A 33-year-old Italian engineer living in London since 2018 has been told by the Home Office that his settled status was granted in error, leaving his Brazilian wife with no right to remain in the UK.
Fabio, whose name has been changed, originally came to London to complete his doctorate and has since built a career in energy and climate change. He was granted settled status under the EU settlement scheme, which gives permanent residency to qualifying EU citizens after five years in the UK.
Error in settled status award
The Home Office has now told him the award was a mistake, and as a result his wife, who he has been with since his arrival, cannot stay as a qualifying family member. Officials said he could remain in the UK and would not have his settled status removed, but the error means his wife has no legal right to be in the country.
"It was quite devastating for both of us. We have been here for a long time. We have done everything by the book, and we’ve always felt very welcome here and I always thought this is somewhere I could grow my career," he said.
"It is so upsetting and frustrating to know that we are now in this vulnerable position just as we were thinking of building a family, buying a place for ourselves. Now all our plans must stop."
Review triggered by wife's application
Fabio is one of at least 100 individuals contacted by the Home Office about errors in their settled status awards. The review appears to have been triggered by his wife's application for status. Fabio was born in Brazil but is an Italian dual national by birth and provided a certificate from the Italian consulate with his application.
Officials now say the evidence of his Italian citizenship was "insufficient" and he needed proof he was Italian before the Brexit cut-off date of 31 December 2020. The Home Office stated: "It has therefore been decided that, on the basis of the information and evidence currently available, your settled status under the EU settlement scheme was granted in error."
It added he was no longer a "relevant EEA citizen" and could not sponsor his wife to remain.
Legal concerns raised
Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said she was astonished by the case, suggesting the Home Office was creating a two-tier system. "This appears to be contrary to the withdrawal agreement on the basis of which his rights were granted," she said.
The Home Office has contacted at least 100 people, but possibly more. Monique Hawkins, acting chief executive of the3million, said stripping rights in this way would affect "whole families" with a "cliff-edge loss of their rights" without the required proportionality assessment.
The Independent Monitoring Authority, which oversees the withdrawal agreement, has written to the Home Office about "discretionary decisions" and asked EU citizens facing difficulties to contact them.
Mala Savjani, partner at Wilson Solicitors, representing Fabio, said it was "not clear why" the government was targeting EU nationals with dual nationality, adding the Home Office was making "sometimes unverified, assertions about complex areas of other EU member states’ nationality laws."
The Home Office said: "It is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases." Officials added the case was "not a breach of the withdrawal agreement" and those granted status in error are not beneficiaries of the agreement.
