To worry that benefits (WTC, Housing, CB, CT) will be stopped for EU UK residents

[feellikeahugefailure]

It's obvious that EU residents will be allowed to stay, but could they try to limit benefits for these people?

Without these it would be near impossible for many people to afford to have a family, myself included.

23 years ago.

We also have an entire -current - mechanism that handles immigration from outwith the EU.

Lurkinghusband, thanks for the insult. Funnily enough, when I read your comments, I don't exactly feel that I'm up against an intellectual titan either. In your example, then yes, in many countries that is exactly what happens. When I worked abroad, if the school had closed and there was no job for me, then I would have been asked to leave the country. No ifs, no buts. It was my responsibility to make sure I had enough money for the flight home, and I would have been responsible for sorting things out when I got back to Britain - why on earth would this have been the Dubai government's responsibility??. I wouldn't have gone to work abroad without preparing for this. Its called "personal responsibility". In my view, anyone should be able to come here and stay as long as they like. However, they shouldn't be allowed benefits, and should be made to take out insurance for their health costs. I didn't think it was unfair or racist when I was abroad, so why would it be unfair or racist if it happened in the UK. We have been "benefits Britain" for too long.

Italy did allow dual citizenship in the early 90s. I know because one of my old friends holds dual Italian and British citizenship and, on his 18th birthday back in 1994, he received a letter demanding he report for Italian national service.

(NCd)

My DF married my (English) DM in the 1960s and moved here, having 2 kids (both UK citizens). In what we (at the time) saw as a waste of time, he registered our births with the Italian Embassy - making us Italian and UK citizens. Luckily the Italian army was a bit sexist so national service wasn't a worry .

Anyway, returning to the thread, my DF was unable to apply for UK citizenship without giving up his Italian one. Obviously the ILR made it moot.

Just to throw another situation into the mix ... my DF never had a day off while he worked here - learning the language well enough to correct my teachers English (and Italian, and French and Spanish and German). My history teacher loved chatting to him, as he had grown up under Mussolini, and corrected some "facts" in our history books.

Sadly his working days in the UK came to an end when he was almost killed in a bank raid gone wrong - left him unable to work, just a burden to the state really.

Being a UK and Italian national, leaves me slightly ambivalent about Brexit.

Brexit isn't time travel. You can't just pretend its the early 90's and we can all go back to how things were then.

We also have an entire -current - mechanism that handles immigration from outwith the EU

And hows that working out for you? Especially since your border with France is about to move to Kent. Kent Jungle anyone?

pointy If you start such a petition (or get someone else to) do please post the link here.

Just for the record, you don't have to pay to have ILR stamped into new passports every 5 years. You simply keep the (old) passport with the stamp, and present it with your current passport when entering the UK. I have been doing this for over 10 years, and I travel ALOT. I checked it all out with the home office way back when, and they confirmed this is entirely acceptable.

Dacre I need to do a bit odd digging to see if there is one already. If not then I will start one.

I work with someone from an Eastern European country, they've been here for ten years, lone parent, one child, minimum wage part time job, entitled to housing benefit, working tax credits, child benefit, free healthcare/dental, pays no tax or national insurance, must be well over £100,000 in benefits by the time their child is 18. This is just one person.

Excellent pointy

Werkz

Paler im sorry to hear about your dad.

You simply keep the (old) passport with the stamp, and present it with your current passport when entering the UK.

My Australian colleagues apparently used to be allowed to do this, but were not allowed to do so from several years ago. Perhaps this was due to an issue specific to Australians though.

HelenaDove

Thank you

Looking back, there was some friction between my DM and DF over that registration. My DM was very home-counties "Britian is the Best" type of person. (Quite how she ended up going around Europe, hooking up with my DF and still married to this day is a mystery of love). However my DF was insistent on a few things. One of which was that we would one day be grateful for additional Italian citizenship. Another was that the British were nowhere near as special as they think they are. This last point was rather contentious, because he maintained there is nothing in the British that makes them any more resistant to extremism than any other country. It was something he laboured when my DM used to say "but that could never happen here."

I grew up having to put up with snarky remarks about my names, being picked on in class by the teachers, and blanked in the playground. Same experiences my DF had when he went to work. Which is why his best friends in England are Indian and Afro-Carribbean. They all had shit thrown at them in the 60s, so stuck together. It's upsetting that the last few weeks seem to have reactivated those views.

I like the sound of your dad

Just looked up ILR and it is a card now, not a stamp in a passport. So that should help a little. Still shockingly expensive though.

Just looked up ILR and it is a card now, not a stamp in a passport

But what does it mean ? Is a person with ILR going to be allowed access to the NHS ? The benefits system ? Will they get a pension ?

But what does it mean ? Is a person with ILR going to be allowed access to the NHS ? The benefits system ? Will they get a pension ?

Yes, yes and yes.

How do you KNOW that? You don't.

So - aside from voting (overrated anyway) what is the incentive for a person with ILR to gain citizenship ? The only thing that springs to mind is that a citizen can't be deported (not that our new Prime Minister hasn't tried). And that would only be of concern to a criminal anyway.

(I notice there's a perverse incentive for a putative criminal with ILR to apply for citizenship before committing their master heist)

It's UK immigration law!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indefinite_leave_to_remain#Public_funds

ILR gives you rights to pensions, NHS and the lot. But it does cost almost twice as much as citizenship. Would be worth it to me for keeping Dutch citizenship for me and DDs so they still have an EU passport.

I went from ILR to citizenship for personal reasons.

It cost over £2000 even though I'd lived here for 40 years by then and am married to a Brit.

The incredible cost is the reason why I think Dacre is right to suggest waiving this for people meeting criteria for exercising Treaty rights, or discounting it very heavily.

esornep I wouldn't expect a different rule for Australians, but you could be right. I'm from NZ and this definitely is still allowed as I've been in and out of the UK 4 times this year. But If ILR is now a card, then that will simplify things.

For me the only benefit to getting citizenship is the faster queue at the airport. Which has never been quite worth the £2000.