Brexit consequences

[LaChatte]

So there are a million threads in AIBU and Chat, but nothing here?

I stayed up all night watching the results, it was devastating, since then I've gone from heart-broken to angry to sad.

I've spent the day looking into getting French nationality, ironically I have to renew my expired British passport in order to do that. The amount of paperwork I'll have to do is unbelievable, not to mention the cost of getting various documents officially translated.

So pissed off about not being able to vote on something that affects me directly.

How is it affecting everyone one else here (living in the EU, I mean), maybe people living outside the EU could share their experiences of what hoops they had to jump through in order to live and work abroad?

Living outside the EU, but there goes my plan to retire in spain

I think this is not going to go through without another fight. Hope the British youth takes to the streets and hold their elders accountable for this senseless mess.

I'm in Australia, where the Brexit is getting big coverage. Every Aussie I know has gone , then "Turkeys for Christmas".

Now my DD will not only not have Europe to work in but also, thanks to the fucking Tories, will be unable to settle back in the UK, where she was born and lived for eleven years, with an Aussie OH without her having to earn 18600 pounds.

Oh, and DH and I voted remain.

Pressed too soon. I've made it all sound about us personally; we're so pissed off about how so many will be comprehensively shafted by Brexit.

Living in the EU - saw the danger when the referendum was announced and applied for dual citizenship the same week

LaChatte I'm confused - why couldn't you vote? You are British living in France, yes?

Weekend, British people who have lived outside the country for more than 15 years have been disenfranchised (for every election, no just this referendum). I wasn't able to vote either. Shocking when we're the people most affected.

I'm not in as bad a position as many - we got German citizenship two years ago. DH and the DC have another EU citizenship in any case (DC have 3 in total, of which the British is probably the least important to us). Worst case scenario, the Germans will now force me to choose between the two because the double citizenship is only available for EU countries. But you know what, I wouldn't even have to think twice about giving up the British passport at this point, I'm so disgusted.

I know a LOT of long-term Brits here (20 years plus) who've never bothered getting German nationality and now need to get their skates on. The officials responsible for checking citizenship applications were already horrifically overloaded - I heard recently that in some parts of Berlin people are waiting a year simply to get an appointment for the initial 'chat' which is when you get told which documents you will need to produce. From that point it's about 9 months until the application gets approved. And this was all pre-referendum, so presumably the waiting times will skyrocket now. It's shocking that a bunch of pensioners and losers whingeing on about making Britain 'great again' (what, like with colonies and racism and workhouses?) are having this much effect on the lives of people who weren't even entitled to vote.

Canada. Our permanent residence application took 4 years and was points based. We may or may not qualify for citizenship (we have so far put off applying as it is expensive and there is the small chance we may not be eligible as one of the kids has a disability (they have a 'burden on the state' clause). We are not entirely sure that our PR should have been granted' so don't want to rock any unnecessary boats... If our citizenship is refused and they re-look at our PR status, we could well be fucked.

Egypt, but non EU DH moved to France on Thursday and my EU citizenship would have been crucial to extending his residency, so we are screwed.

So pissed off we left France in 2014. We would have had PR by now.

Only hope now is Scotland becoming independent and remaining in the EU, which is hardly likely. Still, there's a better chance of that happening than me or DH getting a CDI in France any time soon.

I have never wished for foreign ancestry more than I do at the moment. Any chance of claiming Irish citizenship on the basis of an ancestor born in the 18th century?

British. Currently living in HK. To be honest, it's pretty easy to come and live here if you want to. Just get a job and then you get right to remain. You can sponsor your spouse and kids as dependents. Kids can go to local schools, can use public hospitals etc. The employer theoretically needs to prove they can't hire locally, but there's not a big burden of proof. To be honest if you didn't do a skilled job you wouldnt want to live here anyway as it's too expensive. After 7 years you qualify for permanent residency which means you can live here forever with no sponsor. You can't get citizenship unless you can prove Chinese descent but there's no real benefit of citizenship over PR.

Hello there
Lived in Germany for nine years so could have applied for citizenship last year but didn't. Stupid us. At that point we would have had dual citizenship, not sure government would make us choose if we already had it but now they probably will and I don't blame them.
My DH's father was irish so he might apply for an Irish passport for him and our dc but I am not eligible as we do not live there.
Work wise I think we are fine atm as have lived here so long but alarm bells are ringing all over the shop: if my dc continue to study here, will their qualifications still carry the same weight should they wish to work in the UK when older. Will they be forced to choose which citizenship at 23 ( was the case then law changed for EU). Our end terrace two up two down in the UK will probably need to be sold as it will be taxed separately or rates will go up and we won't be able to afford to rent it out anymore.
But worst of all is the unease felt since Friday. Some young men heard me talking English and slagged off England/me as they did not realize I wasn't a tourist and actually live here.
I don't know where I fit in. I also don't know if the UK I remember now only exists in my head.

