Dear fellow EU citizen,
Last month, an updated guidance of the Home Office made clear that, for some EU citizens with Settled Status who are applying for British citizenship, the infamous Comprehensive Sickness Insurance (CSI) is back to haunt them.
What is the problem?
“The UK is my home. I was so looking forward to finally becoming British. Now it turns out that despite having Settled Status, I’m being punished for the lack of an insurance I was never asked for and didn’t know I needed”
To become a British citizen, EU citizens with Settled Status who were students or self-sufficient during any part of their qualifying period before the grant of settled status, will need to show that they had ‘comprehensive sickness insurance’ for those periods.
EU citizens*, holding settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, who have applied to naturalise as British citizens, are at risk of having those applications refused for not having had an obscure insurance policy - a requirement to possess Comprehensive Sickness Insurance - for certain periods in their past (before the date of the settled status).
A refusal of naturalisation, including loss of substantial fees, is devastating for anyone.
However, the more serious aspect of this issue is that for the Home Office to refuse naturalisation applications on this basis, they must conclude that the applicant was not lawfully resident in the UK for those past periods.
Updated guidance says caseworkers should exercise ‘discretion’ where such insurance is lacking - but a caseworker’s individual judgement is not a basis for fair treatment of all.
Click here for more details (PDF briefing note).
the3million realises that becoming British is a personal choice, but for those who want to, the option should be as simple as possible.
What's the solution?
Legislation needs to be changed to ensure that for those granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme, their earlier residence in the UK was not in breach of immigration laws.
We therefore ask you to write to your MP to get that obscure CSI requirement removed.
European regards,
Hedwig
Hedwig Hegtermans, a volunteer and a campaigner for the3million
* We use EU citizens as shorthand to include EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members
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