UK ministers are set to begin revoking post-Brexit residency rights from certain EU citizens who are no longer considered to be “continuously” living in the country, the Home Office has announced.
The move, which is permitted under the 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement, will primarily target individuals granted “pre-settled status” — a category given to EU nationals who had lived in the UK for less than five years before Brexit.
Officials say enforcement will initially focus on those believed to have been absent from the country for more than five years.
According to the Home Office, the measure is intended to protect public services and prevent abuse of the immigration system.
Authorities insist that residency rights will only be withdrawn where it is deemed proportionate, with safeguards in place to consider valid reasons for extended absences.
However, the decision to rely partly on travel data to assess eligibility has sparked concern among advocacy groups and oversight bodies.
Critics point to past issues with Home Office data, including a case involving HMRC in which nearly 20,000 parents were wrongly stripped of child benefits due to inaccurate border records.
Latest government figures show that of the 6.2 million EU citizens who applied for UK immigration status after Brexit, around 1.4 million still hold pre-settled status.
Estimates from the Migration Observatory at Oxford University suggest that between 3 million and 4 million EU nationals may currently reside in the UK.
Under existing rules, individuals with settled status can remain outside the UK for up to five consecutive years without losing their rights. Those with pre-settled status must not exceed a total of 30 months of absence within a five-year period.
The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA), which oversees citizens’ rights agreements, has raised concerns about how the new policy will be implemented. Its chief executive, Miranda Biddle, said the organisation was seeking assurances over the robustness and fairness of decision-making.
Campaign group the3million has also warned that reliance on flawed travel data could lead to “unsafe” decisions. The group cited cases where individuals were questioned based on inaccurate records, including journeys that were booked but never taken or inconsistencies in travel histories.
Investigations have previously found that Home Office data may fail to record return journeys and can include airline bookings without accounting for cancellations or no-shows.
Despite the concerns, the Home Office maintains that most pre-settled status holders will not be affected and that only those with significant absences will be required to prove their eligibility.
