Going back to England with settled status after the end of January

Question

I understand that perhaps things are not very clear at the moment, Nevertheless I am sharing this question in case I have missed out on important information. I am a EU national who lived 14 years in England before leaving for France less than a year ago. I obtained my settled status before leaving the country and as far as I read I can live for up to five years in a row outside of the UK and still return with no issues. Is this still valid? Has any new information come to light in that respect? I am planning to return to England mid 2020.

Thank you

Answer 1

Settled status or no, as things stand at the moment you will be able to freely move to the UK as an EU national in mid 2020. Unless there's a major upheaval (and hey, who knows!) all of 2020 will be the "transition period"link and you will still be able to move to the UK without a visa and UK citizens will still have the ability to do the same to the rest of the EU. I can't imagine your settled status will have changed though, again, Brexit Britain is a strange place. Find a way to confirm your status when you arrive.

Answer 2

If you have indeed settled status (and not just the older indefinite leave to remain) then you can return within five years. Did you receive an email telling you that settled status was granted using the words “settled status”?

If you don’t actually have settled status yet but indefinite leave to remain (or if you actually had never been in the U.K.), you can still return in 2020, and apply for settled status, and in the worst case would get preliminary settled status and would have to wait some time.