The future of around 3.8 million European citizens who live in the United Kingdom is unclear, with the race to secure permanent residence begins. But since January 21, EU nationals in the UK can request “settled status” – including 70,000 Italian nationals. According to a Home Office report, Polish, Romanian and Italian nationals living in the UK have been the most enthusiastic applicants to the government’s settled status scheme.

The future of around 3.8 million European citizens who live in the United Kingdom is unclear, with the race to secure permanent residence begins.

But since January 21, EU nationals in the UK can request “settled status” – including 70,000 Italian nationals.

According to a Home Office report, Polish, Romanian and Italian nationals living in the UK have been the most enthusiastic applicants to the government’s settled status scheme.

The scheme enables EU citizens to secure their legal rights in the country post-Brexit.

The first statistics on the progress of the scheme, published by the department on Thursday, show that more than 750,000 of the 3.6million EU citizens in the UK had applied for the status by the middle of May this year.

The number of Italian nationals in the UK has risen dramatically in recent times.

But it seems Italian residents working and living in the UK would rather stay in Britain than return to their home country.

Speaking to Italian publication Leggo, Emanuele D’Antonio, an Italian who has only been able to acquire “temporary status” said: “I’ve been here for less than a year, I’d like to stay”.

Mario Bucolo, 52, an entrepreneur who filled out the permanent residency form last Thursday, also said: “The forms are simple, everything is done online on the application form of gov.uk where you have to show that you have lived here for at least five years.

“I’ve been living in London since 2014 and I’m in charge of start-ups. In a week I will know the answer.

“Since March 30th they eliminated all costs, before they were around £60.

“I supported to remain in the EU but some laws, like those on consumer protection, are better here. “Brexit may not necessarily be a bad thing.”

The job of dishwasher remains the most widespread job to start with while learning English – but settling in the UK is still desired by many professionals.

Economics and Business graduate Angela Conte, 35, who works in the City of London, said: “I too have just applied for permanent residence.

“From here, Italy seems even worse than when I left it. No, I really think I’ll stay in London. Brexit or no Brexit”.

According to the Financial Times, the Home Office programme, which rolled out nationwide in late March after regional pilots, grants “settled status” to EU nationals who have been in Britain for five years continuously and “pre-settled status” for those who have been in the country for less than five.

The figures show that by April 30 just over 100,000 Poles had applied, alongside nearly 90,000 Romanians and more than 70,000 Italians.

The Home Office said most applications take up to four days to process and that 99.9 percent of received requests had been approved.

Source: Read Full Article