On 10 June 2021 the Home Office updated their guidance on coronavirus and the EU Settlement Scheme. The previous policy, which was published in December 2020, was withdrawn last month following a legal challenge.
The updated policy is more lenient than the previous version and allows for people with EU pre-settled status to be out of the UK for up to 12 months for ‘an important reason’ without breaking their continuous residence. ‘An important reason’ includes any coronavirus related absences, including being away from the UK by choice because there were less coronavirus related restrictions in another country, or because you preferred to work or run a business from home
If you intended to be absent for no more than 6 months, but exceeded this due to a coronavirus related reason, and were absent for less than 12 months overall, you will fall into the above category where your continuous residency will not be considered broken.
The stricter previous policy only allowed for excess absences where the applicant was unable to return to the UK due to travel restrictions, quarantine or Covid-19 health complications. This stricter policy remains in place in the guidance, but only for situations where the individual has exceeded 12 months of absence from the UK.
If you have absences of over 12 months, you will have broken your continuous residence. You can still apply to the EU Settlement Scheme but you will be required to evidence that coronavirus meant that you were prevented from, or advised against, returning to the UK within 12 months and for a period thereafter. You must demonstrate that you were absent from the UK for an important reason. This includes reasons such as, if you were ill with coronavirus, were prevented from returning earlier due to travel disruptions, in quarantine, self-isolating or shielding in accordance with local public health guidance on coronavirus.
In such a situation, the period of absence exceeding 12 months will not be counted towards your continuous qualifying period, which will instead be paused from the point your absence reached 12 months and will resume from the point you return to the UK. The updated policy confirms that those with pre-settled status may apply for a further grant of pre-settled status in this situation as they are unlikely to be eligible for settled status when their pre-settled status is due to expire.
This relaxed approach provides some much-needed clarification and will be a relief to those who have found themselves outside the UK for long periods of time in the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The information in these blogs is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in these blogs. For formal advice on the current law please don’t hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.
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