EU citizens in the UK

The fact that a decision by 4% of the people who voted has caused so much damage to this country will keep me bitter for a very long time.

vegansrock

grannygravy so you think it is ok for a young Italian woman to be locked up for 48 hours, no phone allowed for having the temerity to come and help look after her NHS doctor’s brothers children. If she made an understandable mistake with the new paperwork, that seems unnecessarily harsh and could have been sorted out without such hostility, instead it has caused a scandal in the Italian and French press about the nastiness of the British, and many people are now fearful of visiting relatives.

Where did I say it was OK?

It saddens me to see what has happened to many of those returning, especially Roma in Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.
They are without basic essentials of water and sanitation and have been locked into their little villages.
If anyone is interested there are clips on youtube.

grannygravy so you think it is ok for a young Italian woman to be locked up for 48 hours, no phone allowed for having the temerity to come and help look after her NHS doctor’s brothers children. If she made an understandable mistake with the new paperwork, that seems unnecessarily harsh and could have been sorted out without such hostility, instead it has caused a scandal in the Italian and French press about the nastiness of the British, and many people are now fearful of visiting relatives.

And more chillingly, just after the vote, the biggest search on Google was 'what is the EU?'.

But for a week or less in 2016 , thanks to an unholy alliance of Rupert Murdoch and the other proprietors of the right wimg press, numerous tax dodging billionaires and Vladimit Putin, 17 million of the most guillible Brits were conned into voting against the best interests of the UK.

So yes, there has always been people complaining and wanting to leave. But many people seem to believe that Brexit was only voted for by people who had believed the bus debacle and other promises.

The number of people wanting to leave in the decade pre 2015 was generally small. Apart from a bit of a spike round about the Lisbon Treaty fewer than 10% of people polled post 2000, have thought that the EU was a significant problem.

Does this relative have indefinite leave to remain in the UK? Does he/she have to pay the immigration health surcharge?

They married a British citizen and had a letter from the Home Office over 30 years ago to say they had permanent residence in the UK. They worked in the NHS.
Their mistake, if you can call it that, was not too apply for dual nationality from the start.
They've done what is required now, so hopefully no further issues.

Just remind me how long those who voted against joining the EU kept on about it? About 40 years I believe and during that time they fed the British public false stories - as per the person now residing in number 10!

Welshwife*, that is a very good point. My father was always against us joining the Common Market as it was called back in the 70s. Over the years we've had many Eurosceptics, the main one I remember is Bill Cash. He campaigned for decades.

So yes, there has always been people complaining and wanting to leave. But many people seem to believe that Brexit was only voted for by people who had believed the bus debacle and other promises.

Ellianne

Yes, Greta, the technology was the problem for our EU relative to register for settled status, but the procedures worked fine doing it on mine.
I am concerned that some posters are saying it cost hundreds of pounds to do. It was actually free and didn't cost anything. I hope there aren't scans around to take money off people illegally.

Does this relative have indefinite leave to remain in the UK? Does he/she have to pay the immigration health surcharge?

Oops scams not scans.

I asked our Romanian cleaning lady about this today and she said their 'Ambassador' had sorted it out for her and her family. and she has all the correct documents.
We have conversations like this on an App on her phone.

Yes, Greta, the technology was the problem for our EU relative to register for settled status, but the procedures worked fine doing it on mine.
I am concerned that some posters are saying it cost hundreds of pounds to do. It was actually free and didn't cost anything. I hope there aren't scans around to take money off people illegally.

Just remind me how long those who voted against joining the EU kept on about it? About 40 years I believe and during that time they fed the British public false stories - as per the person now residing in number 10!
I feel free to continue complaining till the day I die!
France has made it very easy for people who have been living here five years or more to obtain residency cards and all free despite the fact that it has obviously cost money employing people to do this work. For most people it has been a question of filling in a form and uploading copies of three pieces of paper, then going to give fingerprints and answer a couple of questions.
USA has my fingerprints and also photographs of my eyes and I was only going to visit family not applying to live there.

