By Aileen Kane, COO, BSA and BSA Group
At 11pm on December 31, 2020, the UK left the EU, ending free movement. For boarding schools (state and independent) this means any EU student or staff member who was residing in the UK before this point should register under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to continue to study or work in the UK. If they were a resident in the UK by December 31, 2020 have until June 30 2021 to make an application to the EU Settlement Scheme and it is free to apply to.
The Home Office says:
“EU citizens and their family members (including non-EU citizens) need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to continue living in the UK after 30 June 2021. The EUSS is free and the application deadline is 30 June 2021. EU citizens must have started living in the UK by 31 December 2020 to be eligible to apply to the EUSS in their own right. If EU citizens and their family members apply successfully to the EUSS they’ll be able to continue to live, work and study in the UK.”
The link to apply to the EUSS can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families. And depending on the length of time in the UK, successful applications will be granted settled status:
“You’ll usually get settled status if you’ve lived in the UK for a continuous five-year period (known as ‘continuous residence’)”
or pre-settled status:
“If you do not have five years’ continuous residence when you apply, you’ll usually get pre-settled status. You must have started living in the UK by 31 December 2020 unless you are applying as the existing close family member of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen who started living here by then. You can stay in the UK for a further five years from the date you get pre-settled status.
“You can then apply to change this to settled status once you’ve got five years’ continuous residence. You must do this before your pre-settled status expires.”
It is important to note, that all children, regardless of age must register under the scheme as they require their own immigration status and are not covered by their parent’s status/application. Boarding school children, residing in the UK without their parents are advised to use their boarding house address as their place of residence.
Speaking to the BSA, a Home Office spokesperson said:
“The Home Office does not expect schools to make applications on behalf of their students; parents and guardians need to make applications for themselves and their children. A child can also apply in their own right, but we strongly encourage a child’s application to be made with support from an adult.”
It is important to note that any students residing in the UK before December 31, 2020 should not apply under the new Child Student route which is part of the points-based immigration system but instead use the EUSS.
Child Student route
All non-EU students and EU, EEA and Swiss students applying from January 1, 2021 onwards should apply under the new Child Student route.
Guidance for school sponsors, has been updated and details can be found via Sponsor guidance appendix D: keeping records for sponsorship advice. The guidance has been revised to include clarifications on record-keeping duties for sponsors.
Categories: BSA News
