Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Disgusted at how the UK government will charge EU nationals £65 and no iPhone app

779 replies

Rosepetalgeranium · 29/12/2018 08:30

Even if someone has been here working hard and paying tax for decades they will have to pay £65 to stay and there's only an android app to apply not even an iPhone app!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Nenic · 29/12/2018 09:53

£65 is a bargain.

Childrenofthesun · 29/12/2018 09:54

Iamalways But you knew that before you married him. You didn't bring him here then get asked to stump up a fee decades later. Not a comparable situation.

hardworkharriet · 29/12/2018 09:55

‘IAmAlwaysLikeThis’

Suppose your husband had been here 60 years, worked and settled for all that time. Then informed he needed to register as he is ‘foreign’ and not really wanted. Still think it’s a great fucking deal?

OliviaStabler · 29/12/2018 09:55

@planespotting

You are assuming that the price rises you experienced are all about some kind of 'profit'. The money raised goes somewhere to pay for something so again, what do you want to have cut to fund this process?

swingofthings · 29/12/2018 09:55

Exactly @planspotting
I almost applied 10 years ago. I was waiting to raise the £450. It wasn't for me I was doing it but so that my kids (born in this country to a British father, not even speaking my language) could have British nationality.

As a single mum of two kids under 4, working FT and paying much taxes when I could have just quite, go on IS and got my mortgage paid for by the government, this was a lot of money to raise then. Washing machine broke and nationality stop being a priority.

Now it's over £2k, when the cost of processing application will hardly have gone up, so I agree, how about using this for the little processing cost getting this right to remain will cost the government.

I started the process to register as was able to as part of the pilot. I refuse to hand in £65. I'll wait until I have no other choice and even then, it could be the trigger to decide its time to retire back home. My husband, also a high tax payer, will be more than happy to follow me as ironically, between the two of us, he is the one who feels the least British the way things have gone.

planespotting · 29/12/2018 09:55

@IAmAlwaysLike my husband didn't bring me here.
I had the right to live and work here and then I met him and things were changed.

I am assuming than when you met your now husband you knew he did not have the right to automatically be here.

I paid good money and took a long time to get my VISA for the USA.

It is a complete different scenario so don't compare.

Or didn't you and your DH know his rights? I knew mine

Original poster
Rosepetalgeranium · 29/12/2018 09:56

This isn't the same as choosing to go on holiday!

This £65 will be the thin end of the wedge of these poor hard working people who will be used as tools by the government and it makes me physically sick.

OP posts:
AlexaShutUp · 29/12/2018 09:56

Lndnmummy, I'm so sorry that this whole shitstorm has made you feel unwelcome in the country that has been your home for so many years. If it's any comfort at all, there are many of us who are outraged by what is happening.

I think those who are comparing these fees to the costs of visas/work permits in other countries are missing the point. I too have lived abroad and paid hefty visa application fees, and my DH from a non-EU country also paid fees for his UK visa and subsequently for UK citizenship. However, this is not about an anticipated process for people who are moving between countries or changing status. This is about people who have legally lived and worked here for years, contributing to our society, suddenly being asked to pay for the privilege of staying in their own homes. Of course it feels like a slap in the face.

VioletCharlotte · 29/12/2018 09:56

It's disgusting. I work for the NHS and my trust (like most) is paying the fee for our staff who are EU nationals. We're doing this as nursing staff are in desperate short supply and we need them to stay.

So much for Brexit meaning more money for the NHS Hmm

planespotting · 29/12/2018 09:57

@OliviaStabler The money raised goes somewhere to pay for something so again, what do you want to have cut to fund this process? there is no way they can justify a higher than 150% rise from one financial year to the next

planespotting · 29/12/2018 09:59

@swingofthings well some people seem to think that it is a reasonable price raise, @OliviaStabler please have a look

IAmAlwaysLikeThis · 29/12/2018 10:00

plane um yeah we knew our rights, thanks.

So because my husband happens to be from another country, we should pay thousands of pounds in pointless fees?

To live in his country, we pay 30 pounds every three years for my visa and maybe 50 the first year. So paying fucking thousands is a bit of a kick in the face.

DangermousesSidekick · 29/12/2018 10:00

It's perfectly possible for both lines of thinking about migrants to be true at the same time: both the line about 'migrants contribute more to the economy than British born' and 'migrants are a problem for working British people'. The point is that migrants contribute to 'the economy' (whatever that means, you might as well say 'the system') because they're bringing skills that someone else has paid to train them in. British born citizens have to be brought up and trained here. Therefore migrants are indeed competing on unequal terms (favourable) for our own government's attention.

If you view 'the economy' instead as the behaviours and activities required for people to put food in their mouths, then migrants then become a problem.

