LONDON, July 3 (NNN-Xinhua) — More than 6 million Europeans have applied to Britain’s post Brexit EU (European Union) Settlement Scheme before the June 30 deadline, the British Home Office said Friday.
Official figures released by the Home Office showed there were 6.02 million applications made to the scheme. The total number of applications concluded up to June 30 was 5,446,300.
There have been more than 5.3 million applications from England, 291,200 from Scotland, 98,600 from Wales, and 98,400 from Northern Ireland.
“The surge in applications, including more than 400,000 in June alone, means that there are around 570,000 pending applications,” said a Home Office spokesperson.
The Home Office added most non-complex applications were still being decided within five days. The department has also put extra resource into concluding applications as quickly as possible, while around 5,000 older cases cannot progress as they are held at the suitability stage, for example awaiting the result of a pending criminal prosecution.
The EU Settlement Scheme was designed by the British government to allow EU, EEA (European Economic Area) and Swiss citizens to apply to continue living in Britain after Brexit.
EU citizens who live in Britain but do not have indefinite leave to remain had to apply for the scheme by June 30. — NNN-XINHUA
