Have you/ your family discussed any potential post-Brexit 'Plan Bs'?

[Quandry]

It's hard to predict what might happen over the next couple of years, so over the last month we've been thiking about the best way to keep our options open, and we've done the following:

• investigated family heritage for European links. DH's Polish background is too far back, but my Scottish grandfather would likely make me eligible for dual Scottish Nationality in the event of Scotland gaining independence.

-researched our potential eligibility to move to/work/retire in Canada, New Zealand, Australia

• investigated buying small properties in Scotland or France

Several of our friends in dual nationality families have been applied for EU passports for their babies/children.

Has anyone else been making any plans?

I'm thinking of retiring to Scotland, assuming I make it that far. I hate living under an unelected UKIP government. We are seeing policies like the return of secondary moderns when every scrap of evidence suggests this will be to our detriment but is being pursued because the Daily Mail will like it. We have TM refusing to condemn a Conservative councillor who wanted supporting the EU to be a criminal offence and now refusing to stand up for an independent Judiciary.
My father was Irish so DD may qualify for Irish citizenry - I'm not sure.

Plan B? We moved to The EU at exactly the wrong time, now we've been here a year, our business should be up and running next spring. We are not rich, or even well off, the last recession saw to that.
Now we see the value of our savings dropping daily and the costs of our business rising correspondingly.
If the shit hits the fan and we are chucked out what will we do? DH is 60, too old to 're start our UK building business, the value of our property will plummet and we will have fuck all to buy back into the UK and everyone knows how cheap and easy it is to find rented accommodation.
Other worries include our pension : at the moment UK state pensions paid in the EU are the same as if paid in the UK. Healthcare, at the moment we are in the health care system here (it's insurance based so the state pays some and we pay an insurance for the rest) we retire the bill is picked up by the UK under the reciprocal health care arrangements.
Then there is our car, and other possessions. At the moment with free movement of goods we could just take everything back with no worries apart from paying for the van on the ferry. If that changes, how much duty will we have to pay? How much will we be charged to import our car? To change it back onto UK plates? We couldn't sell it here first as its right hand drive so wouldn't get a good price.
What about our pets? Will the pet passport still be valid? Neither dog would cope with quarantine kennels.
I lay awake at night worrying. Plan B? I wish.

Mhmm.. not sure right now what we want to do, dh is Dutch, been working here as an engineer for 20 plus years, he would quite like to move away, as would I, but we don't want to disrupt the dc's education and they are very settled here. Last week my dd in yr9 was told her dad should go back home with all the other foreigners, so I guess if comments like that increase, we may consider moving earlier.
Financially we are ok though, I work in science and there are a few jobs in the Netherlands I could do. All our savings are in pounds though, some Dutch friends have been shovelling money back to Dutch accounts as fast as they can, wish we'd thought of that...anyway hard times ahead, I'm worried how it will all end

Banana, they did an article on this on Jeremy Vine last week - it's quite controversial (understandably) I think they said about 500 have been processed so far (not sure)

My grandmothers were polish Jews- I can't see us going there even if they let us. (Unlikely) Dh dreams of New Zealand.

birdy we're not likely to go anywhere. It's mainly for my brother and SIL who live in Spain and have businesses there and having an EU passport will make life easier. It's options but I don't intend on moving unless shit gets really bad

Sheldon can I ask how your village has been devastated by EU policies? You're right, it's an emotive and not to mention divisive subject.

the school my dc went to has been decimated by immigration, same for the local gp and hospital

decimated doesn't mean changed, it means quite literally, removal of a tenth. A workforce could be said to have been decimated if a substantial portion were sacked, or laid off.

Could you clarify how the school and especially GP were decimated- especially this last, I am visualising amputations

also I am struggling too think what I, canny immigrant though I am, might do with a tenth of a school, or a tenth of a GP

please update when you are free to, Sheldon, in between immigrant maraudings, and of course, only when safe for you to do so

I am from a Scandinavian country. I have lived in London 20 years, but I am looking to move back home. I agree it is an emotive subject. I see immigration as a positive thing. I love the fact that London is so multi cultural and I want my children to grow up in an International environment - study abroad and work abroad like I have. I have been shocked by all the aggression towards the EU and Immigrants and the level of ignorance which has come out during Brexit. I don't think very highly of the British at the moment and I am terrified by the current govrnment.

DH is Irish so kids automatically have Irish citizenship and I could claim it with residence. We could probably take our highly paid jobs with us too.

We have dual British and Australian citizenship, so are looking at going back to Aus. It was already a consideration, but will definitely happen now (and earlier than we'd anticipated).
I hope Brexit will not be as devastating as many are forecasting, but we'd rather watch from afar and see how it pans out rather than live through any turmoil.
We're very lucky to have this option and I really feel for those who, through no fault of their own, will have to weather the storm.

