EU citizens applying for settled status face legal limbo due to backlog

UK settlement scheme closes on 30 June, but Home Office has 320,000 applications to process

Hundreds of thousands of European citizens could find themselves in limbo after 30 June and left without documented legal rights to remain in the UK if the Home Office does not clear a backlog of more than 320,000 applications for post-Brexit residency status, campaigners have warned.

There are just 50 days to go before the government's EU settlement scheme closes and the most recent government statistics show that of the 5.3m applications, 4.98m have been processed so far.