{"id":784364,"date":"2026-09-27T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784364\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:12:12","slug":"weve-done-everything-by-the-book-eu-citizens-left-in-limbo-after-uk-government-strips-post-brexit-residency-status-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784364\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019ve done everything by the book\u2019: EU citizens left in limbo after UK government strips post-Brexit residency status | Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Home Office<\/a> faces legal action over a policy to strip residency rights from EU citizens who were in the UK before Brexit on the grounds that it gave them the status \u201cin error\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as a Home Office minister revealed that the government has contacted 1,473 citizens<\/a> with post-Brexit residency rights to tell them the original decision to grant them residency was made in error.<\/p>\n

The campaign group the3million, which is aware of at least 50 cases, has put the Home Office on notice that it is seeking a judicial review of the policy, which it enacted in late 2025 but has only recently come to light.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases, the Home Office is actually wrong to say there was a mistake. So people whose status was properly granted are now fighting not to lose it \u2013 this is a clear breach of the withdrawal agreement,\u201d it said in an appeal<\/a> to supporters to fund their case.<\/p>\n

Some of those who received notice were told they were not entitled to pre-settled or settled status because they did not submit passports with their original application.<\/p>\n

This includes a group of Brazilians and others with dual Italian nationality by birth whom the Home Office claimed were not Italian at the time of their pre-Brexit residency applications.<\/p>\n

Among them is a 33-year-old Italian engineer who has been in London since 2018, when he arrived for a PhD, and now has \u201csettled status\u201d \u2013 permanent residency granted after five years.<\/p>\n

The3million campaign group is aware of at least 50 cases and is seeking support for a judicial review of the policy. Photograph: Kristian Buus\/Alamy<\/p>\n

As a consequence of the alleged Home Office error, he stands to lose withdrawal agreement rights to have his wife living with him, causing him great stress when he received the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite devastating for both of us. We have been here for a long time. We have done everything by the book, and we\u2019ve always felt very welcome here and I always thought this is somewhere I could grow my career,\u201d Fabio (not his real name) told the Guardian<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

A woman working in the NHS and researching a PhD, who also received the \u201cerror\u201d notification, said her life had been turned upside down.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI can lose my job, I maybe don\u2019t have the right even to rent the property that I\u2019m living in now, because of course I have to prove my right to live here to the landlord to rent a place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Home Office said those granted pre-settled status in error were \u201cnot withdrawal agreement beneficiaries\u201d but could provide evidence to the contrary if they had it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA person granted PSS in error can also make a further valid application to the EUSS [EU settlement scheme] which, if refused, will give rise to a right of appeal,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The Home Office recently conceded it was wrong in one case that was taken to an administrative court. It agreed to withdraw its decision that the claimant\u2019s pre-settled status had been \u201cgranted in error\u201d, and that the receipt of a physical Italian passport after Brexit was not the date at which her Italian citizenship started.<\/p>\n

For Fabio, the case gives hope but the judicial review would give a determination for everyone in his situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite being hopeful, we are still in a limbo as we started an appeal process and haven\u2019t received any communication from the Home Office regarding the fact that they are now conceding their mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was concerned they would have continue with a costly court case to resolve the matter which could leave them with a bill of more than \u00a35,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Home Office faces legal action over a policy to strip residency rights from EU citizens who were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-784364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}