I accept short term financial pain MAY be the price we all pay.

Lovely to hear you accept it. Can't help wishing that this short term financial pain you've decided it was worth inflicting on all of us (well, not the super rich) was only going to be restricted to those who asked for it, though. Some kind of opt-in.

In answer to the OP, my immediate family and I all either have or are able to get another EU citizenship. I have also been researching and assisting other family members to get theirs. Not just to exercise freedom of movement, but also because it might become advantageous in some jobs simply to be known to have freedom of movement. This was discussed on another thread. I'll be putting mine on my CV when it's sorted.

I have applied for UK citizenship, something I never thought I'd need to do. Given the cost, I have not done it lightly. And given the attitude I have had to put up with recently, I don't particularly want it, either.

I have not "decimated" anything by the way, and I am a person first, not an EU migrant. I pay into the services I use through my taxes and NI contributions, so I'm not sure how I am the problem, to be honest. I am funding it too, after all.

But any kind of visa/work permit/extra admin placed on me in the future is highly likely to limit my employability as well as costing time and money to renew, so I don't think I have much of choice, really.

Plus, next time, I can actually vote. Yay. I'm really hoping my application is sorted before the next General Election, if one is called. I want to have a say.

I looked into Polish passports but my grandparents emigrated a few years too early. I have a US passport and we did plan to move to California just before the dot.com crash in 2001. Don't really want to move there though.

Our plan has been to stay in London which will always have more jobs than other parts of England, in a large ramshackle house with bits we can rent out. We could always have an extra person or two move in if necessary. All spare cash has gone into repairs and the mortgage. There would be riots on the streets before we suffer financial problems directly.

I don't think it's possible for us to leave the country, I don't think we can get visas for anywhere. If I sold our house here and bought another in Scotland it might not be possible to stay there when the UK separates and I don't really want the upheaval right now.

Staying here we will probably be in a better position than most as our house is owned without a mortgage, no debts and we have savings. I'm in a low-paid job which I will no doubt go when SHTF. So, I've been trying to build up a stock of things we will need in the future which might be very expensive or hard to come by - everything from dried foods to shampoo. I think these things will be more valuable than money, so I don't mind using up savings to buy them now. I really don't know what else I can do to prepare.

If Scotland did leave the UK, I highly doubt they'd be kicking out anyone who was legally resident there beforehand. They have a non-immigration problem. They need people.

It's a shame we can't partition the country. 48% of the population, plus the universities and financial services industry can stay in the EU, in one part of the UK, while the rest can exit the EU and build a hard border around itself. Businesses can pick their side. Sure, there will be a mass movement of people, and we'd have to decide where the border is drawn, but we do have experience of partitioning countries, after all.

It could give Scotland a real boost - younger better educated people moving there.

but we do have experience of partitioning countries, after all

And a pig's ear we made of it when partitioning India, for example. The border dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is still not resolved. This is nothing to say of the violence with occurred at partition.

Yes. We want to move to Scotland. Don't know if we will though. Trying to work out optimum time to switch from English to Scottish education system.

Ooh good idea lordrothermere! Notwithstanding that yes, partitioning hasn't gone too well the last couple of times we tried it. But Remain could have nearly all my favourite bits of the UK. I'd ideally prefer more Wales, gorgeous place, but it's a sacrifice I'd be willing to make.

We have already applied for and got EU citizenship for both our teenagers, to preserve their right to study and work in Europe. DD is in Y12 so might be OK starting a course in 2018, but DS will start uni in 2020, so post brexit.

Not too worried about DH and I because I am inclined to think that brexit will take far longer to implement than people believe, or that the government is telling them, especially after this week's court decision.

We are definitely making sure we safeguard our chances with Brexit. Dh is taking exams he otherwise wouldn't bother with so moving somewhere like Canada or NZ would be fairly easy (ish). I run a small business as a sole trader and it's not very transferable if we do move. I am in the very early stages of trying to start another business that I can run from anywhere in the world. The chance to build up savings at this point would be a fine thing (spare money goes to business). When article 50 is actually triggered, then I'll panic about lack of savings.

We can both get Irish passport as we each have an Irish parent. Must send those forms off actually...

Incidentally, I'm starting to come across British people now who are so disgusted at what Britain is becoming that they are planning to renounce their uk citizenship. My DD was asked when she went to court for her nationality procedure whether she wished to maintain her UK nationality and she said yes. If she was asked that question now I would not be certain of her response.

DH is Irish so kids automatically have Irish citizenship and I could claim it with residence.

Only if you go now, post brexit he might have to meet the hefty income requirements that people there have to meet to bring in overseas non EU spouses.

People keep saying that the "special arrangements" between England and Ireland will prevail indefinitely.. but I don't think they will and I think anyone relying on that for their long term plan is very foolish