BREAKING: Ministers are postponing the full shift to #eVisas, acknowledging the system is flawed & may have devastating impact, leaving people stranded abroad.
We welcome this decision, but too much remains unclear. We urgently need a public inquiry 🧵👇 theguardian.com/politics/2024/… Labour inherited a system that is not fit for purpose.

The previous government has used the EU Settlement Scheme as a test-bed for #eVisas. We've been warning for over 6 long years how the most vulnerable people would be affected, pushed into the hands of the hostile environment

We are delighted to update you on two major successes achieved in court, bringing us a step closer to ensuring all EU citizens and family members have access to welfare and housing 🧵

the3million.org.uk/news/2024-05-2… The County Court found EU citizens and family members are eligible for homelessness assistance on the basis of right to equal treatment, in Hynek v Islington.

The full judgment can be found here: the3million.org.uk/sites/default/…

📢 BREAKING: The Home Office announce changes affecting 1.9m EU citizens* with EU Settlement Scheme pre-settled status:
🔸Expiry dates of status will not be visible to employers, landlords and other checkers
🔸Pre-settled status extensions are being increased to 5 years 🔸No further checks are required to be done by landlords or employers once someone is in a job or tenancy

📢 BREAKING: The Home Office announced people's pre-settled status will be extended by 2 years before it expires if they have not obtained settled status.

AND In 2024, they will seek to automatically convert SOME eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status. This comes off the back of the High Court ruling which found people with pre-settled status must not lose residence rights just because they do not make a second application to the EU Settlement Scheme before the expiry of their pre-settled status. the3million.org.uk/news/2023-02-1…

It would be unacceptable for people to be asked to repay welfare paid out as a result of the failure of the Home Office to correctly reflect people's immigration status.

Together with @worcrights, we wrote to the @DWPgovuk expressing our concerns. politicshome.com/news/article/t… In the letter, we ask for transparency from the @DWPgovuk and @ukhomeoffice on the steps the departments are taking to identify people who may have been incorrectly in receipt of welfare (potentially without even knowing). the3million.org.uk/publication/20…

📢 BREAKING: The Secretary of State will not appeal the judgment which found the Brexit rule that makes EU citizens reapply to stay in the UK is unlawful.

The government must now implement changes, in order to conform with the ruling in the case brought by @IMA_CitRights. The court ruled people with pre-settled status cannot lose their residence rights just because they don’t make a second application to the EU Settlement Scheme before the expiry of their pre-settled status.

HMRC identity verification: the government has listened!

Non-UK passports are now accepted as verification for access to tax and other records. Thank you to everyone who reported the issue to us. We wrote to HMRC last year asking why non UK passports were no longer acceptable as verification for access to tax and other records. The withdrawal of the Verify service resulted in many EU citizens being no longer able to access services digitally. the3million.org.uk/publication/20…

📢 BREAKING: The High Court has ruled the Government’s implementation of the EU Settlement Scheme is unlawful.

In a significant judgment the court protects citizens’ rights and agrees with the @IMA_CitRights challenge to the Scheme. First, the court ruled people with pre-settled status cannot lose their residence rights under the Withdrawal Agreement just because they don’t make a second application to the EU Settlement Scheme before the expiry of their pre-settled status.

Linda's mother is an immigrant in Hungary from the former German Democratic Republic, a country which doesn't exist anymore. It's important to remember today that it's not only people who move - it's also borders. #MigrantsDay "I first moved to the UK from Hungary in 2013 as a student. Being the first one in my family to go to university — thanks to my parents’ hard work and sacrifices — it doesn’t escape me what a privilege this is."

It is very disappointing to see the focus today on a very small minority of EU Settlement Scheme cases where marriages have been found to be disingenuous, rather than the thousands of families who are being split apart by the Home Office. 🧵 There have been 490,030 applications made by non-EEA citizens to the #EUSS, most of whom are EU citizens' family members.

The article today shared that the Home Office claimed 365 cases of disingenuous marriages. Even out of these, we know some decisions are overturned on appeal

The EU Settlement Scheme backlog of applications is still flatlining. At the end of June, 225,400 applications are pending a decision. Some have been in limbo for over a year.
Behind every pending case, there is a person waiting for their future to be decided by the Home Office. "We are currently dealing with the unprecedented demand from EUSS applications," a Home Office spokesperson has said.

How is a relatively steady number of late applications, family members' applications and upgrades from pre-settled to settled status "unprecedented demand"?

