Brexit: what would happen to EU citizens living in UK?

[marghini]

I am a EU citizen and I have been living, working and paying taxes in the UK for a while.

I am really concerned about what would happen to the EU citizens who built a life for themselves and settled here in the UK in case of a Brexit.

Do you think all EU citizens already living in the UK would be pushed out? Or perhaps the government would just stop allowing further EU immigration?

Don't take my word for it, I'm no expert, best of luck x

Oibeer I know. There is a gap in the EU regulations that leaves families exposed when there is a break. It is children that suffer most and their moms that are most vulnerable. In every contract there is a clause how long the contract lasts and what happens if one side withdraws. That is the way contracts are written everywhere. In this case, the EU citizens settled legally in the UK started families, a life, bought a house, worked hard, paid taxes believing it was all OK - and it should have been so. Many did not feel taking the citizenship was necessary. I hope that during the negotiations the EU will have to deal with this gap in the regulations that leaves families exposed.

Adultingisnotwhatiexpected

So you managed to get a print out of your NI contributions from years ago? I haven't managed because they said they don't go back too many years, I wanted a printout of year 2000. And if I'm not mistaken online says only 2 years back. P60s only 5 years back.
We get told different things.
it is not clear if after you get the residency certificate you have to wait a whole year before applying for citizenship. Even if you've been living more than 15 yrs.Some say yes some say no.
I've been living in the uk for over 45 years and worked but because I went abroad for a while I'm now considered to have only lived here 15 yrs which was when I came back.
I've contributed paid taxes for more than 15 yrs really. and now I have received my Eea residency certificate, but may have to wait a whole year before applying for citizenship and so an English test And life in the uk test (even though I went to school here) and even though my children were born here I still have to pay to register them before applying for their passports. I thought they'd automatically be citizens.
It really isn't worth coming over, they say it's worse in Europe and Spain has problems but the people I know are better off than me and at least they know they belong to the place that they're paying the tax for so long.

So if a child is born in uk, they get a british passport do they lose it when they're 18 because they haven't registered to be a citizen? I have not been told this.

we are feeling conned. Anybody trying to get answers is being told different things, it's not like a shop where the is a manager that you can complain to or ask a question to!
If you make a mistake in an application form they dont ask you for more paperwork, they refuse you and keep your money, that's the residency application form.

I haven't given my kids passports because they say there are different rules for each one. They make it so confusing.

If you're born after October 2000 you can not be a citizen (if your parents are European) you will have to register them make them a citizen pay (£900) first.

What if eu parents become british citizens I wonder if then we can get the kids passports instead of registering them to be citizens and paying the £900.

So you only need to be 5 yrs in the uk to get your residency certificate. Those who have lived in the uk for over 45 yrs who have paid so much tax get treated the same, they receive the same residency certificate. And leaving for a couple of years ruins it all aswell.
It's so unfair, just goes to show how much they care

It's the "buy years" form where you get your contributions for years back, I don't have mine to hand right now but it has at least 7 years on it, yes

So if a child is born in uk, they get a british passport do they lose it when they're 18 because they haven't registered to be a citizen? I have not been told this. I think when that is the case it is stated on the passport

Not everyone with a british passport is a citizen either, you can have a British passport as a British Subject and not have citizen rights.

I know a family who naturalised as a whole family, but because the parents naturalised after the child was born the childs one came back with a note that they were only entitled to it until 18.

I think that if he parents were settled with rights to be here at the child's birth then the child can be registered as a citizen even if its parents are not, it's expensive but simplier I think than naturalisation

The rules are such a patch work of bits added on here and there it's hard to make sense of it.

I was looking at the registration page last night and there's STILL a gender bias on it - grr! I thought they'ld gone back through them all and put them right

(On national insurance I was recently able to get my NI record - ( by applying on line) and it showed what I had paid in NI back to about 1981 actually for every single year. I wanted to check it was correct, and it was-
www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record It was posted to me within a few days,)

I think you can only buy years from the last 5 years, but the form for it shows more years, so has my contributions on there

Like most things with HMRC/Home Office, you'll get a different answer depending on who you speak to
If you speak to someone to do with pensions they'll send you a print out of which years you can count for pensions, which'll essentially give you a print out of your contributions

Don't know why my parents arrived in the uk without knowing what was going to happen to them. And now they too have lost everything because they also left for a couple of years. They don't care how much you've paid into their country. That's why most are taking the money OUT.
I could have been brought up in a nice hot country instead with better education. I'm not better off than them. My parents worked overtime more than my relatives abroad who live well, and all this hard work for nothing and be told they're not citizens.

What I'm saying is there is no consideration for the population who helped develop the U.K. By paying a lot of tax

Don't know why my parents arrived in the uk without knowing what was going to happen to them.

I do.
Look at other threads where worried migrants are even now given who is running for PM called "hysterical" and "of course they'll be fine" with no real guarantees.

Do you know whether there is a petition regarding the future status of EU nationals living in the UK ?
Pensions, mortgages, health ,etc, etc. Some of us have lived for decades in the UK and have been made extremely insecure.
None of the five Tories have made any commitment which is worrying.