The Centre for European Reform estimates that leaving the single market and customs union had reduced UK trade by 11 per cent in March 2021. That is on top of a 10 per cent hit to trade between the referendum and leaving the single market.

www.cer.eu/insights/cost-brexit-march-2021

Let's just remind ourselves that voters were assured by Daniel Hannan (now promoted to the House of Lords for his contribution to brexit) that "No-one is talking about leaving the single market. Many were therefore conned into voting Leave because of that lie.

Lin52, some of us are very unhappy about Brexit and although there is little likelihood of changing the result, this does not stop us from pointing out that problems have been caused for people, even if everything is wonderful in your world. Your comments about buying jewellery, or anything else for that matter, only from UK, are silly and irrelevant, the last time I looked we were free to buy what we want from where we want.

MawBe

^Many EU nationals wanting to visit the UK as tourists have now been held in detention centres. It seems the hostile environment policy is working well.^

Can you provide evidence for this Greta apart from the Covid based restrictions on entry into the U.K. from other countries. Let’s not conflate Brexit and Covid.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/27/eu-tourists-condemn-uk-border-officials-humiliating-treatment

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1444283/Brexit-news-Italy-EU-nationals-detained-UK-border-officials-latest-update

MawBee those few EU Citizens (not sure of exact numbers but less than 20) were coming to U.K. for job interviews and one was to take care of her brother’s children.

Not tourists the story was in one of the broadsheets a few weeks ago.

I have a close relative whose French mother now has settled status and I was so relieved to hear the news I could have cried. She’s paid tax in this country all of her working life, but still had to pay ££££s for her application.

Many EU nationals wanting to visit the UK as tourists have now been held in detention centres. It seems the hostile environment policy is working well.

Can you provide evidence for this Greta apart from the Covid based restrictions on entry into the U.K. from other countries. Let’s not conflate Brexit and Covid.

This is not allowed in the EU ,apart from local elections, unless you are a citizen. So it should be. Taxes are for services used, not a path to voting rights.

OF course all adults living in a country (perhaps after a minimum period of a year at most) and paying taxes should be able to vote. Whatever happened to "no taxation without representation"?

Well I bow to your superiority., how rude you are, there are ways and means of communicating with people, calling people silly because they have a different view to you. Perhaps the visitors should have had the correct paperwork, as I will do if I ever want to visit a foreign country, never any problems visiting Australia, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Oman, Turkey, as made sure paperwork was correct.

”How long is all this pointless bitterness about the result going to last? ”
Well, it's going to last and last. It sounds as if Brexit hasn't affected you – yet. So no empathy for those it has.

Many EU nationals wanting to visit the UK as tourists have now been held in detention centres. It seems the hostile environment policy is working well.

Elianne: ”We helped an EU relative to sort out their UK settled status last week. They have been here 30 years. A photo to upload to the App plus a fair few details, but all in all quite quick and painless. From what I see the government has made it fairly easy. ”

Yes, the government has made it easy – for some. I'm pleased it was so for you. But you did it for your EU relative. So she/he didn't manage to do it her/himself? This is one of the difficulties. Many elderly have no longer got a passport, they don't use a mobile phone, can't therefore take a selfie and can't upload apps. I don't know how old your relative is but I know several in their 80's and 90's and for them it has been a real worry.

The Home Office declarations are completely untrustworthy as the Windrush scandal showed. The guy who fixed my floor recently was telling me his dad, who went to school and worked in the U.K. his whole life, and has got a state pension, had been stopped from entry back into the U.K. after a holiday in Jamaica and was still there - he couldn’t find all the documents from 40 odd years ago to show his existence. The scandal still rolls on. My DIL didn’t trust the “settled status” notion so has had to jump through all sorts of ridiculous and expensive hoops to get dual citizenship. She had to take a test about the U.K. which I doubt many British people could pass.