Bulgarian & Romanians | European Citizens | Free Movement Rights | ICS Legal
Bulgarian and Romanian EU nationals and rights in the UK
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On 1st January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. As European Economic Area (EEA) nationals, Bulgarians and Romanians are able to move and reside freely in any Member State. They do not require leave to enter or remain to reside legally in the UK. However, they do not have an automatic right to work here.
This page explains the restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals taking employment in the United Kingdom. If you are a Bulgarian or Romanian national you are free to come to the United Kingdom to live. You will need to be able to support yourself and your family in the United Kingdom without becoming an unreasonable burden on public funds.
Please note from Jan 2014, the UK Government will continue to impose restrictions and if you would like to get legal advice on the impact, contact us on 0207 237 3388 or e-mail us on info@icslegal.com.
Until 1 January 2014, if you were a Bulgarian or Romanian national you only had a right to reside in the UK if you came into one of the following categories:
you were working in authorised employment and had registered with the Workers Authorisation Scheme
you had completed 12 months' authorised employment with fewer than 30 days of nonworking time within that period
you were self-employed
you were self-sufficient
you were a student
you were a family member of an EEA national in the UK who themselves had a right to reside.
From 1 January 2014, you no longer have to register with the Workers Authorisation Scheme if you are working in the UK. From this date, all Bulgarian and Romanian nationals have the same rights as other EEA nationals to live and work in the UK. However, like them, if you want to claim certain benefits you must show that you have a right to reside in the UK and that you intend to settle here and make it your home for the time being.
Permanent residency and British nationality
You can apply for a permanent visa stamp ( the equivalent of Indefinite Leave to Remain) after 5 years of 'exercising European treaty rights', ie after 5 years of working, studying, being self-employed or self-sufficient (or a combination of above). Did you know there is no obligation to apply for Permanent Residency? This status comes automatically, after exercising European Treaty rights in the UK for 5 years. There is no 'visa stamp' which comes automatically but status gets achieved without having to apply for a 'visa stamp'.
On the other hand, if you are planning to subsequently apply for British Citizenship, then you have to formally apply for permanent residency first. This is new from 12 November 2015, before that it was possible to apply straight for Citizenship after 6 years in the UK.
Related FAQ's
We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law (post Brexit).
Our Lawyers provide honest, trusted legal advice and exceptional service to all our clients. In return, we would expect all our clients to treat our professionals with courtesy and respect.
ICS Legal provides our clients with initial advice, to program management and compliance services - bringing in value to what we deliver.
Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.
There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.
Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.
Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.
The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.
We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) - at the highest level which is Level 3 with JRCM licence.
IAA which is the rebrand of OISC is the UK Government Regulated Body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the IAA.
Please visit our regulatory bodes page to find more information of government and other agencies which we listed by. Click here.
Your Lawyer would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team.
You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant.
Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.
After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.
We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality.
We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.
A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).
We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents.
We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.
Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors.
Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.
Yes, we do. ICS Legal other than fixed costs, offer our client's priority services in what we do including retainer services.
As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.
With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging.
The fees are to be paid through cash or bank transfer.
Home Office, third party including other costs not charged by us, will be confirmed when that is possible and are subject to changes.
Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.
No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.
We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.
It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.
No, we do not offer any services to find work or sponsorship.
When you instruct ICS Legal, we will set out the scope of work. This will tell you the work we have agreed to complete and set out the charges.
This means, we will tell you the services that are covered by the fixedcosts work whichwe would set out in our email to you and the Client Care Letter (CCL).
1. Our Terms of Business (TOB) can be found by clicking here.
We are transparent in the ways we work. Please note, as you are buying professional legal advice, its important you understand our terms of working and what is being offered.
ICS Legal operating model is line with how law firms operate - however please note each firm have their own process and policies.
If you are unsure of what the scope of the work is or require more tailored advice & help, please email us at info@icslegal.com. We value our client's feedback.