Scotland’s largest pro-EU organisation, the European Movement in Scotland, has today launched a campaign calling on the UK government to reverse changes to its rules about how EU citizens living in this country can become British citizens.

It has urged that it extend to EU citizens the same rights as it proposes to those British ‘overseas citizens’ in the UK.

Under UK nationality law, EU citizens can normally apply to become British after they have lived in the UK for a total of 5 or 6 years (depending on whether or not they were married to a UK citizen).

Many EU citizens who have made their home in the UK have decided after Brexit that they wish to apply for UK nationality. This will give them the full range of rights and duties which apply to all UK citizens.

EU citizens who have lived in the UK for 5 years can currently apply for ‘settled status’, which gives them broadly the same rights which they had as EU citizens before Brexit, although it does not give them the full rights enjoyed by citizens. Until recently, if EU citizens had settled status, the process of acquiring UK nationality was relatively straightforward in most cases.

However, the UK Home Office has now changed the way it deals with applications by EU citizens to become British citizens, even if they have lived here for more than five years and have ‘settled status’. The main change is that in many cases, they may have been asked to show they have had ‘comprehensive sickness insurance’ (CSI) for that period. Paying national insurance does not count as comprehensive sickness insurance.

Like everyone else, most EU citizens living in the UK work and therefore pay income tax and national insurance (our payment into a national system for sickness insurance).  But, also like everyone else, few have taken out ‘comprehensive sickness insurance’.  Even payments into private medical insurance may not count.

If the UK government enforces this requirement rigorously, many EU citizens who have resided in the UK for more than 5 years will now have to wait another 5 years before they can apply to become British citizens. This requirement to have had comprehensive sickness insurance is not imposed on other foreign nationals who wish to apply to become British citizens.

These new rules have caused many EU citizens in the UK a great deal of concern.

EU citizen Larissa Slaney is originally from Germany and lives in Fife with her husband and two children. She has lived in the UK for more than 27 years and is a life scientist, working in wildlife conservation and science communication. 

She said: “Many of those EU citizens who have made their home in the UK, decided after Brexit that they wanted to apply for UK nationality. This provides the full range of rights and duties that apply to all UK citizens and is the only way to escape the uncertainties Brexit has caused for us.

“Many of us have British spouses and children and we therefore want to ensure our right to stay here beyond any doubt and without having to constantly worry about our rights.

“The application process should be straightforward and many EU citizens applied in good faith, just to be surprised by a new Comprehensive Sickness Insurance rule introduced by the Home Office in May 2020. The guidance did not clarify whether this would be applicable only to new applications and EU citizens began to worry that this new rule would be applied in retrospect to applications pending.

“They were right to worry as recently cases of applicants who submitted before May and have now been asked to provide proof of CSI have emerged. This is not okay. The CSI rule in itself is questionable and the fact that voluntary National Insurance contributions are not accepted as such makes no sense. But to apply a rule in retrospect to applications pending, for which people have paid a non-refundable fee of £1349.20 (plus fees for language and Life in the UK tests) in good faith is completely unacceptable. 

“In addition, many of us have been waiting for more than the six months promised processing time by the Home Office (waiting times of up to 15 months have been recorded), which means that we should have received a decision before the introduction of the CSI rule in May 2020.

“Since Brexit, the whole process of having to apply for Settled Status to be allowed to stay in our own homes has been degrading and the new, unnecessary hurdles in terms of British Citizenship create uncertainty and anxiety for many EU citizens and their families. CSI as a requirement for British Citizenship should be abolished.”

The European Movement in Scotland is supporting these EU citizens in their campaign to get this rule change reversed.

It is urging all MPs in Scotland to contact the Home Secretary to ask her to reconsider the decision.

The chair of the European Movement in Scotland, Mark Lazarowicz, said: “This change will mean that many EU citizens residing in the UK who had decided they wished to make the commitment of acquiring British citizenship will be deterred from doing so at this stage.

“Many of them have spent decades in the UK, perhaps almost their entire lives. They will have paid taxes and made a contribution to our community. If, after so many years, they wish to become British citizens, they should be encouraged to do so, and not have new obstacles put in their way.

“The UK government has, rightly, opened up the possibility of full British citizenship and a right to reside in the UK to more than three million British ‘overseas citizens’ in Hong Kong. It is surely right that EU citizens who have made their home in the UK for many years should be made equally welcome”.

For further background information, see: https://www.scottishlegal.com/article/mark-lazarowicz-new-hurdles-for-eu-nationals-who-wish-to-become-british-citizens