"Nobody necessarily stays anywhere forever"

[DorothyL]

Says Teresa May

Words cannot describe the RAGE I feel at this fucking government. My children would really quite like me to stay!!!!!!!!!!

Contrary to popular perception, obtaining UK citizenship, is rather expensive. I can easily imagine it's money that a lot of people might not have sitting around.

There's also the issue of not all countries accepting dual nationality, for some people accepting British citizenship means having to renounce their previous nationality.

"There's also the issue of not all countries accepting dual nationality, for some people accepting British citizenship means having to renounce their previous nationality"

Is this still happening? My DM is Italian and came over to the UK in 1960 She married my dad a few years later. She has two grown up children (one of which is me) and a grown up grandchild. She does not have British citezenship. I found this out when i was a teen in the late 80s/early 90s but after that didnt really discuss it with her until a few weeks before the referendum when she said she still couldnt vote, This is when she told me that she looked into getting British citezenship in the 1960s but was told she would have to give up her Italian passport to get a British one. So she didnt in case she ever needed to go back there which she did when each of her parents died. We also had 2 family holidays in Italy in 1977 and 1983. Neither me or my DB speak Italian. DM didnt bring us up as bilingual. Will she still have to give up her Italian passport if she goes for British citezenship. I dont actually know that she wants to but will she have to.

Shes 80 years old now and spent fifty years working in factories in the UK and only just retired last Christmas.

I voted remain and am all for continued freedom of movement. However, I thing May is being realistic and honest. All these things are subject to negotiation. All these things are subject to change over the years. Leadsom is being very quick to make promises to people (ie EU citizens can stay, negotiations done and dusted in 2 years) - it's the leave campaign all over again. I wouldn't trust her. There may be an initial guarantee only for it to be abandoned a few years down the line when people's thoughts are focused elsewhere.

This is fucking appalling. As a Brit abroad I am bloody glad my UK born son also has two other passports, the way the world is going he is going to need them! I intend to apply for my AU citizenship as soon as I'm eligible (next year), and feel lucky to be well out of it all. What a bloody mess.

In reality, what I imagine will happen is a version of the existing rules, where if you have lived here for X years without committing a serious crime, you get Indefinite Leave to Remain. If you have been here for a shorter period of time but have close family connections (and still no criminality) then you also get ILR. And ditto if you have been working or studying. I really wouldn't worry if you fit these descriptions.

If you entered after the referendum result, I'd be less confident. If you have been convicted of a serious crime, you might want to make your own arrangements to leave.

If you have family members you want to join you here, I'd bring those plans forward as much as possible over the next two years

But this is the point, people saying quite casually "things may change" - My whole life is here, and I'm just supposed to think "yeah well might have to leave my whole life behind in a couple of years but that's fair enough!?"

Brit in EU country here. I've been bewildered and appalled by pretty much everything that's happened since about 4am on the 24th when I watched Leave edge into the lead, but these mutterings and implications about EU citizens in Britain potentially having to leave (!!!) take the . For fuck's sake! What is the matter with this country, the one I love?

I got straight onto the German citizenship process on the 24th. I'm entitled, fortunately. But if I weren't, I really couldn't see the German govt chucking me out, separating me from my German dh of 16 years and my three dual-citizenship children. How can the UK govt or representatives of it even suggest something like this will happen? Is giving a sop to the send-'em-back frothers that important? Good God.

Hasn't she just said that EU citizens staying in the UK should be linked to uk citizens ring able to stay in EU countries they have settled in? I'm a remainer, but I do think there's an obligation to make sure the rights of overseas Brits are secured, and linking the two does make sense, British people in EU countries have also built lives, paid taxes in those countries, own property, the 1.2mil UK citizens in EU countries should be as important to the discussion as the 3mil EU citizens here.

Some countries have said they won't kick out British citizens, but not all. We have a lot of British friends living in EU countries who are very worried, they shouldn't be dismissed in all this.

No you're right but she could have said "I'm confident we will come to an reciprocal arrangement"

Dinosaurs the difference is that, for political reasons (ie to appease the xenophobes in the tory party) she has opted to make EU citizens, and consequently Britons abroad like me, pawns in this process.

Feel free to prove me wrong if it is not so, but not a single European country has made threats regarding the continued residence of their British migrants. Indeed, several have talked about how they can keep us!

Het I wonder if anyone is going to come and post something like 'yes but there are 3 millions of them in the UK, imagine if they went home!'
Xenophobic incidents are still happening btw, spoke to a British black colleague yesterday who has been told to 'go home' over the weekend. He'd never experienced any racism before. Agree mistigri, May's comments are not helping.

Good wording DorothyL.

she has opted to make EU citizens, and consequently Britons abroad like me, pawns in this process.

Agree, Misti whether or not this is intended purely for negotiation purposes, it is cruel to leave people and families in this state of limbo.

I suppose it will do great things for the immigration figures (which is what certain people care most about). Many in the OP's position might simply decide to effect a controlled exit sooner, rather than wait for negotiations to push them from pillar to post. Especially if (when) the atmosphere for foreign-looking people gets uglier. I have asked on another thread just how people who say they are pro-useful/good/already-here immigrants propose to distinguish them from the new arrivals, or not useful ones, or tourists etc.

This is our Home Secretary.

Threarening to deprt our friends and family members based on how negotiations go.

This is an openly fascist position she is taking on this.

The world is watching and this is what we are showing the world - that we are cruel and treat people as playthings.

If you think we need to use EU citizens already living in our country as bargaining chips, then you are not fit to lead a delegation.

The message that sends out is that our position is weak and we have nothing of any substances to offer.

EU citizens made a life here in good faith, knowing that their rights are the same as UK citizens. At no point in this referendum were we led to believe that these rights would possibly change. Any time the issue was brought up it was quickly dismissed as something almost trivial. Nothing will change they said

In reality we all now know that they hadn't even properly considered the implications for millions of EU citizens here and UK citizens living in the EU, many of whom had no say in this referendum.

So we are now we are human bargaining chips lumped in with trade tariffs and fishing quotas.

If it wasn't for my children who feel British and are British citizens I would leave asap. I don't understand this country anymore, after having loved it for decades.

I agree with Margrethe. If people want to stay and have the option of applying for British citizenship, they should. Otherwise there is always the risk that they will not be able to stay, even though they have British children. This.

Is that so surprising? I applied for British citizenship so that I do not have to have hold a different passport from my children and will therefore never be separated from them for these reasons. It is not something to get angry over. It is logical. Exactly

It is also logical not to applied for a British passport when up until now as an EU citizen you had the exact same rights as a British citizen. Yes, but things have now changed, why dig your heels in.

Vulcan many are worried that they would not qualify for citizenship under current rules.

And this should apply for people entering from now on, not those who have lived here for years!!

Not to mention the fees

It really isn't as straightforward applying for citizenship as some people seem to believe.

So assuming the worst, I may no longer qualify to live and work in the UK and my British DH might not qualify to live and work in the EU but our DCs have the right to live in either the UK or the EU - meaning we either split the family up or move somewhere else where we can all be together.

I just looked up the cost to register for UK citizenship. It's £1,212. This isn't like paying £3 to join the Labour Party, and frankly it shouldn't be. But, I would consider it excellent value for money.

Do many families have £1.212 per person just lying around?

If only it were that simple Margrerhe