02/03/2024 at 22:00
The number of applications from Hungarians as of December 31 exceeded 183,000.
Great Britain left the European Union on January 31, 2020. However, EU citizens who have been legally settled in Great Britain until the end of 2020, the 11-month transition period that began after the end of Britain's membership of the European Union (Brexit), can continue to Residence in the country, while retaining all their acquired rights. They must apply for a residence permit – officially known as EU settlement status.
The same applies to citizens of the European Union, the wider European Economic Area (EEA) of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland living in Great Britain.
In principle, the deadline for applications ended on 30 June 2021. However, the British government continues to encourage those eligible to submit their applications anyway, because the authorities will accept and evaluate settlement applications that meet the criteria despite the deadline.
According to the new summary provided by the British Home Office on Thursday, 7,004,290 settlement applications had been received by citizens of the 27 EU member states living in Great Britain as of December 31.
Since the beginning of the programme, 72,840 citizens of EEA countries and Switzerland, and 644,800 citizens of non-EEA countries and Switzerland who have the right to settle in Great Britain have applied.
The latter category primarily includes family members of EEA nationals already living in Great Britain.
According to the Ministry of Interior, a total of more than 7.7 million applications actually came from 6.2 million applicants, many of whom applied repeatedly.
Among them, 3.7 million people have already obtained stable legal status, and 2 million people have previously obtained stable legal status.
The latter can be obtained by eligible persons who have not yet lived in Great Britain for five years at the time of application. However, they can also wait until the end of the five years, and in the period that has passed until then, they will also be fully entitled to their acquired rights.
The Home Office has already announced that it will take steps to ensure, in as many cases as possible, that reclassification of temporary settled status to permanent residence permit becomes automatic for those who are entitled to it.
According to quarterly statistics presented by the ministry on Thursday, 183,150 Hungarian citizens had applied for a permanent residence permit in Great Britain as of December 31.
Topping the list are Romanians, who submitted 1,655,620 settlement applications, followed by Poles, of whom 1,220,820 had applied for settled status in Great Britain by the end of December.