📢Last night the House of Lords emphatically passed a motion of regret on another 2.5 million people now being subject to digital-ONLY right to work/rent checks, without assessing the impact on affected citizens, and without heeding clear warnings from earlier assessments.

🧵 The debate lasted over an hour with contributions across the political spectrum.

We highlight just a few here, but you can watch the full debate here: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/e8…,

or read it here: hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2022-06-…(PersonalAndPremisesLicen

Another @repubblica article from @antoguerrera about our staff members who were recently faced with demands for additional ID to be able to return to their home in the UK, with new information on the situation.

repubblica.it/cronaca/2022/0… (For context - this is what happened last week to our colleagues @_andreeatweets and @LaraCParizotto:

https://twitter.com/the3million/status/1531294995352788995?s=20&t=s9H0w7degl-nt9kNNPyhgw

)

The @IMA_CitRights has today announced their inquiry into the @ukhomeoffice delayed issuing of Certificates of Application.

We have flagged this as an issue with serious implications since April 2021.

Here is the latest from @gallardo_ortega:
politico.eu/article/uk-hom… /1 Since last year, we have received numerous reports of people losing work, housing, access to health care, and more.

We were so concerned about the issue of delays we dedicated a report in November 2021 to it: the3million.org.uk/ima-report-nov… /2

We've had reports of people denied boarding before, being asked for physical proof of status when such physical proof does not exist.

This weekend two of our own employees, on different flights, were told they could not come home to the UK using just their EU passports. Our Communications Manager @_andreeatweets was picked from a queue of passengers, and told she could not come home unless she produced extra photo ID. Her Romanian passport was not enough

Where is the policy that justifies this, @easyJet and @ukhomeoffice?

https://twitter.com/_andreeatweets/status/1530674773692452867?s=20&t=bj0liQu-mFRagBMrbmJ27A

📢 🧵Updated EU Settlement Scheme stats are out. In Feb 2022, we are seeing:
🔸all time high of "other" results: 36.2% of applications concluded did not result in status
🔸a steady trend of fewer applications processed each month, hinting that less resource is allocated to EUSS At this processing rate, it will take over 20 months to clear the backlog of 300,000 applications waiting for a decision.

Despite the Home Office's reassurances that EUSS has been a success, there are still people waiting significant periods of time, living in uncertainty.

What do delays to EU Family Permit visas mean for families? Anna*, a Belarusian citizen with #SettledStatus, cannot return home to the UK with her 1 year old British baby and husband. They are stuck in Latvia, waiting for a family travel permit, with their lives on hold. Over Christmas, Anna went home to Belarus, for her family to meet her child for the first time. After the holidays, her British husband returned. Anna's mother applied for a Schengen visa to travel through Lithuania to the UK, to help Anna with childcare here.

📢📢IMPORTANT UPDATE: The European Court of Justice agrees with our assessment of CSI.

We have long argued what the CJEU found, namely that access to the NHS fulfills the CSI requirement.

https://twitter.com/StevePeers/status/1501855801090232328

We sought to achieve this via amendments brought by @Bambos_MP, @Stuart_McDonald and @SarahLudford at all stages of the Borders bill.

The Government rejected these by merely tinkering with the existing discretionary approach.

The government refused yet again to #FixTheDigitalStatus yesterday in the House of Lords, causing needless suffering to the most vulnerable. Ignoring countless calls to provide physical proof to EU citizens is wrong. We need to see meaningful engagement now. Peers debated #Amendment79 of the #NationalityAndBordersBill to give physical proof of immigration status. Unfortunately there were not enough votes in support at the late hour it was debated. This problem isn't going away and we need the govt to address it.

📢 NEW CAMPAIGN. It's time to ask the government to #FixTheDigitalStatus.

✍️ Write to members of the House of Lords, who NEXT WEEK will discuss an amendment asking for physical proof of immigration status.

Join us:
the3million.org.uk/fix-the-digita… Lack of physical proof of our immigration status continues to be one of our most pressing issues.

The solution is simple: a system based on QR codes, similar to the Covid-19 vaccination certificates, making life easier for millions of people.
the3million.org.uk/fixing-the-dig…

British in Europe is closing today 😲
It's with great sadness we see our most trusted partner leaving the scene but the friendships born out of years of campaigning together will remain.

https://twitter.com/BritishInEurope/status/1498293801277919236

Together, we made history: @the3million and @BritishInEurope started as grassroots citizens' initiatives following the 2016 referendum and provided a united front when many people were trying to divide us for quick political gains.