Moving to EU with a pre-settled status

sheramber

from the link I posted above.


Note the bit I have bolded.  Your time out of the UK will cancel any continuous residence time and the count will start at nil again when/if you return.

Switching from pre-settled to settled status

You can switch to settled status as soon as you’ve had 5 years’ continuous residence, or sooner if you’re eligible before 5 years.

The 5 years is counted from the day you started your continuous residence, not the day you were granted pre-settled status.

You must apply for settled status before your pre-settled status expires to stay in the UK.

[Deleted User]

So if you have pre-settled status, and you leave the UK for more than six months (i.e 2 years), and then come back, you cannot stay for a further five years and then get settled status after that? Which means you can only stay from five years from the original pre settled status being granted regardless of leaving or not?

That is not how I saw the rules, I thought someone could leave for up to two years than return and start the five years again. As long as they left and came back within the original five years. 

Daliah

Fedcas65 said:

I'll search through the forum, I just relied on their website for now...
I do agree that not all the banks allow you that, but some yes, like Lloyds or Barclays.
Probably these were people from Slavic countries, which are not entirely in EU, many regulations are not observed by them but they are part of EU respecting most of the agreements, or some sort of custom arrangement, the most common one is the freedom of travel.

You appear to just make it up as you go. Neither Lloyds nor Barclays are now providing current account services to residents of EU countries, and it's nothing to do with "people from Slavic countries". Searching the forum doesn't help you. You need to confirm with your bank that you can keep your account when/if you move to country x.

[Deleted User]

See my previous comment. The most widely accepted interpretation is that the clock doesn’t stop at all. You have 5 years from the date you are granted pre-settled status to complete 5 years of continuous residence. For most people that should be plenty because they would’ve been in the UK for some time before they applied for pre-settlement.  

If you fail to get 5 years continuous residency by the time your pre-settled status ends (by, for example, being absent from the UK for 6 months or more in any 12 month period) then you’ll have to leave the UK at the end of your pre-settled status because your right of residence will expire. 

You can’t leave and re-start at will. 

Again, not a lawyer so anyone likely to be impacted by such rules should seek legal advice. 

I’d post relevant comments if the forum system allowed me to… but just look up the3million absence calculator and they have a handy guide (and, of course, a calculator)

Fedcas65

Here it is, but is's quite a confusion compared to the rest of web pages, but even this one it's not extremely clear (at the end):

If you want to spend time outside the UK

If you have settled status, you can spend up to 5 years in a row outside the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man without losing your status.

If you’re a Swiss citizen, you and your family members can spend up to 4 years in a row outside the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man without losing your settled status. Your family members do not have to be Swiss citizens.

If you have pre-settled status, you can spend up to 2 years in a row outside the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man without losing your status. You will need to maintain your continuous residence if you want to qualify for settled status.

If you spend too much time outside the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man you’ll lose your settled or pre-settled status.

You’ll usually need to apply for a visa to live and work in the UK.

Link: Please search "what-settled-and-presettled-status-means", it's on the gov website, I can't post links due to being new in the forum...

---------------

Now, what I understood is the following:

1. If I can reach these damn 5y here, I can apply for settled, and after only 1y, for the citizenship, so then I can REALLY go to work wherever I want for as long as I want, otherwise, even with the settled status I have 5y max.

2. I can really stay up to 2y outside the country without losing my pre-settled, but it's not clear AT ALL if I need to re-apply for another pre-settled once back, or directly the settled status.

3. From another point of view, I think that UK doesn't want you to register your residency, so called domicile, in another country when you have the pre-settled status, which makes a lot of sense, they just don't call it in this way.

This is my understanding... It's valid for pretty much every country out there, just the naming convention is different.

In fact, registering that kind of domicile is not mandatory, especially for me that I come from EU and I'm talking about being in EU again, only the police and tax office need to be informed in that country, or also the immigration office, nothing more.

For tax purposes instead, if you spend more than 6 months outside UK, the other country is your tax domicile and it needs to be properly registered to the HMRC, and also the target country. HMRC could ask also some tax from you, depending from the income, time of permanence in the current financial year etc... These rules are valid everywhere and countries have bilateral agreements, quite different between each other .

