Do I have the rights I need in the UK?
Read Raluca’s story on securing her rights.
Click the picture or the link to view the image, share, or download it.
Do I have the rights I need in the UK?
The wording on the image is included below:
Do I have the rights I need in the UK?
Are you or is your parent from one of these countries?
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
If you are from one of the countries listed above, or if you were born in the UK to a parent from one of those countries, there is a possibility that you do not have certain rights in the UK. This includes the right to:
- Live in the UK
- Use the NHS for free
- Travel in and out of the UK
- Access further and higher education
- Access benefits like housing
- Work in the UK
To secure these rights you might need to make an EUSS application.
How to secure your rights in the UK
Don’t assume you have all the rights you need to live in the UK. Know these facts:
- Being born in the UK does not automatically make you British citizen. This means you do not automatically get the rights of a British citizen
- Children do not automatically get the same immigration status as one or both their parents
- Before the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 (usually referred to as Brexit), the children of parents from the relevant countries automatically had access to rights in the UK
- But after Brexit, parents and their children needed to make an application to get EUSS status, a type of immigration status, to secure the rights they needed in the UK
- Family applications cannot be made to the EUSS. A separate EUSS application needed to be made for each child
- Although the deadline for EUSS applications has passed for those who were living in the UK by the end of 2020, you can still make a late application. As a child you may have what is known as ‘reasonable grounds’ for making a late EUSS application
- Children are able to make an application for themselves – it does not have to be done by a pare
Get reliable advice
Understanding immigration status is hard – you may well need help. Only rely on regulated advice. Even if well intentioned, unofficial advice could be wrong.
- Find free advice through organisations listed on the Gov.UK website.
- If you want the help of an immigration adviser, make sure they are regulated. Use this Gov.UK list to check.
