Rising proportion of EU citizens in UK given temporary 'pre-settled status'​

More people given temporary status as backlog of unresolved cases reaches half a million

The proportion of EU citizens being granted a temporary, more precarious “pre-settled status” in the UK has continued to rise, the latest Home Office statistics show, and the backlog of unresolved cases has grown to more than half a million, causing unease among campaign groups that support EU nationals living in Britain.

Most of the estimated 3.4 million EU citizens resident in the UK must apply for settled status if they want to continue living here legally after Brexit . The latest EU settlement scheme statistics show that 590,300 people applied for settled status in October, bringing the total number of applications to 2,450,000.

Just over 1.9 million people have been granted some form of status in the UK. However, the proportion of people being allocated the more precarious, temporary pre-settled status continues to rise, jumping from 32% in the testing phase of the scheme to 34% in the month after the national launch in March, and up to 44% of all applications processed in October.

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