In an attempt to provide guidelines for EU nationals living and working in the UK, the government has announced that under a no-deal Brexit, EU nationals arriving in the UK after 29 March would have to apply for leave to remain in order to stay more than three months.
The government would introduce an interim arrangement that would allow European Economic Area (EEA) citizens and their families to come to the UK to visit, work or study for three months, after which they would need to apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain.
This would give them a further three years, after which they would need to apply again under the skills-based immigration system that the government hopes to have in place by 2021.
People Management contacted Migrate for their comments:
Karen Kaur, Migrate’s senior immigration consultant said an interim period would prevent a “complete shutdown” on recruiting from the EU in the event of ‘no-deal’, but it would be a “temporary reprieve”.
There would be more uncertainty after the three years as it is still unclear whether EU nationals with temporary reprieve will meet the new migration rules.
“Yes they’re still going to be able to stay for up to three years, but after that they’ll be expected to leave again if they don’t meet the minimum threshold,” she said, adding that medium and highly skilled workers were likely to meet the threshold, but lower-skilled workers would be most affected.
Migrate UK advises businesses that know they are recruiting EU nationals to “get them into the country before 29 March” and ensure they are registered under the government’s EU Settlement Scheme to avoid the uncertainty. “At the moment we know that a pre-settled or settled application is not costing anything and the decision process is quite swift,” she said.
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