5.8 MILLION EU citizens now in UK, under ‘EU Withdrawal Agreement’

This report has been co-published with our affiliated organisation, Brexit Facts4EU.Org.  We are most grateful for their original research into the raw data which backs what follows.

Over 1m Romanians and over 1m Poles make up 36% of the total

More than 0.5 million applied after the UK’s (extended) deadline of 30 June 2021

The Home Office has just published its latest figures on the number of people granted residency in the UK as a result of the EU Withdrawal Agreement. These show a staggering 5.8 million applications had been granted up to the end of March 2022.

This is almost double the total number of EU citizens that were said to be in the UK by the EU Commission and by the Cameron government, prior to the EU Referendum of 2016.

Despite the British deadline for applications being at the end of June 2021 – 11 months ago – they keep on coming. Almost 0.6 million more have applied and have been approved since that date.

Summary

Official figures for settlements granted under the EU Settlement Scheme, as at 31 March 2022

      • Total applications received : 6,271,240 (includes second applications)
      • Total applications approved : 5,777,340
      • Applications received and approved AFTER the deadline : 543,100 (and continuing)
      • Only 4% of applications have been refused

From 13,000 to 5.8 million – how did it happen?

When Tony Blair’s government allowed free movement for the EU’s Eastern European accession countries in 2004, the government estimated up to 13,000 migrants would come to the UK.

When Romanians and Bulgarians were approved in 2007, the UK was the first country to do this. It was the disgraced former Labour MP, Keith Vaz, Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, who championed this cause.

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All EU nationalities are represented, but some stand out

Here are the actual numbers from each EU country who now have settlement rights in the UK. These apply to the individuals who have been approved and do not include family members who might yet wish to join them.

Summary

EU Settlement Scheme – UK settlements granted by country of origin as at 30 Mar 2022

  1. Poland : 1,066,110
  2. Romania : 1,012,130
  3. Italy : 543,220
  4. Portugal : 402,070
  5. Spain : 344,150
  6. Bulgaria : 297,120
  7. Lithuania : 262,800
  8. France : 227,080
  9. Germany : 161,660
  10. Hungary : 151,690
  11. Netherlands : 139,140
  12. Latvia : 134,500
  13. Greece : 131,470
  14. Slovakia : 113,080
  15. Sweden : 77,380
  16. Czech Republic : 68,050
  17. Belgium : 42,110
  18. Denmark : 29,410
  19. Cyprus : 27,520
  20. Austria : 24,200
  21. Finland : 21,070
  22. Estonia : 14,740
  23. Ireland : 14,480
  24. Croatia : 13,060
  25. Malta : 7,890
  26. Slovenia : 5,170
  27. Luxembourg : 1,790
  28. Iceland : 2,610
  29. Liechtenstein : 70
  30. Norway : 33,940
  31. Switzerland : 19,520

About the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

The EUSS enables EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens resident in the UK by the end of the transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020, and their family members, to obtain a UK immigration status.

The EUSS gives settlement rights not only to EU citizens, but also to those who were given residency rights by the EU from other countries. Some of these relate to ‘family re-unification’ applications, where family members of those granted settlement rights can apply to bring over members of their family and dependants.

It is now three years since the Home Office started publishing statistics on the ‘EU Settlement Scheme’. Facts4EU.Org felt that readers might wish to have a summary of the results to date.