Important Change to Absence Rules for Settled Status

The Home Office have just announced an important and welcome change to the EU Settlement Scheme, which will likely mean that more EEA citizens and their family members who hold pre-settled status and who have spent periods of time outside the UK will be eligible to apply for settled status.

In order for an EEA citizen or their family member to be eligible for settled status based on their own UK residence, they must have been residing in the UK before 31 December 2020 (the end of the Brexit transition period), and have completed a continuous qualifying period of residence in the UK of at least 5 years. They must have maintained what is called continuity of residence in the UK since that date. Continuity of residence relates to absences from the UK.

Previously, in order to be eligible for settled status, a pre-settled status holder could not have been absent from the UK for more than 6 months (which is counted as 180 days) in total in any given 12-month period. Absences exceeding that would previously be considered as having broken continuity of residence (unless an exception applied), and would have meant that someone was not eligible for settled status.

There has been a lot of confusion regarding the absence rules for EEA citizens with pre-settled status, with many EEA citizens being unaware of the impact that their absences from the UK could have on their ability to settle in the UK permanently and obtain settled status. 

The Home Office have just announced that they are planning to change these rules, and the new position is that pre-settled status holders will be eligible for settled status where they have total absences of 30 months or less from the UK in the last 5 years (i.e. where they have been resident in the UK for at least 30 months in the last 5 years).

This has removed the requirement for someone with pre-settled status to be in the UK for at least 6 months of every 12-month period in order to maintain their continuity of residence. Pre-settled status holders who have lived in the UK for 5 years or more and who have had absences from the UK which amount to 30 months or less in total may now be eligible for settled status.

The new rules indicate that applicants can rely on any 30-month period of residence in the most recent 5 years. It also appears that this may allow people who have previously exceeded this absence limit since 30 December 2020 to apply for settled status once they can meet this requirement in the future; however, given this is very recent development, how the Home Office deal with such scenarios remains to be seen.

These new rules are due to come into effect on 16 July 2025, but should also apply to applications submitted before that date and which are decided after that date. 

It is important for pre-settled status holders to continue to be aware that pre-settled status lapses after a continuous absence from the UK of 5 years or more, and will have lapsed if they were absent from the UK for a continuous 2-year period before May 2024. It appears that, as things stand, these new absence rules do not apply to those whose pre-settled status previously lapsed due to an absence of 2 continuous years from the UK before May 2024.

This upcoming change in the absence rules will be welcome news to many EEA citizens and their family members, and will likely mean that a number of pre-settled status holders who previously would have been considered as having broken continuity of residence will now be eligible to apply for settled status.

If you are an EEA citizen or their family member and wish to discuss whether you are eligible to make an application for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, please do not hesitate to contact us and one of the experienced solicitors in our immigration team will be happy to assist you.