Brexit: UK plans to allow EU citizens to be visa-free

8 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

The U.K. will allow visa-free travel for EU citizens entering the country post Brexit, the Times reported Thursday, but would impose restrictions on their employment.

According to the report, an anticipated plan by the Home Office on post-Brexit migration will add that there will be no extra curbs on EU citizens travelling to Britain through airports and ports. 
But prospective employers will have to sponsor EU applicants by applying for permits issued by the government. The number of available permits will vary according to the sector, and the government may charge companies a fee to issue them.

In practice it will mean there will be no passport checks, no CCTV cameras, and no checkpoints at the 300-mile border for EU nationals – despite repeated promises of “taking back control” of the UK’s borders after Brexit during the referendum campaign last year.

According to the Times, the plan has not yet been finalized and agreed across government. The new system for EU visitors will be phased in after Britain officially leaves the EU in March 2019, with those coming to work in the UK initially having to register with the Home Office without work restrictions.
It would be up to the EU to decide whether the offer of visa-free travel – if it is formally proposed by the UK Brexit negotiating team – would be reciprocated.

Tory MP John Redwood, who supported Brexit, backed the plan, saying a permit system is a better way to control immigration than border checks. “The main way the government is likely to enforce a new migration policy is through work permits for EU citizens from the Continent, whether they enter direct or via the Republic of Ireland,” Redwood told the Times.

Citizens from elsewhere in the world currently benefit from visa-free travel to Britain. Australian and American tourists can, for example, come to the U.K. for six months without a visa.

Speaking on Wednesday, Theresa May repeated her insistence that the UK Government does not want to “see a return the borders of the past” and that “we are able to ensure the crucial flow of goods and people between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is able to continue in the future”.