misti www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmexeu/1071/107107.htm#_idTextAnchor030
Some extracts from this report:
" If large numbers of UK citizens of retirement age return from Spain, this would put additional pressure on the NHS and social care system. It is possible that some of these returning retirees might not be eligible for treatment on the NHS if they are not considered ordinarily resident in the UK.
The permanent residence application process
54.The permanent residence card application system has received considerable criticism. Anne-Laure Donskoy, Co-Chair of the 3million, said that her organisation was receiving a lot of inquiries around the process. She said:
There is a sense of urgency and that we are having to justify a right to stay already at the moment. That in itself is causing a lot of anxiety because the process is a bureaucratic nightmare of Kafkaesque proportions. We all know about the form. There is an unreasonable burden of evidence put on the applicant.
55.The information required is onerous. The Home Office asks for documentation preceding the five year period for which the applicant is demonstrating residence and asks to know whether an applicant has ever received any welfare benefits and how much have been received, “from day dot, not just those five years.” Ms Donskoy demonstrated to us that she had accumulated three to four kilograms of paperwork for an application that represented “just over half of what it will be like at the end of the day.” Ms Donskoy said she was being asked for paperwork covering every time she had left the country over the past 30 years. Sunder Katwala, British Future, confirmed that applicants had to show evidence of each time they had left the country so they could demonstrate they had not been outside the country for 450 days across the five years, or for 90 days in a year.87
56.Barbara Drozdowicz was concerned that applications had been turned down on the basis of incomplete evidence. She argued that this represented an unjustifiable hurdle:
So, my life in Britain might be evidenced beyond reason over the last five years, but 17 years ago I might not have kept something. This is questionable practice and that is appealable practice, because, as far as guidance goes, permanent residence relates to the last five years. Therefore, whatever happened earlier should not be part of it.
63.The current process by which EU nationals can apply for permanent residence using an 85 page form and requiring copious supporting evidence is too complex and onerous for clarifying the status of up to three million people. The Committee observes that the application process is disproportionately burdensome, and questions why it involves collection of information which goes far beyond what is required to prove residence over a 5-year period.
We call on the Government, as a matter of urgency, to look to streamline the system. While there will always be complex cases that require detailed consideration, it should be possible to clarify the status of the vast majority of individuals simply using a localised and streamlined system as proposed by British Future*
*The Government must not create or retain a system with unrealistic administrative and technical hurdles, so that a substantial proportion of applications are declared invalid or refused. To do so runs the risk of either directing a large number of individuals into an appeal mechanism, prolonging their anxiety and further draining Home Office resources, or leaving a number of individuals who fail in their application and decide to stay living and working illegally in the UK.
Letters which reject applications for permanent residence should not be accompanied by the words “Prepare to leave the UK” unless there are grounds for removal because the applicant does not have a right to remain*.