The Diplomat
More than 350,000 Spaniards have registered as residents in the United Kingdom since the British Government launched the Settlement Scheme, as a consequence of its exit from the European Union, according to information provided yesterday by the British Embassy in Madrid.
The system affected citizens of EU countries who were in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2020, when Brexit became effective, and had time to apply for registration as residents until 30 June.
At that date, the number of registered Spaniards was 353,200 and they constituted the fifth nationality by applicants after Poles (with 1,091,500), Romanians (1,067,200), Italians (545,600) and Portuguese (414,100).
The final figure of how many of these applications have been processed will be known on 16 September. In the previous update, as of 30 March, 304,310 had been processed, of which 43 per cent were granted settled status, while 54 per cent were granted pre-settled status. The remaining three percent were declared invalid, withdrawn or rejected.
The difference between the two statuses is that those who have been living in the UK for less than five years receive pre-settled status, and once they reach five years, they can apply for settled status.
Once they receive their status, EU citizens can continue to enjoy their rights as residents in the UK, such as working, accessing public health care, the education system and receiving public benefits.
Since the Settlement Scheme was launched in March 2019 until the deadline of 30 June 2021, more than 6 million applications have been received from EU and EEA nationals, of which 5.44 million have been processed: 52 per cent have been granted settled status and 43 per cent pre-settled status. The remaining 4 percent were rejected, withdrawn or declared invalid.
These figures include repeat applications, which amounted to almost half a million, bringing the actual number of people who applied to the programme to 5.5 million.
The British Embassy points out that, although the deadline to apply ended on 30 June, it is still possible to register as long as there is a reasonable reason to do so after the deadline. In fact, it points out, a further 58,200 applications were received in July, corresponding to people who registered late, family members of people already registered and applications to move from pre-settled to settled.