As far as the op is concerned, I am sympathetic. I voted remain and don't want to leave the EU. But life has changed if we do. People will need to move back to their respective countries of origin, however ridiculous that sounds after 30 years, or obtain local citizenship. £65 does not sound like a large fee, if that's all it is.

swingofthings · 29/12/2018 10:01

@winsinbin, how can you compare contributing to an economy as a tourist to contributing as a resident more than the average resident of this country. This is even more insulting. How would you feel if after spending 3 months in India, you were told you had to pay £65 for the privilege of coming back to the UK, just because some new political law had been passed whilst you were away that decide that those who'd contributed to another economy for more than 2 months should pay to have the privilege to come back to their country of residence?

planespotting · 29/12/2018 10:04

So because my husband happens to be from another country, we should pay thousands of pounds in pointless fees?
I can't comment on that, I don't know how much fees are and I am not in your situation

I am just saying these are 2 different scenarios, we came here as EU citizens therefore had no need to pay a penny

I have spent £2000 in my citizenships myself and I am sure that yes! It is well overpriced!!

But the sentiment is completely different, our rights have been changed afterwards

swingofthings · 29/12/2018 10:04

To bring my husband here, I had to live without him for six months while I worked to prove I could support him and we had to pay over 5000 pounds in visa fees.
Another one who doesn't get it. You knew that were the requirements and chose to sign up to them. What if after telling you that you would be separated for 6 months only, the rules were changed and you were told it was now 12 months. Would you have accepted it on the basis that it wasn't so bad, it could have been 24 months after all?

Togaandsandals · 29/12/2018 10:05

Vote Leave promised there would be no change for EU citizens. They lied. Also settled status does not give you the same rights as currently. You lose the settled status if you are out of the country for five years so I imagine most would have to consider to applying for British citizenship if they want to feel more secure. That now costs a lot and some countries do not let you have dual citizenship so you could lose your home country’s citizenship. Most EU countries do allow dual citizenship but that could change.

I also can not forget that this vote has denied the freeedom to live, study and work in the EU for all UK citizens. Yes, you need to apply for work visas in non EU countries, but they are not easy to get and you usually need a skill or a lot of money. So the low skilled and low income will lose out the most at no longer being able to live elsewhere in the UK.

Disgusted at how the UK government will charge EU nationals £65 and no iPhone app
Togaandsandals · 29/12/2018 10:06

Typo above, live elsewhere in the EU.

swingofthings · 29/12/2018 10:07

£65 is a bargain
A bargain for whom? The NHS is at the brink of collapse because of lack of nurses and midwives, many who came from the EU. Ironically, a number of NHS trusts decided to pay the £65 fees for workers affected... so paid by tax payers, ie. you !

Iliketeaagain · 29/12/2018 10:07

It is disgusting.
My DH is an EU national and we recently spent upwards of £2000 for British citizenship for him as we are worried what will happen.
He's been here for 20 years and probably paid more tax than my salary each year and now it's being implied that he's not welcome.
We decided that he should apply for citizenship due to concerns about access to NHS service, state pension etc and the concern that in the future he could end up "deported" because I don't earn enough for a spousal visa.

The only positive of him being an Eu citizen is that my DC can and do have dual citizenship so they will have the opportunities I had to study and travel freely in the EU.

I have friend and family who voted to leave, much based on immigration. When I pointed out that my husband is an immigrant, they said they didn't mean "him" as they don't see him like that.

It's disgusting and constant changing the goal posts that's the problem.

LittleLionMansMummy · 29/12/2018 10:07

I agree op and with others who have said that this is not remotely comparable to choosing to live elsewhere and choosing to pay the costs of doing so. Those saying "It's just £65" are missing the point by a spectacular margin. It's the principle of having to pay for something they had absolutely no control over. How about we raise taxes for those who voted Leave, to cover the mounting costs of Brexit?

swingofthings · 29/12/2018 10:10

Lndnmummy, I'm so sorry that this whole shitstorm has made you feel unwelcome in the country that has been your home for so many years. If it's any comfort at all, there are many of us who are outraged by what is happening
Absolutely and this is what I have experienced. My colleagues are much more incensed by Brexit than I am and they're the one who are vocal about it, not me. Being asked to pay £65 is the first time since I've arrived here 25 years ago that I've felt unwelcome.

planespotting · 29/12/2018 10:10

@Togaandsandals I get so many people now giving me condescending pity eyes with "what will happen to you now" (Leavers this is)
I smile and nod.

Both DC and I have double citizenship now, British and EU, so we will be fine and my DC can live and study anywhere in the EU if he wishes, which will be great as university fees are so expensive here. Oh! And he is also bilingual Wink

A shame for the future generations

coldheartwarmhands · 29/12/2018 10:10

It's the principle of having to pay for something they had absolutely no control over.

When choosing to move to the UK, presumably, all EU migrants knew that they wouldn't have the same democratic rights here as they do in their own country?
The possibility that the "rules might change" could have been anticipated.

PlatypusPie · 29/12/2018 10:11

Why doyou need an app? Doesn't the application website work on your iPhone ?

Because the app reads the chip from the passport ( can’t do that from a website) and only Apple apps work on Apple phones so a specifically designed and approved version of the app would be needed. I’ve worked on integrating apps into wider functionality and developing Android apps are a walk in the park compared to Apple - the approval level for security and functionality is much more rigorous for Apple.