United Kingdom EU Citizens' Rights Network

Your rights

Your rights, in plain English

This page is information, not advice. Immigration advice in the UK is a regulated activity under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and only regulated advisers may tell you what to do in your individual case. The rules also change — this page was last reviewed in July 2026. Always check the current position on GOV.UK, and for advice about your own situation see who can help.

Settled and pre-settled status (the EU Settlement Scheme)

If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen who was living in the UK by 31 December 2020 — or the family member of someone who was — the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is how your right to stay was protected after Brexit. It grants one of two statuses:

Settled status

Permanent. Usually granted after five years' continuous residence in the UK. You can live, work, study, rent, use the NHS and claim benefits on the same basis as before, and it is the normal step before applying for British citizenship.

Pre-settled status

Time-limited, granted to people who had not yet reached five years' residence. It carries the same core rights to live and work, but it must eventually become settled status. Since 2023–24 the Home Office has been extending pre-settled status automatically rather than letting it expire — but an extension is not the same as settled status, so it is still worth securing settled status when you qualify.

Automatic upgrades and a simpler residence test

  • Since July 2025, pre-settled status holders can qualify for settled status under a simpler alternative test: roughly 30 months of UK residence within the last 60 months, instead of the older "no more than 6 months' absence in any 12-month period over five years" rule.
  • Since January 2025 the Home Office has been automatically converting eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status, and in April 2026 it expanded this: its systems check for around 30 months of tax or benefit records in the last 60 months, and if found, settled status is granted without an application.
  • Automatic conversion does not cover everyone — for example people without enough tax or benefit records, many non-EEA family members, joining family members, children, and people with derivative rights. If you are not converted automatically, your pre-settled status should be extended and you can still apply yourself.
  • Also from April 2026, the Home Office has begun removing pre-settled status from people it believes have stopped living in the UK, starting with very long absences. It should contact you first and give you 28 days to respond with evidence. If this happens to you, get regulated advice quickly — see who can help with status problems. the3million publishes a detailed plain-English explainer of the whole automation process on the3million.org.uk.

Late applications and digital status

  • The main deadline was 30 June 2021, but late applications are still accepted where there are reasonable grounds for the delay. If you or someone in your family never applied, it is not necessarily too late — get regulated advice. The charity Settled specialises in exactly this, free of charge and in many languages.
  • EUSS status is digital only (an eVisa). You prove it through the "View and Prove" service on GOV.UK, which generates a share code for employers and landlords. Keep the email address on your UKVI account up to date — it is how the Home Office contacts you.
A real case, from the published record

In December 2022 the High Court ruled, in a judicial review brought by the Independent Monitoring Authority, that people with pre-settled status must not lose their residence rights just because they do not make a second application — and that permanent residence rights are acquired automatically after five years' qualifying residence. The judgment forced the Home Office to redesign the scheme, leading to today's automatic extensions and conversions.

Source: IMA — landmark High Court challenge (R (IMA) v SSHD [2022] EWHC 3274 (Admin))

Withdrawal Agreement rights

If you were living in the UK by 31 December 2020 and hold (or were entitled to hold) EUSS status, you are protected by the citizens' rights part of the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement (or the equivalent EEA EFTA and Swiss agreements). These treaties guarantee, among other things:

  • Residence — the right to live in the UK, and to leave and return within permitted absence limits;
  • Work — the right to work or be self-employed, including frontier workers;
  • Equal treatment — the right not to be discriminated against on grounds of nationality in work, housing, education, healthcare and access to benefits and services;
  • Social security — coordination of pensions, healthcare and benefits built up in the UK and EU;
  • Professional qualifications — recognition of qualifications that were recognised before the end of 2020.

A dedicated official body, the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens' Rights Agreements (IMA), monitors whether UK public bodies uphold these rights. It does not resolve individual cases, but complaints to it build the evidence for inquiries and even legal action against public bodies — as the case above shows. If a council, government department, NHS body or other public authority has failed to respect your Withdrawal Agreement rights, you can complain to the IMA as well as pursuing your own complaint.

If you arrived from 1 January 2021 onwards, the Withdrawal Agreement generally does not cover you; your rights come from your visa route and from ordinary UK law, including equality law. You are still entitled to fair and lawful treatment, and the routes on When rights go wrong are still open to you.

Your right to see your own personal data

One right applies to absolutely everyone in the UK, whatever your nationality or immigration route: the right of access to your own personal data, under the UK GDPR. You exercise it by making a Subject Access Request (often called a SAR or DSAR) — simply asking an organisation, in writing or even verbally, for a copy of the information it holds about you.

Subject Access Requests: the basics

  • It applies to every organisation that holds your data — employers, landlords and letting agents, councils, the Home Office, banks, schools and universities, and yes, your GP practice.
  • It is free of charge in almost all cases. An organisation can only charge (or refuse) if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
  • The organisation must respond without undue delay and within one calendar month. If your request is complex, or you have made several, it can extend by up to two further months (three in total) — but it must tell you within the first month and explain why.
  • If an organisation ignores your request, misses the deadline or withholds your data without a valid reason, use its own complaints process first, and then complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.

Being refused access to your own records — or discovering that records about you are wrong — makes every other problem harder to fight. The ICO's website explains the process step by step, in plain language.

Voting and standing in local elections

The Elections Act 2022 changed the rules for EU citizens in England from 7 May 2024. EU citizens are no longer automatically entitled to register, vote or stand in local elections. Two groups keep these rights:

"Qualifying EU citizens"

Citizens of countries that have a bilateral voting and candidacy treaty with the UK — currently Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain — who have (or don't need) permission to be in the UK. They can vote and stand in local elections regardless of when they arrived.

"EU citizens with retained rights"

Citizens of any other EU country who have been lawfully resident in the UK since before 31 December 2020, without a break. Holding your own settled or pre-settled status (not as a joining family member) is accepted as evidence of this.

Citizens of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus are not affected by these changes and can vote in all UK elections as before. The rules above apply to local elections in England and Northern Ireland; Scotland and Wales set their own franchise for local and devolved elections and have kept voting rights for all foreign citizens legally resident there. Register at gov.uk/register-to-vote — it takes about five minutes. If you think you were wrongly removed from the electoral register, contact your local council's electoral services team, and see the Electoral Commission for the detailed rules.

Everyday rights that often go wrong

Most problems are not exotic points of law. They are everyday rights being ignored: an employer or landlord refusing a valid share code; a benefit wrongly refused; an NHS service wrongly charging someone entitled to free care; a bank or council misunderstanding pre-settled status; an organisation obstructing access to your own data. Each of these has a route — an institution with the power to put it right. They are all mapped, problem by problem, on When rights go wrong.

Remember: this page explains the rules in general terms only. For advice on your own case, always use a regulated adviser — here is how to find one, including free options such as law centres and Citizens Advice.