LS Legal News Bulletin
The EU Settlement Scheme
Tuesday 2nd April 2019
Today in the UK are over 3.5 million EU citizens who have made the UK their home. Whilst the future relationship of the UK with the EU is uncertain it is important to make UK a safe place for EU citizens regardless of whether the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal.
The EU Settlement Scheme is now officially open. After a successful launch on Saturday, more than 50,000 applications were made over the weekend. This brings the total number of applications to over 280,000.
Applying to the EU Settlement Scheme is completely free, and the Home Office's aim is to make it as simple and straightforward as possible.
The Home Secretary has determined no-one is left behind. That is why up to £9m has been made available for supporting more vulnerable people, whether they are homeless, elderly, disabled or unaware of the Scheme so far, to make an application.
The Scheme has already been thoroughly tested. There are now multiple routes for providing an identity document.
There have been improvements and changes in the system after some complaints that it is currently not possible to use the ID document check app to verify identity on Apple devices. By the end of the year Apple will be making the necessary changes and the app will be working on mobile and tablet devices.
The UK Government is committed to ensuring that people in every corner of the UK know what they need to do to secure their status.
Please make sure your EU citizen friends and family know about the Scheme.