I have just finished filling my Permanent residence application and as I sealed the envelope I burst into tears and cried my eyes out inconsolably for 10 minutes. My children (the eldest is 11) have never seen me cry before and were really worried.

I have been in the UK 25 years and worked full time the whole time apart from a short break on maternity leave. I felt suddenly like my whole adult life has been a huge big mistake, like I have been cheated or left by a partner. It's an absolutely awful feeling.

What upsets me the most is that I never in a million years imagined I would be in this position; that I have contributed hundreds of thousands in tax to this economy; and that I could have chosen to be in a different country, instead of being in this situation now. I also feel upset I am being treated the same as someone who has been here 5 years.

It all feels so faceless and upsetting. I just want to leave but it isn't easy with children and a husband who is British.

Yes that's what I find most worrying. I hate having to wake up everyday to check the news if there has been any updates on our status as EU nationals. It's actually getting to a point where it's becoming unhealthy. I don't like this constant, worrying and uncertainty cloud over has. I just want someone to clarify our position asap and get it over with. Don't drag us and our lives for the next 2-3 years as 'part of negotiations'!!!!!

Me too.
I have a feeling my application will be rejected as well, because despite having lived here for 25 years and worked full time, I cannot prove when I took holidays. I have just recently cleaned out my email as it was full (!) and haven't got a clue when I took holidays, although I could guess. I just put that I went on holiday for the last 25 years about 5 weeks per year on average.... :( I didn't know what else to do.

I felt suddenly like my whole adult life has been a huge big mistake, like I have been cheated or left by a partner. It's an absolutely awful feeling.

I feel exactly the same way!

re holidays, I think (from friend's experiences) its people who have been gone for months not weeks that get rejected. 5 weeks should be no problem whatsoever, if it was 5 MONTHS (at once) that'ld be different, just put down your best guess and explain it's a guess

May has said today there are no guarantees people here can stay nor British people in the 27 countries such as France will be allowed to stay there and she is correct to state that. Also if she didn't say that milions would try to get in to the UK very urgently if an assurance were given that if you were here no XYZ date you could stay forever.

However it is unlikely if the other 27 allow British people to stay in their countries that the UK would not do the same to people from the 27 who live in the UK.

If Britain doesn't allow people to stay here and in turn other countries don't allow Britain's can you imagine the heartache of families being split up. It's disgusting and I can't believe this is happening

I can't fathom how that would work. So my husband is British and I am An Eu citizen. I am asked to go back. My employer gets rid of me or is forced to lose me. My children lose either a mum or a dad and we Ard forced to live apart? Times this by a million?

If that happened we would move anywhere else in the world who would have us. I cannot imagine anything worse than being forced to leave my husband or children!

placemarking to read later

If Britain doesn't allow people to stay here and in turn other countries don't allow Britain's can you imagine the heartache of families being split up. It's disgusting and I can't believe this is happening

Well believe it, Britain already splits up families with mixed British/Non-EU homes

So does Austrailia, Recently they deported both parents of Australian teens who didn't qualify to live where the parents were deported to!

But everyone thinks an Australian points system would be a fair comprimise

However it is unlikely if the other 27 allow British people to stay in their countries that the UK would not do the same to people from the 27 who live in the UK.

No it'll be the other way round. Britain will set the new goal posts, and the other countries will respond by making Britains rules reociprocal with regards to Brits abroad

What an awful society we live in; one that thinks splitting families up is beneficial to anyone concerned...

Everyone keeps telling me that "I will be all right" and I appreciate the sentiment, but I have a sneaking suspicion that things will get nastier than anyone anticipates. Just a feeling I have.

Everyone keeps telling me that "I will be all right" and I appreciate the sentiment, but I have a sneaking suspicion that things will get nastier than anyone anticipates. Just a feeling I have.

Some people mean to reassure and be kind

But IMO other people have less kind motivations for telling EU immigrants "it'll be fine, don't worry" - it's like when a company is planning to make redundancies but haven't them yet. They quash any rumours because they don't want people sodding off and taking other jobs until they're good and ready to lose them. IMO I think (from other threads) that soem employers are doing that at the mo.. they don't want their EU employees to sod off until they have had time to replace them with whoever the home office says they can replace them with

Don't believe anything.

Theresa May has been hinting very strongly that she intends to use the fate of EU nationals in the UK as bargaining chips. An execrable gambit.

Bascially, although the UK voted out, in practice we don't want educated professional families pissing off in large numbers to other countries until we've decided amongst ourselves whether we want to keep them, and if so, what hoops they have to jump through

But yeah, "don't worry", just keep beavering away in good faith until you can't

Isn't it strange how the leave campaign spinners like BillSykesDog and SpringingintoAction, who were actively promoting the "scaremongering" line on this thread just a few short weeks ago are now no longer to be seen?

It's quite enlightening to go back and read the first few pages of this thread. A lot of blatant lies were told.