Before 1 January 2021, all EEA nationals had an unconditional right to enter any other EEA member state and had an initial right to stay in that country for a period of three months - purely by virtue of the fact that they were an EEA national. Family members of EEA nationals also had this right.

Following the UK’s exit from the EU and the end of the post-Brexit transitional period from 1 January 2021, newly arriving EEA nationals and their family members can no longer rely on this unconditional right to stay in the UK.

An 'initial right to reside' did not give entitlement to the majority of benefits, although it could give entitlement to Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit in some cases.

For a short time, there was a cohort of EEA nationals who arrived within the final three months of 2020 and who could still rely on this initial three-month right to reside.  But all the members of that cohort had reached the end of their initial three months’ residence by April 2021 and there should no longer be anyone in the UK relying on their initial three-month right to reside.