No-deal Brexit to limit UK rights of Portuguese latecomers

If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, only Portuguese nationals who have entered the country by 29 March will be sure of obtaining a residence permit, almost two years earlier than previously foreseen, Portugal’s foreign minister warned last Friday.

“If there is no agreement, the key date is March 29, from which [date] the United Kingdom will become a third country,” the minister, Augusto Santos Silva, told journalists in Lisbon last week.

The date on which the UK leaves the EU would become the key date in terms of EU citizens’ rights, he explained. By contrast, under the agreement the UK negotiated with the EU, but which has yet to be approved by the UK’s parliament, EU citizens would be able to request residence status if they enter the UK at any time up to 31 December 2020, the end of the transition period.

Santos Silva was speaking at a news conference to present the government’s contingency plan for citizens’ rights if no deal between the EU and the UK is approved, if parliament rejects it in a vote scheduled for next Tuesday and no other deal is approved in the meantime.

LUSA