The Home Office has released a report of a review carried out late last year on the pilot phase of the EU settled status scheme.
The report notes that more than 27,000 decisions on settled status applications submitted during the Private Beta 2 test phase, between November 1 and December 21, 2018 were made and all were accepted. 70% of applicants were granted settled status, while the other 30% received what has been termed “pre-settled status” a designation that is available for EU nationals who have lived in the UK for less than five years.
Of the successful applications, over 80% received their grant of status within a week. 77% said that the process was very or fairly easy to complete, however this means 23% or around 800,000 people have experienced problems or found the system difficult.
The numbers do not reflect the fact that about 2,800 applications were still pending at the time the report was finalised because they were incomplete or awaiting further documentary evidence mainly due to the inability of the person to successfully complete the electronic application system. About 1,000 people in this group still need to submit a physical copy of their passport due to shortcomings in the software and, in some instances, the hardware. Another third erroneously thought they possessed the permanent residence document (which can be exchanged for settled status free of charge) but this was not the case and instead they had a different type of EU residence document, such as a registration certificate or residence card.
An unspecified number of cases were being held pending further evidence of residence and so could yet be refused.
The test phase was open to a small group of EU citizens including those employed in the higher education, healthcare and social care sectors. The Home Office has also processed applications from some vulnerable applicants, such as children in care and people receiving support from particular community groups, but concerns remain about vulnerable persons who may fail the application or not apply at all. It should be noted that the Home Office has no system in place to keep a tally of the number of people who may fall through the cracks.
The scheme has now been launched to the wider community and EU citizens with a passport can now apply, as can non-EU family members with a biometric residence card. Those persons with identification cards, and citizens of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, will have to wait until March to being the application process.