I'm in Canada. Watched the results come in with incredulity really. Kicking myself for not moving all our assets out from the UK as they've now lost a chunk of value which I'm not sure will be recovered. We've another year to wait before we can apply for citizenship (wanted to move assets then as I feel a bit insecure with just PR) but had already decided not to go back to the UK. It seems to me that the UK I knew (and loved, we moved for the adventure not because we didn't like England) has got a great deal nastier in the last five years or so. Had assumed that our children might go back, and thought they had a great citizenship because of access to all of Europe, but it's difficult to feel like that now.

In the US at the moment, wondering which third country we should move to if we get a Trump presidency....

It was front page news here today and yesterday. My colleagues are incredulous

Brit living in China. I have been our of the UK for over 20 years so have lost the right to vote, but planning to go back. I also have US citizenship, but can't imagine ever living there.
Can't believe we voted to leave - makes me want to weep.

Singapore. We've been here 3 years, no intention of remaining permanently. My children have dual nationality with a non-EU country and that's where we'll be going next. I'm heartbroken. Like others have said, I don't recognise my country now. For the first time, I really feel that I can never go home again.

Living in the US on a Green Card. American DH cannot believe the Leave result. I was amazed when I spoke to two long standing friends of 20+ years, 1 in Norfolk and 1 in London - both voted Leave. Then my brother also told me he voted Leave and he has a business in central London. Gobsmacked.

I kept my British citizenship and got British passports for the kids so they could always study, live and work in Europe if they wished. We lived in Germany for 6 years and they are bilingual. Now that is all up in the air. I always assumed we would retire in Europe: Portugal, France. Italy, Germany or England now I don't know. Although I know Americans who retired in Portugal so still possible.

Feel like the English and Welsh have lost their minds.

Cyprus.
Uk has always had a good relationship with Cy and it's a commonwealth country too so hopefully not much will change. I've started looking at being naturalised though, I've been here long enough and had been thinking about it for a while.

Arch thanks for explains. I thought expats could vote, I didn't realise there was a time limit on it.

As an ex-pat in the Middle East, personally we have only benefited financially so far: the weak pound is in our advantage.
All the Brits I know here voted leave, for a variety of reasons. Obviously it will affect us more when we move back to the UK (which we are planning to do).

In terms of hoops to jump thru...

When I first immigrated to UK I had to register at police station every time I moved house.

Then my initial work permit expired & my job had to be advertised EU-wide (very expensive at the time). For my employer to argue I was the ONLY qualified applicant. Not best qualified, only qualified. They had to work hard to scrape together the money each year to get a whole year's worth of work permit money in my contract each renewal anniversary date. Eventually got ILR, though. I think it's very much harder for non-EU migrants now.

Italy. I have applied for citizenship but the waiting time is about 3 years! I am so sad about the result and furious to be disenfranchised. I don't see how a referendum done this way can even be legal. I don't see how it can work tbh. At the moment it seems that England and Wales are just shooting themselves in the foot - so selfish, not only do they not want Europe, they don't care much for NI or Scotland either!

This thread is 100% echt, that's the whole point!

Yes weekend , as arch said if you've been away longer than 15 years you can't vote (I fully agree with not being able to vote in the general elections, but not being able to vote on this is ridiculous).

I can't even get an appointment to ask for French citizenship, they must be totally overwhelmed with requests at the moment!

God knows what happens next. one of my DCs only has British citizenship, so that's going to be a headfuck too.

If Lepenn gets in here I'm moving to the moon.

I'm in Germany and will get dualI citizenship. I will probably be made to choose one or the other if and when the UK goes. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I don't think this story is over yet.

The OP asked about hoops we had to jump through to live and work outside the EU.
We are in Saudi Arabia. SO many hoops!!
Saudi companies have to employ a certain percentage of Saudi nationals, as the government are wanting to get more into work because of the financial situation here. There is list of jobs that expats can apply for but the company must have the ratio of Saudis and non-Saudis correct. DH had to wait about a month for the ratio to allow him to formally be offered the job.
Getting a work visa here was a long process, so he had to come on a short term visit visa and then fly back to the UK to get his long-term work visa once it was processed.
He then had to obtain a resident card here. Only then can employees apply for family to join them. You can now only apply if your profession is on a fairly short list. If your profession is not on that list your family cannot come here to live.
We then had medicals etc in London and then were eventually granted visas. Once here we had another medical (blood test etc even for the children) and were given resident cards.
It's a long process and loads of workers here have not been able to bring families over.

This thread is 100% echt, that's the whole point!

I don't know what you mean.