UK says resident EU citizens will need to apply for ID card after Brexit
The three million European Union citizens living in the UK will have to apply for an identity card to remain in the country after Brexit, according to proposals published by the Home Office on Monday.
Prime Minister Theresa May briefed parliament on the plans, which also revealed that those expats who had applied for residency after last year's vote to leave the EU would had to start the complicated process all over again.
EU citizens who have lived in the UK for five years would qualify for "settled status" after Britain left the 28 member bloc, giving them access to healthcare, education, benefits and pensions. A "cut off" date of no earlier than March 29, when May started the exit process, to the actual date of departure would provide the timeframe for residency qualifications.
However, a significant change to existing rights will be the loss of automatic entitlement for EU nationals who marry or meet their spouses after Brexit to bring family members into the UK.
Under May's plan they will have to prove an annual income of at least £18,600 for a spouse.
According to the policy document published by the Home Office, Irish citizens would not be subject to the new requirements as they belong to the Common Travel Area between the UK and Republic of Ireland.
"We have also been clear that our exit will in no way impact on the terms of the Belfast Agreement (applying to Northern Ireland). We will continue to uphold in that context the rights of the people of Northern Ireland to be able to identify as British or Irish, or both, and to hold citizenship accordingly," the document stated.
EU citizens who do not have five years' residence at the time of the UK's exit but are on "pathway" to settled status will be able to access the same benefits as now - equal access for those in work and limited benefit access for unemployed.
A controversial inclusion was the creation of new rights in UK law for qualifying EU citizens, which would be enforced by UK courts and not by the European Court of Justice.
Other key points included the loss of EU citizens' right to vote in local elections, retaining the ability to keep sending their UK benefits to other countries in the EU if they were already doing so before the cut off date and continuing to pay out the state pension within the EU to qualifying EU nationals.