Home Office Is Revoking Settled Status From EU Citizens in the UK: What Happened and How to Appeal

The Home Office is revoking — and refusing to renew — settled status granted before Brexit in 2018–2020 to some EU citizens; a freedom of information request shows that nearly 1,500 people had received such letters by the end of June, and the3million is now challenging this practice in the Supreme Court.

In short

• The Home Office is revoking settled status granted before Brexit in 2018–2020, retroactively declaring the original decisions to have been mistakes.
• By 30 June, nearly 1,500 people had received revocation letters; campaigners estimate the real figure could reach 2,000–3,000.
• Revocation also affects spouses or partners of EU citizens who obtained status based on someone else’s settled status.
• You have 14 days to appeal from the date you receive the decision, and you must file it while physically in the UK.
• In early November, the3million filed a claim with the Supreme Court challenging the Home Office’s status-revocation policy itself.

Why the Home Office Is Revoking Pre-Brexit Settled Status

The Home Office explains these revocations by saying that some decisions made in 2018–2020, before Brexit, were wrong from the start — the applicant, formally, should never have received that status in the first place. The department’s logic: the law cannot apply retroactively, so a past error is corrected not by amending the rule going forward, but by cancelling the status that was already granted.

In most cases this isn’t about settled status itself, but about decisions made at the pre-settled status stage — it’s those earlier decisions the Home Office reopens years later, when someone applies to switch to settled status. The issue surfaces at the exact moment someone who has put in their five years applies to move from pre-settled to settled status: the Home Office reopens the file and re-examines a decision made several years earlier. It’s during this re-examination that the department concludes the status was granted by mistake back then.

This isn’t limited to renewal reviews: since last year the Home Office has also been checking applicants’ criminal records, including requesting information from their country of origin — and in the process, it’s finding grounds to revisit earlier decisions too. Crucially, the people caught up in this aren’t applicants who withheld information. These are people who applied through the standard process in 2019–2020, have lived in the UK legally the whole time since — and are only now finding out that their original status was deemed to have been granted in error.

Crucially, the people caught up in this aren’t applicants who withheld information.

How Many People Have Received Revocation Letters

According to the organisation that obtained this information through an official freedom of information request, nearly 1,500 people had received revocation letters by 30 June — a figure that hasn’t been independently verified and only reflects cases recorded up to that point. The department initially refused to disclose the number, citing its standard policy of not commenting on individual cases.

The data only came to light after an organisation defending the rights of EU citizens in the UK filed a formal freedom of information request. It was in response to that request that the Home Office provided the figure as of 30 June.

The figure of 1,500 only covers cases recorded through the end of June, not a current count. Given the time that has passed since the request, campaigners’ rough estimates suggest the real number of people who have received such letters could be higher — possibly reaching 2,000–3,000 — though that figure has no official confirmation.

Giovanni’s Case: How a 2018 Passport Became Grounds for Refusal

Giovanni was born in Brazil but holds Italian citizenship and is considered a European by birth. When he applied for pre-settled status, the Italian passport confirming his citizenship had only been issued in 2018 — the document itself was issued later than the date he actually became an Italian citizen.

That gap between his date of birth and the date his passport was issued became the basis for a refusal. When Giovanni applied to switch from pre-settled to settled status, the Home Office argued that since the passport was issued in 2018, he hadn’t been an Italian citizen before that date — even though that isn’t true, since Giovanni held Italian citizenship from birth.

the Home Office argued that since the passport was issued in 2018, he hadn’t been an Italian citizen before that date

On that basis, the Home Office sent him a letter: his pre-settled status had been granted for five years, and once that period ended, he would not be given settled status. At the same time, Giovanni isn’t being refused a new application outright — formally, the department is simply not renewing a status he already has, which means this can’t be challenged as a straightforward refusal, even though the right to appeal in such cases usually still exists (more on that below).

Can a Spouse or Partner Lose Status Along With a European Citizen

The risk of revocation doesn’t stop at the EU citizens themselves — it also extends to their spouses or partners who received status based on someone else’s settled status. In one case, a Swedish national married a woman in the UK, and the couple had two children; because the Swedish partner had settled status, his wife was also able to get the same status, despite having no EU passport or citizenship of her own.

The problem arose when the woman applied to switch her own five-year status to settled status: the Home Office claimed that, five years earlier, the couple hadn’t provided enough documents or evidence that the relationship was genuine. At the time, the couple had proven they were in a relationship and had lived together for at least two years — the department accepted that and granted the status. Now, five years later, the Home Office has decided that earlier decision was wrong and told the woman she won’t be able to renew her status.

There was another version of the same problem too: in one case, the Home Office retroactively decided that the status of the person who was meant to pass status on to a partner had itself been granted incorrectly. The status holder kept their own status, but their partner lost the ability to obtain status through them in future.

Who Exactly This Home Office Policy Affects

The policy affects people who were living in the UK lawfully before 2020 — that is, before Brexit. This isn’t about people who, after Brexit, tried to join family members already in the country; those cases are a separate category and don’t fall under the main issue described here.

