How to View and Prove Your UK Immigration Status as an EU National

Currently, an EU national who wishes to live, work and access public services or live with their families for more than six months in the UK is required to apply for a UK visa or the EU Settlement Scheme. As part of EU immigration control, the UK government requires Proof of Status from EU immigrants at UK borders and when offering public services to foreigners. Besides, employers and landlords require foreigners, including EU nationals, to prove their immigration status. 

Our article guides you on what to do and the documents you’ll need to prove your immigration status in the UK if you are an EU national. 

Who is an EU National?

An EU national is anyone who is a citizen of a country in the economic and political union known as the European Union. The union has 27 member countries, being Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The EEA countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the same rules.

Following Brexit, all EU citizens who aspire to travel to the UK are subject to the country’s immigration laws regardless of the anticipated period of their stay in the country. 

For instance, EU citizens who started living in the UK before 31 December 2020 and had/have maintained continuous residence are required to have pre-Settled or Settled Status or to have applied for such Status by 30 June 2021.

However, a UK immigrant from an EU zone with reasonable grounds for failing to apply within the deadline can still apply for pre-settled Status even beyond the required application time frame. This is because the Home Office published a statement of changes to the immigration rules on 10th September 2021. The main changes with regards to the EU Settlement scheme apply to those who wish to apply under the scheme whilst residing here as visitors and those who want to join family members as a spouse or a durable partner or a dependent child under 18 years.

Specifically, from 6 October 2021 joining family members are able to apply for Status under the EUSS whilst here as visitors. There has to be a good reason, however, why they have not applied prior to 30 June 2021 and why they did not come to the UK on or before 11 pm on 31 December 2020.

Otherwise, depending on the intention of their visit to the UK, an EU citizen must apply for leave to enter the UK under the UK immigration rules for a category such as: 

• Frontier Worker Permit holder
• The visitor (there is currently no need to apple for a visa to come in as a visitor for six months}
• Student  
• Graduate visa for students transitioning in the UK to employment
• Skilled Worker  
• T5 Temporary Work  
• Intra-Company Transfer Immigration Status 
• Start-Up status/ innovator
• Global Talent status
• Marriage
• Fiancé (e)

Consult a trusted and experienced UK immigration lawyer if you are not sure which of the above immigration status types suits you best if you are an EU national who wants to migrate or move to the UK.

How to View and Prove Your UK Immigration Status

All immigration applications in the UK are channelled to the Home Office. After going through your application, the immigration department will send you a decision letter showing the approval or the rejection of your request. An approval means that the Home Office has granted you the immigration status you had applied for. On the other hand, if the decision letter states otherwise, you can appeal the decision, make another fresh application or opt to stay in your home country.

You Might Be Interested: Innovator Founder Visa

Having your accepted immigration application and proving your immigration status are 2 different things. How will you show that you’ve been cleared by the UK government to stay and operate in the country? What proof will convince your prospective landlord, employer, or government service providers that you are a legally-recognized immigrant?

Well, EU, EEA or Swiss citizens with UK immigration status can prove their immigration rights using physical documents such as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) or a Biometric Residence Card (BRC) or digitally through View and Prove Service. 

How Do I Use the View and Prove Service?

Anyone with a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account can access the View and Prove Service on the UK public sector information website. You can use your mobile phone, tablet or laptop to sign into the View and Prove Service, where you’ll be required to enter your personal details such as your document or application number, your date of birth and the mobile number or email address that you used in your last UK immigration application. 

Once you sign into the Service, you’ll be able to:

• View your e-visa or settled/pre-settled Status and the rights you have as far as being an EU immigrant in the UK is concerned. 
• Update some of your personal details 
• Prove your immigration status to other people, for instance, employers, landlords or administrators of learning institutions in the UK. 

If you want to prove your Status, simply generate a share code from the website service and share the code with the person interested in verifying your immigration status. 

To generate the code, click ‘prove your status’ on the View and Prove service dashboard. Then, you should choose your reason for sharing your immigration details to ensure that the intended person sees only specific and relevant information, depending on the kind of engagement you’re having with them. 

For instance, if you select your reason as ‘to prove my right to work’, the person with whom you share the sharable view status code will only see your information regarding your right to work in the UK, among other relevant details. The Service generates a unique code for every reason. If you want to create a code to share with your landlord, you need to select the relevant reason and a unique code to display your UK residency right information to your landlord will be generated. Fortunately, you’ll be able to see a preview of the information that a code will show to another person. 

You can share the ‘prove status code’ with the intended people by:

• Emailing them within View and Prove Service
• Printing the screen and submitting the printout to them 
• Writing down the code and sharing the write-up 
• Reading out the code to them.

The recipient will then sign in to the View and Prove Service, where they’ll enter the code for limited access to relevant data of your immigration status. 

Need Help?

Are you having trouble accessing the view and Prove Service? Or are you worried because the information displayed by the Service concerning you is incorrect? 

Our UK immigration solicitors can help you overcome various challenges concerning proving your UK Immigration Status if you are an EU national or any other UK immigrant, including rectifying your information and using the Service. Reach out to us now for timely and hassle-free help.