EU citizens applying to stay permanently in UK will be left in limbo for a decade, warns report
Some EU citizens applying to stay permanently in Britain after Brexit will be left in limbo for a decade because the system is broken, a damning report warns today. It will take around 11 years to process millions of expected residency requests from worried EU nationals at the Home Office’s current workrate, it reveals. Just 135,000 decisions were made last year. The Government is urged to “introduce a streamlined process” without delay to ease the plight of people who – Brexit Secretary David Davis has admitted – are “suffering anxiety”. The call comes from the respected Institute for Government (IfG), which has also warned that Theresa May’s hopes of an early end to free movement of EU citizens will be dashed. A new immigration system cannot be ready for several years, forcing the Government to keep the current rules to avoid what business leaders fear will be “a bureaucratic nightmare”. Any delay is potentially embarrassing for the Prime Minister, who has made regai