If you made your life here, why didn't you become a British citizen?

[DorothyL]

How do you respond to that as an EU citizen?

I came to the UK in 98. I never applied for British citizenship because I didn't see the need - I truly felt that the fact we were all EU meant it didn't matter!

Now I'm scared because in spite of being here so long I would probably not qualify for a permanent residency card because I wasn't working (SAHM/carer).

Wish I knew what will happen

You'll find a change in my attitude towards you if you stop posting so much complete shit.

Again, likewise.

The thing is mango, all the things I've posted in response to you recently have been right, and the things I corrected you on were all wrong on your part. It's not my fault that you choose to post silly comments about not understanding why people wouldn't engage in a process that costs upwards of a grand when they don't have to.

Dorothy, if you are still reading , for people like you and me (non private health insured sahp) it might be worth playing the long game.

We are "safe" until:

1.) a hard Brexit is coming into action (2 years or more)

2.) the UK withdraws from the ECHR (article 8's right to "family life" would still protect us even in a hard Brexit)

It may take a few years (3?5?10?) before all this has happened.

Therefore, might it be worth taking out private health insurance now and start getting all the requirements in place?

Another practical note: have you written to your MP?

Did you see how quickly the Dutch lady (Monique Hawkins I think) was given PErmRes when she went public?

I cannot imagine things coming to actual deportation .... for a while yet

Also worth remembering that as an EEA national, you still have the right to exercise your Treaty rights in the UK if you want to. So if there's any way a person in this position could work or be self-employed at all, that would make them a 'qualified person'. And potentially able to benefit from any transitional provisions for working EEA nationals.

I mean, I highly doubt that even if we do hard Brexit, non-British folk with British spouses and kids are going anywhere. I also think the private insurance one is an obvious chance to show leniency and give a veneer of legitimacy to this process that it doesn't deserve. But obviously people want as much security as they can get, understandably. OP are you working now? You mention being a teacher.

I have not been offensive & I am not disgusting.

You're really a piece of work, aren't you?!

I notice a lot of people on here complaining about the cost, the difficulties or the daftness of the British Nationality process.
It is not compulsory.
You do not have to make it.
You may have to leave at some point, I don't know, but most of you seem to be complaining endlessly about the UK so I am baffled why you stay here if it is so bad.

Ah trying to save up, its because they never had to make allowance for it before, its expensive.

They won't have to leave, you will be disappointed.

I live in Spain and have been eligible for Spanish citizenship for about six years. I'm only just applying for it now after Brexit. Why didn't I do it before? Well, because it's a lot of money and faff and then a whole lot more faff changing my id on everything as I'll get a new id number. And I had no need to while the UK was part of the EU. I was a permanent resident here as an EU citizen. But the big thing stopping me was that as Spain doesn't recognise dual nationality, I have to renounce my uk citizenship. I imagine that's the same for most Spaniards in the UK. It's a big step to take. I'm going ahead with Spanish citizenship because I don't want to end up here as a non EU citizen, I don't know what my status would be and I have too much to lose here (house, business, husband, kids).

Ruby:
Private Health Insurance might be prohibitive for some people though.
One is looking at a minimum of £150 per month depending on your age , state of health, benefits you want etc ..
You need to earn an extra £3000 gross per year on current tax rates to pay £150 per month (£1800 per year).
Unless you can get it through through your employer of course.

Bird- The UK does though, so unless Spain actively makes naturalised citizens renounce (and if I remember correctly, they don't, they just don't recognise the other naty?) their other citizenship then you carry on as usual. The only thing would be when you travel in and out of Spain, you'd use that travel document not your UK one.

It's a sort of unwritten law that no country can proclaim any kind of jurisdiction on another country's nationality iyswim? So even if Spain says you can't hold DN, you effectively can. Unless there is a clause in their law where you actually have to formally renounce other citizenships. I'd be surprised though, because that's usually just really hard-line countries. Iran used to be like that for example, offhand.

Trying: if I understand you correctly , your line of argument is: 'if you don't like it then fuck off'?

I am sure you would make a perfect articulate negotiator in the Brexit Department. Or are you one of these characters who rejoice with glee at other people's unfair treatment under Theresa May's rule. Oh! Boy! You must feel so superior now ..😃😃😃😃 My grand mother used to tell me in her wisdom: 'if you throw shiet in the air, it always comes back and lands on you'.

a minimum of £150 per month depending on your age , state of health, benefits you want etc ..

It has to be "comprehensive" so I don't think you necessarily get to choose the level of cover. Tbh £150 would astonish me: my top-up private insurance (in France), which pays the 30% of healthcare costs not covered by the state healthcare scheme and also funds my dental care, glasses etc, costs €250 a month!

Vintage, you do have to renounce UK citizenship. As part of the Spanish citizenship process you swear allegiance to the Spanish king and renounce other nationalities.

the UK is not 'rabidly xenophobic'

Quite a few people are. They are also raging hypocrites - want to be able to settle abroad and whine when people do the same here.

"I want to live here but you are all stupid and racist"

Who said that ?

none of whom even had the grace to say 'thank you'

Oh, so immigrants should be grateful we allowed them to come here and work and pay taxes?

None of them would take British citizenship as their own nationality is too important to them

How AWFUL, eh ? How important is it for Brits living in Spain, almost none of whom speak a word of Castiliano or Catalan ? Oh but that's different...

Bird- gosh, I didn't know that. (it is 20 years since I worked in nationality law though!)

Seems a bit hardline!

Good luck with your application then! (I am in Italy and pondering it, wouldn't have to renounce though)

Mistigri: yes £150 but this would cover only certain things. All depends on excesses etc... So , I agree with you, if I wanted something very comprehensive for my age group, I would have to pay more.

lico I thought the requirement for migrants was "comprehensive" health insurance?

Can we just remind everyone contributing to this interesting discussion that we don't allow personal attacks on Mumsnet. Please feel free to give your views on this topic without being nasty to the other posters.

Im sorry bird

I would find it hard to renounce my country

It would be fucking easy to renounce some of the fuckwits who live here...but my country not so much

Well, exactly, it's a big step. Even if in practice you can still keep both nationalities by not communicating your new nationality to Spain iyswim, it might be a reason why some EU nationals in the UK didn't rush to take UK citizenship, AND of course there was no need to until Brexit.

Mistigri: I started fairly recently to look into private health insurance.
I was lucky to have a private health insurance through my husband's employer. Large companies do get large discounts and employees only pay tax on it as a benefit in kind. Whatever I had , Bupa heartbeat , has satisfied the lawyer.

Exactly bird

I havent been on this thread bacause i have less than zero time for people who struggle with the concept of either not wanting citizenship or being unable to get it