A total of 543,000 Romanians have applied for the EU Settlement Scheme that allows EU citizens living and working in the United Kingdom to stay in the country after Brexit, according to data released by the British Home Office on March 19. In February alone, Romanian citizens submitted 44,500 applications, according to the same source.

Thus, the number of Romanians in the UK proves to be at least 20% higher than in the official statistics. About 457,000 Romanian nationals were estimated to be living in the UK, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released in November 2019.

In total, the British authorities have received over 3.34 million applications for the EU Settlement Scheme, up to the end of February 2020. More than 3 million people have already been granted settled or pre-settled status under this scheme.

“The three million have now secured their rights in UK law, and can continue to live and work in the UK with no change to their daily lives,” the Home Office said in a press release.

Romanians are second by the number of applications after the Poles, who have submitted 639,000 applications. Italians come next, with over 340,000 applications, followed by Portuguese (266,000) and Spaniards (204,000). High numbers of applications have also been filed by Lithuanians (170,000), Bulgarians (166,000), and French people (127,000).

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Marius Zmarandescu)