Fedcas65

Daliah said:

Fedcas65 said:

I'll search through the forum, I just relied on their website for now...
I do agree that not all the banks allow you that, but some yes, like Lloyds or Barclays.
Probably these were people from Slavic countries, which are not entirely in EU, many regulations are not observed by them but they are part of EU respecting most of the agreements, or some sort of custom arrangement, the most common one is the freedom of travel.

You appear to just make it up as you go. Neither Lloyds nor Barclays are now providing current account services to residents of EU countries, and it's nothing to do with "people from Slavic countries". Searching the forum doesn't help you. You need to confirm with your bank that you can keep your account when/if you move to country x.

How do you know that?

The reason why I don't ask them is because as soon as I ask them, they'll start the verification procedure, I know how it works, it happened to me from another country...
So, I was trying to get it by myself and with your help guys...

Daliah

Fedcas65 said:

Daliah said:

Fedcas65 said:

I'll search through the forum, I just relied on their website for now...
I do agree that not all the banks allow you that, but some yes, like Lloyds or Barclays.
Probably these were people from Slavic countries, which are not entirely in EU, many regulations are not observed by them but they are part of EU respecting most of the agreements, or some sort of custom arrangement, the most common one is the freedom of travel.

You appear to just make it up as you go. Neither Lloyds nor Barclays are now providing current account services to residents of EU countries, and it's nothing to do with "people from Slavic countries". Searching the forum doesn't help you. You need to confirm with your bank that you can keep your account when/if you move to country x.

How do you know that?

The reason why I don't ask them is because as soon as I ask them, they'll start the verification procedure, I know how it works, it happened to me from another country...
So, I was trying to get it by myself and with your help guys...

Only your bank can reliably tell you whether you can keep your account if you move abroad. Your contractual relationship is with the bank, not with random strangers on an Internet forum.

[Deleted User]

Fedcas65 said:

Now, what I understood is the following:

1. If I can reach these damn 5y here, I can apply for settled, and after only 1y, for the citizenship, so then I can REALLY go to work wherever I want for as long as I want, otherwise, even with the settled status I have 5y max.

2. I can really stay up to 2y outside the country without losing my pre-settled, but it's not clear AT ALL if I need to re-apply for another pre-settled once back, or directly the settled status.

On 1, you’re quite right. Once you get your settled status, any clocks/counters stop, and you can leave the country for 5 (4 if you are Swiss) years and you won’t lose your status if you return within that timeframe. It will obviously impact your eligibility for citizenship if you haven’t obtained it first (you’ll have to wait and obtain more continuous residence again).

If you get your citizenship, you have every right to settle and stay in this country, and you’ll enjoy the same rights as Brits born here. Caution, though: when you obtain British citizenship, you have to declare your intention to live here. Now I don’t know if many people had their citizenships stripped for moving abroad shortly after, but it is a risk because it could be seen that you dishonestly obtained your citizenship.

On 2, you are still not correct. You cannot re-apply for Pre-Settled Status. You cannot apply at all, except under very specific circumstances (where, for example, COVID prevented you from returning to the country between 31 December 2020 and now - you see how that argument might no longer hold water?). 

If you leave the country for longer than 6 months in any rolling 12-month period (that is, if you look back 12 months from today, were you absent for more than half the days?), you will lose your right to convert to Settled Status, and as the vast majority of people can no longer apply for Pre-Settled status, once your Pre-Settled Status expires, you will have no right to stay in the country under EU rules.

The 2 years is a red herring for you, and anyone who actually intends to obtain Settled Status. If you live with that option, you will only have limited time to stay in the UK on your return.

Again, I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I am just passionate about this topic. The above would apply to most people, but as always, there will be specific cases, and edge cases, but those are usually the exception.

OP, if you haven’t done so, please, please speak to an immigration solicitor, or at the very least seek out specialised immigration forums where you can explain your own specific circumstances and get some tailored pointers.