The main group at risk is EU citizens who were in the UK before Brexit and had guaranteed rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. It’s precisely these rights — regardless of whether the person is Polish or from any other EU country — that the Home Office is now calling into question, citing errors made when the status was first granted.

Giovanni’s case and the Swedish couple’s case, discussed above, aren’t exceptions — they’re examples of exactly this category: people who broke no rules and did everything that was required of them at the time they applied.

The Supreme Court Case and the3million’s Position

According to available information, a claim was filed with the Supreme Court in early November challenging the Home Office’s policy of cancelling statuses granted “by mistake” — details of the proceedings are worth following as the case develops. The trigger was the mechanism by which the department doesn’t refuse a new application outright, but simply declines to renew a status already granted — and in Giovanni’s case, the court noted that this exact construction strips a person of the ordinary ability to appeal the decision. These actions have been found to conflict with the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement — the agreement meant to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.

this exact construction strips a person of the ordinary ability to appeal the decision

Those affected aren’t rule-breakers: none of them concealed criminal records or other grounds for refusal — their statuses were cancelled retroactively because of an error made by the department itself. At the same time, there are known cases where, after an appeal was filed and the case got media attention, the Home Office reversed its decision and granted status after all — that’s what happened with Giovanni, with the Swedish couple, and with another couple referenced in the source material. It remains an open question how many of the nearly 1,500 people who received letters never challenged the decision and lost their status without a fight.

The3million, the organisation challenging the Home Office’s policy itself and already taking the issue to the Supreme Court, is worth treating as the main point of contact for anyone facing a similar situation: the organisation is looking for other people in the same position to use their cases in the proceedings.

The 14-Day Appeal: How to Keep Your Rights While Your Case Is Reviewed

1. Check whether the decision letter mentions a right of appeal. Any Home Office decision on renewing five-year status to settled status should include the right to appeal — the absence of this would go against the rules (c48, c49). The one exception: if the department treats the application as late or invalid, there is no right of appeal in that case (c50).

2. File your appeal within 14 days of receiving the decision — this is the standard time limit (c51). For your rights to be preserved for the entire duration of the review, you need to be physically present in the UK at the time you receive the decision (c51).

3. Don’t miss the deadline by planning to apply again instead. The Home Office often states that a revoked or non-renewed status can simply be reapplied for, but in practice a new application — especially from someone who lived in the country before Brexit — may well be treated as filed too late (c47). A timely appeal is a more reliable route than a fresh application.

4. Appeal even if the Home Office admits it made a mistake. If the department acknowledges it made an error, or even states that the applicant should never have had the status at all, that doesn’t cancel the guarantee: as long as the appeal is filed on time, rights are preserved for the whole review period (c52, c53, c54, c55, c56).

The revocation mechanism itself is built so that, formally, it isn’t a refusal of a new application but a decision not to renew a status already held — and because of this wording, the right to appeal isn’t always obvious and, in some cases, may not exist at all, so it’s worth checking the appeal-rights clause in the decision letter itself carefully (see step 1 above). This is exactly why filing an appeal on time is the only way not to be left without confirmed status while the case is being reviewed: without it, a person risks losing their job and their right to rent housing before the case is resolved.

What to do if you receive a status revocation letter

• Check whether the decision states a right of appealrequiredIts absence would go against the rules, except when the application is treated as late or invalid
• File your appeal within 14 daysrequiredThe clock starts from the date you receive the decision
• Be physically present in the UK when you filerequiredOtherwise your rights won’t be preserved during the review
• Don’t file a new application instead of appealingA new application may be treated as filed too late
• Appeal even if the Home Office admits it made a mistakerequiredThis doesn’t cancel the guarantee that your rights are preserved during review
• Contact the3millionThe organisation is collecting similar cases for the Supreme Court proceedings

Frequently asked questions

What happens if a new status application is treated as filed too late

The Home Office usually says a revoked or non-renewed status can simply be reapplied for, but in practice a new application — especially from someone who lived in the country before Brexit — is often treated as filed too late. That’s why a timely appeal is more reliable than counting on a fresh application.

Do you lose your job and your right to rent housing immediately after a revocation letter

No, not if you file your appeal on time: your rights for that period are preserved, including the right to work and to rent housing. The risk of losing them arises specifically when the appeal isn’t filed within the 14-day deadline, or is filed while the person is outside the UK.

Can you challenge a decision if the Home Office openly admits it made a mistake

Yes, it’s still worth filing an appeal in that case: the department admitting an error, or even stating that the status should never have been granted at all, doesn’t remove your right to a timely appeal and doesn’t cancel the preservation of your rights for the whole review period.

Does this issue affect people who moved to the UK after Brexit to join family

No, that’s a separate category of cases that doesn’t fall under the issue described here. This policy affects people who were living in the UK lawfully before 2020 and held EU rights before Brexit, not people who applied to join family members after the UK had already left the EU.

How do I know if I have a right of appeal if I’ve received a similar letter

Check the Home Office decision itself: it should state whether you have a right to appeal. The one exception is if the department treats the application as filed late or as invalid — in that case there is no right of appeal.