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An online system to process permanent residence applications more quickly is being secretly tested, it emerged last night.
The pilot programme will provide a less laborious service for the many EU citizens wanting to secure their immigration status in Britain before the country withdraws from the European Union. The online application will replace a paper-based system that involves printing out an 85-page form and sending it to the Home Office by special delivery.
It is being tested for two weeks by a group of about 20 corporate clients, including the accountancy firms Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers, before a public launch by the Home Office later this year.
A government spokesman said: “As part of the on-going Home Office programme to digitise applications, we have launched a number of online options.
“We are currently testing an online service which simplifies the process by allowing some EEA [European Economic Area] nationals to submit electronic applications.”
The Home Office processes about 25,000 permanent residence applications from European citizens and their family members each year.
A study released earlier this month by the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory said that if all European citizens applied for residency it would take 140 years to process the visa forms. Jurga McCluskey, head of immigration at Deloitte, said that the trial demonstrated that the Home Office was “thinking ahead” to its negotiating positions when Article 50 is triggered to start Brexit negotiations.
“If we have EU workers with [secure residence] status, there could be provisions within government policy to protect them in the long term, meaning that free movement laws will continue to influence UK immigration policy for a period of time post-Brexit,” she told the Financial Times.
Ms McCluskey said that “questions will arise” over the status of EU nationals who have not been able to register, however, because they are students or self-employed small business owners.
Julia Onslow-Cole, head of global immigration at PwC, said she believed that the new digital system could help to prevent backlogs of applications and categorise European nationals who were in Britain before new immigration policies were introduced.
Ms Onslow-Cole said one-to-one clinics run by PwC at larger employers had led to immigration advisers being “inundated with requests for meetings”.
One person who was helping to operate the new system said that it was “definitely part of a stocktaking exercise” to assess the numbers of European nationals living and working in Britain.
The source said: “National Insurance numbers are useless and there isn’t any other way of determining how many are here or where they are.”
Current form is not mandatory, shorter simpler forms are available.yellowcat wrote:It seems like good news!
So, should we wait or send the 85 page form now? I have almost filled it in, but since this is coming in the near future, then I will probably wait for the online form, which I hope is simpler and more logical.
I have a feeling that the whole exercise is more a data collection exercise than a genuine attempt to help EEA citizens.gtht wrote: I'm curious how much time it would really save, though. Besides automatically filling in forms I imagine the case officer would still have to inspect the scanned documents, review and verify them.
What Brexit has done is that it has crystallised the situation, so that rather that having ephemeral rights based on relationships and nebulous theories (such as exercising treaty rights), one needs documentary proof of the right to remain in the UK, which can be counted, monitored and if need be, controlled.ptstream wrote:people have free entry at border controls with a simple ID card.... Many people probably didn't bother before brexit
Money talks. With non-EEA applications under the UK Immigration Rules, it is possible to get premium or even super-premium service for an additional fee (£500 upwards), which provides for same day answers (though that is not guaranteed). But as EU law caps the fees at £65, that facility is not available with EEA applications.Right wrote:Also, what is with the trial for corporate clients? Sick of fat cats getting priority over me.
Simon, I see what you did there. Ha ha, very good.secret.simon wrote:EU nationals: have you recently applied for British citizenship?
Not sure if anybody noticed this article in the Gruaniad. They are looking for EEA citizens who have applied for British naturalisaton in wake of the Brexit referendum to contact them.
Interesting, although I am not strictly an EU national and applied beforehand.secret.simon wrote:EU nationals: have you recently applied for British citizenship?
Not sure if anybody noticed this article in the Gruaniad. They are looking for EEA citizens who have applied for British naturalisaton in wake of the Brexit referendum to contact them.
Hmmm, looks like it is going to be more complicated: first you need to taka a day of work for the appointment, then pay an extra fee and then worry what if a council worker misplaces your documents...Easier to send the paper form perhaps.Noetic wrote:Looks like this will be going hand in hand with an NCS style local council service https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... rn-service
Not at all - it means you retain your important documents rather than having to trust Royal Mail with a Kilo bundle of important documents.yellowcat wrote:Hmmm, looks like it is going to be more complicated: first you need to taka a day of work for the appointment, then pay an extra fee and then worry what if a council worker misplaces your documents...Easier to send the paper form perhaps.Noetic wrote:Looks like this will be going hand in hand with an NCS style local council service https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... rn-service
