The EU Settlement Scheme is now open for business. Almost all European Union citizens living in the UK who wish to stay here after Brexit must apply to it over the next couple of years. The only significant exceptions are:

• British citizens (who cannot apply for the scheme even if they are dual nationals)
• Irish citizens (who may apply for the scheme, but do not have to)
• Those who already have “indefinite leave to remain” or “indefinite leave to enter” in the UK (who may apply for the scheme, but do not have to)

Everyone else, including those who already have an EU permanent residence document, are required to apply under the Settlement Scheme. Otherwise they will, eventually, have no immigration status in the UK. This is because of the forthcoming repeal of the laws that give Europeans their right to live and work here at present.

The video below shows how an application works in (mostly) real time.

For more information on the Settlement Scheme, Nath Gbikpi of Wesley Gryk Solicitors has written a very detailed guide to how it all works. Hopefully that will answer a lot of potential questions.

If you have a question not addressed in the video or elsewhere on the site, do feel free to get in touch via the contact form. We will try to gather them together and do a Q&A in time for the full launch of the Settlement Scheme on 30 March 2019. In the meantime, please don’t be offended if we don’t reply to every query via email, on social media or in comments on the video — we will try to address them in a public post.

If we’re lucky, I will rope in Chris Desira of Seraphus Solicitors to help answer common questions or problems. Seraphus work with the European Commission to provide independent information about settled status and Brexit. They also provide video consultations through this website.