Hi Daniel,

I signed up to the governments mailing list for updates on this and the one I received last week said that in the event of a no deal the EU Settlement Scheme will still be implemented which will enable EU citizens and their families living in the UK by 29th March 2019 to continue to work and study and access services in the UK on the same basis as they do at the moment. The only thing they suggested would be different is that the deadline for applications would be brought forward to 31st December 2020.

If you go on the gov.uk website there is plenty of information: www.gov.uk/.../rights-eu-eea-citizens

They also have an employer toolkit online as well and you can sign up for email updates.

In reply to Gemma:

Hi Gemma, thanks for your response. My understanding from the current CIPD guidance was that anyone who enters the country during the transition period to December 2020 will be able to stay, even in the event of No Deal. That deadline seems to have been pulled forward to 29th March 2019:

"The Home Office’s indication to the CIPD is that free movement will effectively continue during the transitional period between March 2019 and December 2020; as currently set out in the draft agreement between the EU and the UK."

www.cipd.co.uk/.../eu-citizens-rights-brexit

Everything is so up in the air at the moment it's hard to know what will happen, but clearly there's a bit of a disconnect between the CIPD guidance and elsewhere.

In reply to Daniel:

Hi Daniel... it maybe that the paragraph you're quoting from the CIPD resource assumes a deal. I will check and come back!

In reply to Steve Bridger:

thanks Steve. It reads like it's effective even in the event of No Deal. I work for a company with a number of EU nationals so it would be good to give them some assurance as to what the cut-off date will be.

In reply to Daniel:

Sadly the only sure and certain advice can come from the UK Government - as we saw yesterday even what we thought was certain isn't necessarily so. On this one I would follow the advice suggested by Gemma and keep updated via the UK Govs website.

In reply to Daniel:

Hi Daniel,

This is copied from the email update I received:

"The UK Government: Confirms that if there is no deal, the EU Settlement Scheme will continue to be implemented, enabling EU citizens and their family members living in the UK by 29 March 2019 to secure their status and continue to be able to work, study, and access benefits and services in the UK on the same basis after we exit the EU as they do now. The scheme will be fully open by 30 March 2019 as planned. Confirms that the Home Office will continue to look to grant status rather than refuse and in line with the UK commitment to be more generous in certain respects than the draft Withdrawal Agreement, a person will not be refused status under the EU Settlement Scheme because, for example, they are not economically active or they do not hold comprehensive sickness insurance.
There would be some changes to the EU Settlement Scheme if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and further details are set out in the policy document. In particular, as there will be no agreed implementation period, the application deadline will be brought forward to 31 December 2020."

This is the link to the policy document they refer to: www.gov.uk/.../policy-paper-on-citizens-rights-in-the-event-of-a-no-deal-brexit

Hopefully that helps somewhat. But I would definitely recommend signing up to the updates, it's minimised a lot of "googling" for me :-)

In reply to Gemma:

Thanks for this, Gemma.

In reply to Steve Bridger:

No problem Steve! Happy to share :-)

In reply to Gemma:

many thanks Gemma! I guess we watch this space for now.

Hi Daniel

Apologies for the delayed response as I hadn't seen your question here until I checked this afternoon.

Under the transitional arrangements that have been agreed with the EU, EU citizens who are already in the UK or arrive before the end of the transitional period in December 2020 will be eligible to apply for settled status provided they meet the length of residency requirements.

Under a no-deal scenario, the latest policy statement published last week (www.gov.uk/.../policy-paper-on-citizens-rights-in-the-event-of-a-no-deal-brexit) says for those EU citizens that are in the UK by 29 March 2019, what has been previously stated in relation to the EU settlement scheme would continue to apply. The statement doesn't expressly mention the situation for EU citizens arriving during what would be the transitional period. However, the indications we've had from the Home Office is the transitional arrangements for those citizens would still apply. The White Paper on post-Brexit immigration policy is expected shortly and we would look for official clarification on that point there. We will broadcast that information on our Brexit Hub when that comes through.

Please get in touch with us if you have any further questions.

Derek

In reply to Derek Tong:

hi Derek. I think at the moment the only safe assumption is that only citizens who are resident on 29th March 2019 will be allowed to stay in the event of a No Deal Brexit. I work for a European company and wanted to send a memo to assure our existing staff that their status will be unchanged in the event of No Deal (which is looking increasingly likely at the moment in my opinion). No Deal means no transition, and therefore presumably the cut-off date is 29th March 2019.