After Brexit, the automatic right for EU citizens and their families to live and work in the UK ended. Instead, EU citizens had to apply for legal permission to remain under what is known as the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
A total of 6,015,400 applications were made between the launch of the scheme in March 2019 and the closing date of 30 June 2021. Another 58,200 applications came in after the deadline, figures up to 31 July show.
The Home Office says it has deployed extra resources to deal with applications and most non-complex cases are decided within five working days. Some 483,200 cases were pending in July, Home Office data shows.
Russell-Cooke associate Bhavneeta Limbachia comments in BBC News that this bottleneck in the system is failing EU immigrants.
Almost half a million EU citizens await decision over right to stay in UK is free to read on the BBC News website.
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