What do Leavers expect us to do? So angry.

[recently]

I am a British national living in the EU. I didn't get a vote. I don't know what my position will be after Brexit. Today I saw a video of the Brexit secretary admitting that he didn't know whether we would be allowed to live in the UK with the same rights as other UK citizens. What?? Not only did we not get to vote, our lives have been turned upside down, but if I decide to uproot my family and come to the UK, I'll potentially treated as a second class citizen! Moving abroad was perfectly legal, even encouraged as an ESL teacher - why does the government think we should be punished?

The British government hasn't even considered British citizens abroad.
To be fair, there are over 16 million British citizens living in the UK who have been totally disregarded since June 2016 as well.
Seriously, OP, I think it's outrageous that people in your position weren't allowed to vote and that no firm assurances have been given to anyone who took advantage of FOM. The whole thing is a disgrace.

True story: I know someone (very close to) who voted to leave but planning to emigrate to France in March! What does anyone think/speculate would be the case in this instance? Will ppl be allowed to emigrate/work/live, buy property as freely as before?
I also know a couple who voted leave and then left the UK in 2016 to retire in the south of France.

Who would stop a British national to return home?

I have a sister who lives in Holland (and cannot leave as she would not be able to bring her young child with her without ex-partner's permission).

She is looking into Dutch citizenship, in case she needs it. Luckily, she should be entitled to it it given that she has lived there several years and learnt the language (fairly well).

However, if she is forced into doing this she will have to give up her British citizenship (Holland does not normally allow dual nationality.)
Of course she would choose living in the same country as her young child over a British passport, as any of us would. But she doesn't want to unless she has to, and giving up British citizenship would limit her options in the future.

When my(rabid Brexiteer) dm found out this may be the case, she was of course deeply upset at the thought of dsis giving up her British citizenship because...
"you shouldn't have to! The vote was about reducing immigration in to Britain! It won't affect expats!"

FFS.

Double check that because I have a friend who is a native Dutch woman who recently got British nationality and retained her Dutch nationality. She also got Dutch nationality for her British born daughter who is an adult.

Cameron promised in his 2015 manifesto to enfranchise British citizens overseas who had been out of the country for more than 15 years. Like his commitment to the Single Market, it bit the dust.

When we returned to the UK after living in southern Europe for over 20 years (not a move we wanted to make!) we weren't entitled to some benefits for 3 months.

We did get Housing benefit but now that Universal Credit is in place I don't know how that will change things.

As previous pp said this was because of the habitual residency test.

Both DP and I and DD are British nationals and I paid substantial tax and NI before leaving the UK.

In my view if anyone is forced to return because of Brexit then habitual residency requirements should be waived. However I'm not holding my breath. As a pp said the government don't give a shiny shit about British people already in the UK so I can't see them acting with any compassion to those forced to return!

watfordmummy - normally I wouldn't but if I lose my job because my rights have been taken away in a voting process I couldn't take part in, I think it's the least they could do!

Bluejag - the home office might stop my husband, he's not British.

I also paid tax before moving.

Can you not apply for local citizenship? If you've been there 15 years and are working most EU countries would look kindly on that I think? I say this not to be unpleasant, but I really think that it's a simple two-way choice, come back or get local citizenship, given the uncertainties. Hopefully we'll learn a bit more tonight.
I'm afraid given the state of Britain, watfordmummy's attitude is likely to be one of the more politer versions. People are struggling here, and all the divisions the well-to-do classes have been ignoring for years are out, and the media has been using them to make money for years as well.

PM has just mentioned yourselves as the first people to be affected by the vote in her statement to the house. So far from forgotten recently.

I'm also in the EU.

Thought it would be harder to find a worse Brexit secretary than David Davis or Dominic Raab, but this person has managed to set a record for ministerial incompetence that even Chris Fucking Grayling will find it hard to beat.

And no, May doesn't give a flying fuck about Brits in the EU. We've (British in Europe) been trying to meet with her and her ministers for 2 years and they are not interested.

British politicians are not interested in British people anywhere unless it involves an asset for them in their own personal wrangling along the routes to "power". Quite what they want that power for I have no idea. It's used as a term in itself rather than something used to effect change.

We urgently need our vote back. It would be good to have a system like the French one, in which overseas voters elect an MP specifically to represent their interests (rather than voting in their most recent constituency).

I'd be happy to get a vote in my old constituency, which is represented by David Lammy, but I can see advantages to having a specific representative or representatives (by some counts there are over 4 million of us).

PlumpSyrianHamster

Yes, they made an exemption specifically for Dutch citizens living in Britain (because of Brexit uncertainty). But in general dual nationality is not permitted for Dutch citizens (I think there is another exemption for Turkish nationals living in Holland.)

I suppose the Dutch government may also offer the same thing to British citizens in Holland... but they are under no obligation to. They have every right, I suppose, to make an exemption from citizenship laws shelter their own citizens from the effects of a decision made by Britain. But they may not wish to do the same for British citizens suffering from the decisions made by the British people/parliament.

@recently you just need to check requirements if any.
He is married to a British citizen and he can come and live here.

Can you not apply for local citizenship?
I have done. It takes four years to be processed.

He is married to a British citizen and he can come and live here.
If we have to move then I don't think I am likely to earn enough for the minimum necessary to sponsor him. Even if there is a two year grace period that would mean giving up on my citizenship application here - it takes up to four years to obtain it and I need to be resident here to do that. It's Catch 22!

May had the nerve to mention us in her statement. So rich considering she is the one who called us citizens of nowhere. She doesn’t care about us.

He is married to a British citizen and he can come and live here.

The OP would need to earn enough, and she would also need to live in the U.K. for 3 months before she even qualified for NHS health care.

The British in Europe have been stabbed in the back and tbh they are the biggest losers in this. At least EU citizens in the U.K. have the active support of their home governments. We don't even have that.

Funny sort of "patriotism" that hangs fellow citizens out to dry eh?

It’s not even like we have our own MP that we can lobby.

He is married to a British citizen and he can come and live here.

This is categorically not true.

@TheElementsSong have you been thru the experience of being married to a foreign national?
I have. I know very well how it works.

The only condition that the impose is that you don't ask for benefits and they give you a permit to work strait away.