EU family permit policy under Home Office review

The Home Office is reportedly reviewing its EU family permit policy after campaigners claimed that hundreds of dependent EU nationals are still waiting for a permit to join relatives in Britain. In the summer of 2020, legal action was taken against the Home Office challenging a decision to deny some extended family members of UK citizens the right to live in Britain.

Following Brexit, the Home Office did confirm that dependent relatives – classified as siblings, cousins and nephews – who are extended family members of EU citizens that are settled in the UK, were eligible for residence status in Britain.

However, campaigners claim that many are still being denied the right to join family members in the UK and said that refusing them entry into Britain is a ‘breach of the Brexit divorce deal’ signed by the EU and UK in January 2020.

Independent Monitoring Authority 

Amid a number of complaints made by EU nationals, the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) -  a UK watchdog that protects the rights of EU citizens – raised concerns with the Home Office over its EU family permit scheme.

Chief executive of the IMA, Kathryn Chamberlain, welcomed the Home Office’s review into the family permit system, but urged the government department to ensure that its guidance was updated in a way that makes the rules clear for everyone.

Ms Chamberlain said: “While we are of course pleased that the Home Office has made this concession and will be writing to those citizens they know are affected, we felt it imperative to ensure this revised position and concession was in the public domain as soon as possible.”

Withdrawal agreement

According to the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement with the EU ‘extended family members who are dependents or members of the household of an EU citizen living in the UK will retain their right to remain in Britain’.

In order to remain in Britain, those wanting to stay must have applied for an EEA Family Permit by 31 December, 2020 and arrived in Britain no later than June 2021. 

However, this route was closed earlier this year by the Home Office who wrote to hundreds of EU nationals informing them that their relatives would be unable to obtain a permit – despite applying before the deadline.

This sparked a wave of complaints from angry EU nationals. Luke Piper, the policy director at the3million – a campaign group set up to fight for the right of EU citizens in Britain – said that the Home Office had confirmed to them, in a letter sent in September 2021, that they would be reviewing its EU family member UK immigration policy.

No changes

Mr Piper said: “Unfortunately, since that letter, we have seen no changes to Home Office policy nor grants of permits to the hundreds of people we are in contact with. There are many who have been waiting months, some over a year, to be with their family in the UK. The situation was already desperate and has become more so. Urgent action is required.”

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