If the person is an EU citizen continuously resident in the UK, they will be eligible for settled status with less than five years’ continuous residence, if they:
- were a worker or self-employed person in the UK and then terminated that activity, having reached the age of entitlement to a state pension (or having been a worker, having taken early retirement), and, immediately before that, they had been a worker or self-employed person in the UK for at least the preceding 12 months and had been continuously resident in the UK for more than the preceding three years; or
- stopped being a worker or self-employed person owing to permanent incapacity to work, having been continuously resident in the UK for more than the preceding two years or the incapacity having resulted from an accident at work or an occupational disease that entitles the person to a pension payable in full or in part by an institution in the UK; or
- were continuously resident in the UK for at least three years as a worker or self-employed person, immediately before becoming a worker or self-employed person in another EU country, while retaining a place of residence in the UK to which they return, as a rule, at least once a week.
The conditions as to the length of residence and of employment above do not apply where the EU citizen is the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen.
If the person is a family member of an EU citizen granted settled status as described above, they will also be eligible for settled status with less than five years’ continuous residence if they:
- were that person’s family member at the point that person met the conditions above.
- are continuously resident in the UK
If the person is a family member of an EU citizen who has died and the EU citizen was resident in the UK as a worker or self-employed person at the time of their death, they will be eligible for settled status with less than five years’ continuous residence if:
- the EU citizen was continuously resident in the UK for at least two years before their death, or their death was the result of an accident at work or an occupational disease; and
- the family member was resident in the UK with the EU citizen immediately before their death and is continuously resident in the UK.
If the person is a child under the age of 21 years of an EU citizen (or of their spouse or civil partner) who is continuously resident in the UK, they will be eligible for settled status with less than five years’ continuous residence if:
- the relevant EU citizen (or their spouse or civil partner) has been or is being granted settled status under the scheme (or, in the case of an Irish citizen, they would be so if they made a valid application under the scheme).
Where an EU citizen or their family member has ceased to be continuously resident in the UK, they will be eligible for pre-settled status (limited leave to remain) under the scheme where they start a new period of continuous residence in the UK by 31 December 2020.
An EU citizen continuously resident in the UK before 31 December 2020 will be able to be joined after that date by close family members resident overseas if the relationship existed at that date and it continues to exist when the person wishes to come to the UK. The scheme will also be open in certain circumstances to a non-British citizen child born in the UK or overseas after 31 December 2020 to (or adopted by) a parent or parents eligible for status under the scheme.
