Rebecca Elizabeth Taylor wrote:
Whether you voted Remain or Leave, please be aware that the Home Office are using a little known rule about health insurance to refuse official permanent resident status to EU citizens who have lived, worked and paid taxes here for many years. This is despite the fact that a student, stay at home parent or unemployed person from another EU country who is already legally resident doesn’t actually need health insurance as they have the right to use the NHS. Some people have even mistakenly been sent letters from the Home Office informing them to prepare to leave the UK as they have no right to be here.
This is partly a consequence of successive government’s failure to implement proper control mechanisms for free movement as other EU countries do (free movement has always been conditional, but the UK didn’t bother to use the conditionality).
This also means that Brits in other EU countries don’t face the same threat (although they have other legitimate concerns) because they will have been subject to free movement control mechanisms that mean their residence status is properly confirmed.
The situation in the UK is causing great stress to many EU citizens. So if an EU citizen tells you they’re concerned, please don’t dismiss their worries. Also don’t fall into the trap of saying “but you’re a doctor/nurse/teacher (insert other highly qualified job), you’ll be fine” because right now that’s not guaranteed.
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