The notes on this page are for EEA nationals and their family members who were resident in the UK on 31 December 2020.

What is a permanent right to reside?

In general EEA nationals who have resided legally in the UK for 5 years have a ‘permanent right to reside’. Residing legally means that you have been in the UK as a ‘worker’, ‘self employed’ person, a student or a ‘self-sufficient’ person or a ‘family member’.

If you have been absent from the UK during the five-year qualifying period you will still have a permanent right to reside, as long as you spent no more than half of any rolling 12-month period outside the UK. Longer absences are allowed for important reasons including study and medical treatment.

People who have a permanent right to reside because they have completed five years’ legal residence are in theory required to satisfy the factual habitual residence test, but in most cases they clearly will do so: anyone who has lived in the UK for five years will normally be considered habitually resident.

Retired people and surviving family members

In some circumstances, a permanent right to reside can be obtained before you have completed five years’ legal residence. Workers and self-employed people who reach retirement age or take early retirement after three years’ residence have a permanent right to reside – and if you have a British spouse or civil partner at the point when you retire, you do not even have to complete three years’ residence.

People who retire early due to permanent incapacity only need to have completed two years’ residence at the point when they retire, and if their incapacity results from an industrial accident in the UK or a recognised industrial disease contracted in the UK they do not need to have completed two years’ residence.

Surviving family members of workers or self-employed people who have died also have a permanent right to reside if the deceased worker/self-employed person had been resident for two years at the time of the death; and if the death was caused by an industrial accident or disease, they do not need to have completed two years’ residence.

People who have obtained a permanent right to reside in less than five years due to retirement/bereavement are not required to satisfy the factual habitual residence test.

The permanent right to reside and EU settled status

The permanent right to reside is not the same thing as EU settled status. You do not need a certificate from the Home Office to confirm you have a permanent right to reside: it exists automatically if your history of residence and work activity satisfies the rules summarised above.

This means if you applied for settled status by the 30 June 2021 deadline and you are still waiting for your settled status application to be dealt with, you will remain entitled to benefits on the basis of your existing permanent right to reside.

Returning permanent residents

Under EU free movement rules, you keep your permanent right to reside if you leave the UK for no more than two years at a time. The UK extended that to five years for people who returned to the UK by the 30 June 2021 deadline to apply for settled status.

If:

• you had a permanent right to reside at any time during the five years leading up to 31 December 2020, but you were not actually resident in the UK on that date, and
• you returned to the UK within the first six months of 2021, and
• you applied for settled status by the 30 June 2021 deadline

you will be treated as if you have a permanent right to reside. This means you will be able to claim benefits on the basis of your EU permanent right to reside while you are waiting for your settled status application to be dealt with.