Fedcas65

[Deleted User] said:

Fedcas65 said:

Now, what I understood is the following:

1. If I can reach these damn 5y here, I can apply for settled, and after only 1y, for the citizenship, so then I can REALLY go to work wherever I want for as long as I want, otherwise, even with the settled status I have 5y max.

2. I can really stay up to 2y outside the country without losing my pre-settled, but it's not clear AT ALL if I need to re-apply for another pre-settled once back, or directly the settled status.

On 1, you’re quite right. Once you get your settled status, any clocks/counters stop, and you can leave the country for 5 (4 if you are Swiss) years and you won’t lose your status if you return within that timeframe. It will obviously impact your eligibility for citizenship if you haven’t obtained it first (you’ll have to wait and obtain more continuous residence again).

If you get your citizenship, you have every right to settle and stay in this country, and you’ll enjoy the same rights as Brits born here. Caution, though: when you obtain British citizenship, you have to declare your intention to live here. Now I don’t know if many people had their citizenships stripped for moving abroad shortly after, but it is a risk because it could be seen that you dishonestly obtained your citizenship.

On 2, you are still not correct. You cannot re-apply for Pre-Settled Status. You cannot apply at all, except under very specific circumstances (where, for example, COVID prevented you from returning to the country between 31 December 2020 and now - you see how that argument might no longer hold water?). 

If you leave the country for longer than 6 months in any rolling 12-month period (that is, if you look back 12 months from today, were you absent for more than half the days?), you will lose your right to convert to Settled Status, and as the vast majority of people can no longer apply for Pre-Settled status, once your Pre-Settled Status expires, you will have no right to stay in the country under EU rules.

The 2 years is a red herring for you, and anyone who actually intends to obtain Settled Status. If you live with that option, you will only have limited time to stay in the UK on your return.

Again, I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I am just passionate about this topic. The above would apply to most people, but as always, there will be specific cases, and edge cases, but those are usually the exception.

OP, if you haven’t done so, please, please speak to an immigration solicitor, or at the very least seek out specialised immigration forums where you can explain your own specific circumstances and get some tailored pointers.

Thanks .

From where you deducted that I cannot re-apply for the pre-settled?

I'll ask to some lawyer for sure, this post was to give me an idea, and unfortunately, the gov website is even in contrast with certain cases...

Daliah said:

Fedcas65 said:

Daliah said:

Fedcas65 said:

I'll search through the forum, I just relied on their website for now...
I do agree that not all the banks allow you that, but some yes, like Lloyds or Barclays.
Probably these were people from Slavic countries, which are not entirely in EU, many regulations are not observed by them but they are part of EU respecting most of the agreements, or some sort of custom arrangement, the most common one is the freedom of travel.

You appear to just make it up as you go. Neither Lloyds nor Barclays are now providing current account services to residents of EU countries, and it's nothing to do with "people from Slavic countries". Searching the forum doesn't help you. You need to confirm with your bank that you can keep your account when/if you move to country x.

How do you know that?

The reason why I don't ask them is because as soon as I ask them, they'll start the verification procedure, I know how it works, it happened to me from another country...
So, I was trying to get it by myself and with your help guys...

Only your bank can reliably tell you whether you can keep your account if you move abroad. Your contractual relationship is with the bank, not with random strangers on an Internet forum.

I know that the final word is what the bank says after my request, but I need to avoid triggering such process at any cost, in case I really move out. Unfortunately, the process has a window of 3 months for my experience, so it's a risk if then I leave UK... So, from being a simple consultation, it would become cooking myself on the grill...

One thing is true, I'll need to change address as soon as I leave, that could trigger the process if they have a database of virtual addresses...

As I mentioned, on their website they say that I can keep certain products, minimum the bank account I guess, but I need to forget credit cards etc...

[Deleted User]

The deadline for applications ended in 2021. You can still apply, but only under some limited circumstances. Now granted we don’t know your individual circumstances but for most people these might not apply.

of course I still can’t post links… but you can look it up on Citizens Advice for instance