The UK has approved 400,000 applications for Portuguese residency

As of December 31, 436,650 applications had been received from Portuguese citizens, according to the UK Home Office.

Of the 419,910 applications processed, 236,580 were granted permanent status and 158,370 temporary status, but 24,850 were rejected, invalidated or canceled.

Permanent status (established status) is granted after five consecutive years of residency in the country, but those who stay there for a short period of time will receive temporary status (pre-established status) until the required time expires.

The report also points out that 43,710 Portuguese requests were made repeatedly to gain recognition or to move from a temporary position to a permanent one.

Of the repeated Portuguese requests, 2,510 were rejected and 390 awaiting a response.

Real number?

University researcher Kuba Japlonowski said it was difficult to understand the true number of people in the EU settlement plan. [EU Settlement Scheme, EUSS] Because of the way the process works.

“Since the Interior Ministry does not assign personal identities to candidates, the analysis of the number of candidates should be based on probability methods and go through different registered stages. And this system is becoming more and more complicated,” the Portuguese agency said.

Japlonowski, who works on a project at EUSS for the University of Exeter, said the problem was raised in October 2019 and “it could have been solved.” [because] The system had some requests over and over again, but now it is too late. ⁇

Another problem is that “no one is keeping track of how many people with EUSS status are still in the UK” as many have left the country in the meantime.

The EUSS opened in 2019 following the UK’s exit from the EU in order to gain residency status for citizens of the European Union, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein and their immediate family members in third countries.

In total, the UK Home Office has received nearly 6.4 million applications so far, of which 333,200 were 328,000 not completed after the June 30 deadline.

The UK Government will continue to accept applications as long as there are “reasonable reasons” for the delay, promising a “practical and flexible” approach.

Without a certificate of status or application, European immigrants or their family members lose their rights to residence and employment and access to health, education and community support services in the UK.