Brexit escape plans/feeling trapped

[twinsofevil]

NCed for potentially outing details but long time poster. I've been thinking about these issues for a while but today's news re: proroguing Parliament have prompted me to post.

I'm wondering if anyone (fellow Remainers I guess, or Leavers uneasy with how things are going) is in a similar situation - wanting to leave the country but unable to currently do so.

DH and I are both British citizens, though I have Polish/Jewish heritage and the direction the UK is going is darkly familiar. We are concerned about the ramifications of a likely No Deal, or even an agreed deal which will still be detrimental for our economy. If things get bad (anything from civil unrest and food shortages to prevailing xenophobic attitudes), we would like to move overseas, but we are kind of stuck at the moment. We bought a house last year (in a position to do so with good fixed interest rates etc) and DH has recently got a five-year job role in his industry (science and computing). Unfortunately the funding for science is notoriously under threat so we're not sure how the job market will pan out for him long term. I run a small online business from home, so less of an issue. We have no children as yet, unless two cats count.

My biggest worry is, if we plan to move in a few years, that we won't be easily able to. I don't see us being able to sell the house for a good price post-Brexit, so I suppose we'd have to rent it out. We have lived in Germany before, and wouldn't mind doing so again, but I wonder if EU companies would be reluctant to sponsor a visa application from a UK citizen when they can save money and simply employ someone from an EU member country. So I worry about DH being locked out of future employment opportunities.

We have family here and it would hurt to have to leave, but I suffer chronic illnesses and am concerned about the NHS and medicine shortages. Everything is so up in the air and I can't settle. DH says we have to wait it out and if we want to leave in a couple of years we can, but I don't think it will be as simple as that. It seemed more feasible just after the referendum when we didn't know how badly it would all be handled.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

Be a general prepper like me (same sort of heritage on one side - Irish on the other). I've lived and worked abroad. It's expensive and stressful.

And I have MS.

We're replenishing our stockpile this week :)

I had similar feelings of unease straight after ref and realised quickly that the drawbridge would come up after Brexit day for me as a British citizen only (not necessarily FOM just my rights as a citizen in EU 27). I always planned on leaving the UK though so I just brought it forward a decade or so. No advice, just saying I understand you and think it's a valid thing to worry about.

How remote is your Polish heritage? You can qualify for a Polish passport if one of your grandparents, or two of great-grandparents are Polish.

My grandmother was Polish, but she came here towards the end of the war and married an Englishman, thus losing her own Polish citizenship, and I cannot apply for citizenship if the chain is broken.

I've got broken chain Polish issues as well. Have you checked with regard to your Jewish heritage? I know the Spanish (if memory serves) were looking at working with Spanish Jewish ancestry.

There's always Canada/Australia etc. if your jobs are sought after.

@EEmother That's not correct information. Like OP, I'm Eastern European Jewish heritage.

7 of my 8 of my great-grandparents were Polish (Russian as it was then), the 8th was from Ukraine, and my grandfather was also born in Poland.

Not only am I not eligible for Polish citizenship, but nor is my dad, who had 1 Polish parent, and 4 Polish grandparents.

We looked into this extensively within the past three years, for obvious reasons. Sadly we are not eligible.

We even went to Poland last year and met up with a researcher at a Polish-Jewish institute linked to the University of Warsaw who is raising his own family there. Don't raise the OP's hopes without knowing the full facts!

@MrsTerryPratchett I cross-posted with you. Neither OP nor I are eligible for Polish citizenship, nor is my dad, who is a whole generation closer (and is the son of a Polish father).

It has nothing in common with the Spanish Sephardi rules (although they've also tightened those up a lot, because they were overwhelmed with people applying - unsurprisingly, I'd love to be able to live in Spain!)

Yes I feel it now. I’m only British live in England. Idon’t have kind of skills that would get me a work visa anywhere. I’d love to move to Scotland, so possible would go back into EU at some point, but again think I’d struggle to find work.

Thanks @Rubicon80 I didn't know my mum isn't eligible (Polish dad). Why is that?

Yes, if at any point anyone in the chain has given up their Polish citizenship, it can be an issue. My manager just got his Polish passport though, as both his dad and grandparents stayed Polish on paper, despite living all their lives in the UK. I thought I'd mention it as an option.
There is still a more complicated route that could be open, through Karta Polaka and 12 months' residence.

Yup I am English both sides back to year dot, as is my DH ..Also over 60, so no one would want us anyway (and staunch Remainers)

We are fckd..

It's so unbelievably stressful. I was saying to DH before how violated I feel having my EU citizenship stripped, left with a British passport that's looking more and more worthless by the day. If DH did get a job, for example, in Germany in the future, we're still not clear what our rights would be over there anymore as non-EU citizens and whether we would be secure. We'd have to move, ensure jobs for almost a decade and then try the naturalisation route (fees, citizenship tests, full language fluency) to regain an EU passport. Not saying I would never try, but it's so daunting.

I do wonder how things would be if we'd stayed in Germany and not moved back to the UK these past five years, though sadly we'd still be living with uncertainty.

We keep trying to distract ourselves, doing DIY in the house and thinking about taking an EU holiday when (if) things settle down next year. But right now I think it would just make me want to stay there!

Depressing isn't it, I was living in Spain until May this year. I had to return because reasons... My baby was born there (but she isn't eligible for Spanish citizenship), my cat is still over there being looked after, I want to go back when I have money, but that's difficult enough to get with a baby, and any money I do get is now becoming worthless!

I'm just clinging to the hope that the opposition now does something, anything.

If the Common Travel Area holds (depends on how utterly awful things might get in the UK) you can live and work in Ireland, and apply for Irish citizenship there after 5 years or something. Google it.

Poland is our plan, although the political situation there isn't ideal either tbh.

My MIL is a Polish citizen so my husband qualifies as one, and once he does, so do our children. Need to get on at him to get it sorted!