LDI submission to the ICIBI’s call for evidence on the EU Settlement Scheme
7 August 2020
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI), David Bolt launched a call for evidence on 3 July 2020 to anyone with experience of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). This is to assist the ICIBI’s upcoming inspection of how the EUSS is working, particularly for vulnerable groups and those who are digitally and/or socially excluded and therefore difficult to reach. Once the inspection is complete, the ICIBI will then publish a report on the EUSS directly for the Home Office’s consideration. The ICIBI’s two previous reports can be found here (May 2019) and here (February 2020).
The ICIBI was particularly keen to hear from firms who have provided assistance to applicants. LDI has significant experience of assisting applicants with EUSS applications since it first opened on 30 March 2019. Unfortunately, there are a number of persisting issues our lawyers and clients have reported in relation to the EUSS. LDI has raised these issues in our submission to the ICIBI’s call for evidence, which is summarised below.
LDI’s submission to the ICIBI
Right to work
The first issue raised in our submission concerned the lack of documentation available to non-EU family members to provide to employers for right to work checks to be carried out. Prior to EUSS, these individuals could satisfy right to work checks by either presenting their employer with EEA documentation (Residence Cards and Permanent Residence Cards) or by providing a Certificate of Application (COA), the latter of which is issued to applicants after submitting an application for EEA documentation.
Although applicants continue to be issued COAs after submitting applications under the EUSS, they are issued with a different type of COA which cannot be used for right to work checks. EU applicants are unaffected by this, as they are permitted to use their passports or national ID cards as evidence of their right to work. Non-EU family members, on the other hand, are left without any alternative permissible documentation and are therefore left with no other option but to wait for their EUSS application to be processed before they can start working. Following the severe backlogs at the Home Office caused by the pandemic, processing times for EUSS applications have become significantly delayed. In practice, this can leave a non-EU family member applicant without any right to work check documentation for months on end, creating the significant risk such applicants will miss out on rare and valuable job opportunities.
This issue is particularly unacceptable given the current financial crisis caused by the pandemic and the vital need for these applicants to work in order to support themselves and their families.
LDI recommended two solutions to this problem. Firstly, EUSS applicants could all be issued with the COAs which are permitted for right to work checks. Alternatively, the Home Office should allow other documentation to be accepted for right to work checks – for example, evidence of the applicant’s relationship to their EU citizen family member.
Applying for pre-settled status a second time
Earlier this year, LDI received confirmation from the Home Office that individuals who hold pre-settled status will be able to apply for pre-settled status again before the expiry of their permission if at the relevant time they do not qualify for settled status.
Whilst this is positive, the process to make such an application is currently unclear and not covered in any official Home Office guidance. We have therefore requested in our submission that this point is clarified and appropriate guidance is published as soon as possible to provide certainty and allow eligible applicants to plan for the future.
Technical issues
As has been widely reported since the opening of the EUSS, the completely digital process has been consistently plagued by technical issues. In our submission, we raised the following issues which are yet to be resolved by the Home Office:
- the submitted online application form cannot be downloaded for records;
- automatic abbreviation of names to first initials – this makes it difficult to distinguish between different family members’ applications post-submission;
- long names being shortened due to character limit – may cause the name to no longer match the applicant’s passport/ID card;
- the limits on the size and the number of documents is too restrictive for certain categories which require complex evidence e.g. adult dependents; and
- the legal representatives’ details in the online form is not visible to the EU Resolution Centre – as a result, the Centre requests a signed letter of authority before providing any updates to legal representatives, which causes unnecessary delays.
Other issues – evidence of residence in the UK
It has recently come to our attention that, for pre-settled status applications, the Home Office has not been accepting certain types of evidence of residence in the UK as sufficient, even where this evidence is expressly detailed as sufficient in their own guidance. Although we were unable to include this in our submission to the ICIBI, we are hopeful that this will be raised in the ICIBI’s report.
Get in touch
For further information on the EUSS or other changes to UK immigration law, see our website, or contact your assigned LDI lawyer or enquiries@lauradevine.com.
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