Residency applications in UK hit by pandemic

Citizens from European Union member states seeking permanent residency in the United Kingdom after Brexit have been warned that disruption caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak could delay their applications.

Since the scheme opened in March 2019, when the country was supposed to leave the bloc－a process that was not actually legally completed until January 2020－more than three million people have been granted residency.

The UK is in a transition period, scheduled to run until the end of this year, during which the plan was for the country to remain subject to EU regulations, while conducting negotiations about future relations between the UK and its European neighbors.

Downing Street has repeatedly said that there is no prospect of that period being extended, and if necessary the UK will leave under a so-called no-deal Brexit scenario, with no alternative legislative arrangements in place.

This has been widely predicted to be severely disruptive, and would leave many EU nationals unsure of their future, but the all-encompassing nature of the novel coronavirus pandemic has taken over all government business.

The application registration deadline is June 2021, six months after the planned end of the transition period, although it has been suggested the transition may need to be extended because of the fight against the virus being such a priority.

600,000 to be affected

It is estimated that around 600,000 EU nationals have yet to register, and now they have been warned applications are taking "longer than usual" as the Home Office faces a "challenging time", partly because of government guidelines on people working from home making applications harder to process.

Postal applications are no longer being received, a Home Office blog post said, and phone calls go unanswered. In addition, places where people could go to have vital documents scanned have been temporarily shut.

Documents can still be uploaded via the government-approved app, however, and online advice is available. The Home Office said it was keeping the situation under "constant review" and that it would follow public health guidelines about when it could reinstate the service.

"Where a person eligible for leave under the EU settlement scheme has reasonable grounds for missing the application deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply," the Home Office added.