leave to remain, and this expires after five years.

Before the end of their five-year period of leave, those with pre-settled status would then have to submit another application for settled status. However, it was unclear what would happen to those who did not apply for settled status or who did not apply in time. It would appear that they would become overstayers and lose the rights they previously held. It was reported by the 3million that thousands of people with pre-settled status could lose their rights to live, work, study, and access state support in the UK, if they let their status expire. There was also the risk of detention or deportation.

The case

The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) is a body that was set up as part of the Withdrawal Agreement to protect the rights of the EU citizens who fall into its scope. The IMA issued the judicial review claim in the High Court to question whether this loss of rights for those with pre-settled status is what had actually been agreed by the UK and the EU in the Withdrawal Agreement.

The UK argued that the EU had agreed to this. However, the IMA successfully argued that it was unlawful for the UK to use the EUSS to create a situation where those with pre-settled status who did not apply for settled status would lose the rights conferred on them by the Withdrawal Agreement.

Mr Justice Lane determined several key points:

While the UK can put in place a system whereby people must apply for status by a certain deadline, the rights associated with this status once granted can only be lost in the circumstances that are set out in the Withdrawal Agreement – and expiry of status is not one of them.
Recipients of one type of status ie ‘pre-settled or ‘settled’ cannot be forced by the UK to pursue another. If this were a requirement, then it would be set out in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Therefore, those with pre-settled status should not lose their rights if they do not make a second application when their leave expires.
The right of permanent residence accrues automatically once the conditions for obtaining the right have been fulfilled, and it is unlawful for the UK Home Office to withdraw these rights based on the basis that to a person has not applied for settled status.

What now?

The UK Home Office has been granted permission to appeal this judgment. Until the judgment from this appeal is handed down and confirmed, those with pre-settled status should continue to apply for settled status before their leave expires.

If you require advice in relation to the above, we have particular expertise with EUSS applications, and would be happy to help. Please contact us on 020 7401 6887 or by email at contact@gryklaw.com.

Late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme

30th September 2021 By wesleygryk

If you’re from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you and your family might have needed to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living in the UK. This includes people who hold a permanent residence document or an EEA biometric residence card.

The deadline for applying to the EU Settlement Scheme, for most people, was 30 June 2021. If you have missed this deadline, you can still make an application.

You must either:

meet one of the criteria for a later deadline to apply
have ‘reasonable grounds’ for not applying by 30 June 2021

The scheme provides the following not complete list of possible reasonable grounds for not applying by the deadline:

you’re a child, or applying for your child, and you did not know you needed to apply
your parent, guardian or local authority did not apply for you when you were a child
you have, or had, a medical condition which prevented you from applying
you lacked the physical or mental capacity to apply
you have care or support needs, or those caring for you were unaware of the deadline
you’ve been the victim of modern slavery
you’ve been in an abusive or controlling relationship
you did not have internet access, or access to relevant documents
you came to the UK on a work or study visa and became eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme while you were here, but did not know you could apply
you already have indefinite leave to enter or remain, and you did not know you could apply to the scheme
you had permanent residence status or a residence document that stopped being valid after 30 June 2021, and you did not know you needed to apply to the scheme
you had difficulty accessing support to apply because of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions
another compelling practical or compassionate reason prevented you applying

The caseworker guidance suggests that the Home Office will be taking a fairly flexible approach to late applications, at least initially, stating:

For the time being, you will give applicants the benefit of any doubt in considering whether, in light of information provided with the application, there are reasonable grounds for their failure to meet the deadline applicable to them under the EU Settlement Scheme, unless this would not be reasonable in light of the particular circumstances of the case.

The best advice is to apply as quickly as possible, with evidence as to why the application is late. The evidence could, for example, include proof of a medical reason why the application has been delayed.

For more information on deadlines please see: