EU Settlement Scheme Statistics

Every quarter, we break down the Home Office’s statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) together with data available through Freedom of Information requests and trusted sources.

This analysis is compiled and updated quarterly by the3million.

This page has been updated with the EUSS statistics that were published on 21 May 2026, for data up to the end of March 2026 - see here for the Home Office charts and description.

How many EU citizens are there in the UK?

As at 31 March 2026, the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) had received 8.88 million (8,878,031) applications out of which 8.77 million (8,765,762) were concluded.

These estimates are for applications, not applicants and include repeat applications from the same person. The Home Office estimates that 6.4 million individuals have applied to the scheme, made up of 5.8 million EU27 citizens, 64,700 EEA EFTA and Swiss citizens, and 540,700 non-EEA nationals.

Out of these, approximately 5.8 million individuals have received a grant of status (4.52 million holding settled, and 1.30 million holding pre-settled status as at 31 March 2026).

The Census 2021 found that 3.6 million citizens resident in England and Wales were born in the European Union, an equivalent of 36.4% of all non-UK born residents.

The significant discrepancy in data comes from the fact the scheme opened in 2019 and there is an unknown number of people who no longer live in the UK.

Since 2021, EU citizens have also arrived in the UK on non-EUSS visas such as Skilled Worker, student, and other immigration routes. These visas are included in this analysis.

Source: Quarterly Statistics, March 2026 and Census 2021

How many automated grants of settled status have been made?

In January 2025, the Home Office started a process of automatically converting certain eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status, without them having to make an EUSS application themselves. See this Home Office policy page for more details.

In the quarter January to March 2025, there were 6,287 automated grants of settled status. We do not know how many pre-settled status holders were considered for an automated grant, so we cannot tell what proportion of cases were successfully converted. By March 2026, there had been 103,820 automated grants of settled status. There were only 17,150 automated grants in the period January-March 2026, a significant drop from the previous quarter. From 9 April 2026, the automated upgrade process was changed to look for 30 months residence in the preceding 60 months (rather than 6 months in every 12 month period), so we hope this might mean that future quarters see improved rates of automated upgrades to settled status.

These automated cases are not yet included in the published statistics data tables, and therefore do not form part of the numbers in the rest of this statistics page.

What EUSS status do people hold?

Out of the 8.77 m applications concluded:

50.5 % - 4.43 m resulted in a grant of settled status - indefinite leave to remain
33.0 % - 2.89 m resulted in a grant of pre-settled status - limited leave to remain
16.5% had other outcomes (835 k refused; 249 k withdrawn or void; 360 k invalid)

The number of pre-settled status holders is continuing to slowly come down. While some first time pre-settled grants are made to joining family members, other pre-settled status holders are submitting an EUSS application and being granted settled status. As explained in the section above, other pre-settled status may be automatically upgraded to settled status by the Home Office, without the need for an application.

As at the end of March 2026, there were an estimated 1,297,990 people with pre-settled status. As at the end of September 2025, this was 1,470,060 people - and an FOI shows a breakdown of this September figure:

279,200 (19%) held pre-settled status as a joining family member (i.e. arriving after 31 December 2020)
1,190,860 (81%) held pre-settled status not as a JFM (i.e. having arrived in the UK by 31 December 2020).

Since the start of 2022, at least 30% of each month's concluded applications did not result in a grant of status.

An FOI response looks at the EUSS applications that were rejected as invalid, and shows the proportion of those rejections that were rejected on the grounds of being late. Other reasons for rejections can include not proving one's identity as an EEA/Swiss citizen or one's relationship with a sponsoring family member. Since the start of 2024, approximately 40-45% of invalid applications were rejected as invalid on the grounds of being late (i.e. not demonstrating 'reasonable grounds' for having missed the deadline).

WHO IS MAKING EUSS APPLICATIONS SINCE JUNE 2021 DEADLINE?

Since the EU Settlement Scheme deadline of 30th June 2021, over 2.7 million applications have been made to the Scheme. There are still an average of over 35,000 applications made every month. These are made up of four main groups:

Late applications - those who missed the deadline
Repeat applications - mainly upgrades from pre-settled to settled status
Joining family members
Derivate rights applications

The following chart summarises the volume and breakdown between the different types of EUSS applications since the June 2021 deadline.

Late applications: Although the deadline to apply was 30th June 2021, the Home Office accepts late applications from EU citizens who were resident in the UK before 31st Dec 2020, or from joining family members (JFMs) who did not make an application by the time they had been in the UK for three months. (Note, late applications from joining family members are included in the JFM statistics, not in the Late statistics).

In the 4.75 years since the June 2021 deadline, there have been over 290,000 grants of pre-settled or settled status under the scheme following a late application. This shows clearly that a high number of people who have rights under the Withdrawal Agreement would have become undocumented without the significant concession of allowing late applications.

This is on average almost 5,100 successful late applications per month for each of the 57 months since the deadline.

Note, in August 2023, a very significant change was made to how late applications are processed, it is strongly recommended to seek legal advice when making a late application. See this FAQ for more information.

Repeat applications (mainly upgrades from pre-settled to settled status): Pre-settled status holders can apply for settled status to get confirmation of their right to stay in the UK indefinitely (as long as they don't then have a 5-year (4-year for Swiss) absence from the UK). This second application can be more difficult and complex, as EU citizens have to submit evidence of their 5 year continuous residency.

Since July 2025, people can satisfy continuous residence if they were resident in the UK for 30 months out of the last 60 months - see here for more details.

Joining family members: EU/EEA and Swiss citizens who lived in the UK before 31st Dec 2020 have rights to family reunion. Their eligible family members can apply and gain status through the EU Settlement Scheme.

Joining family members will be required to apply to the EUSS within three months of their first arrival in the UK since 31 December 2020, or show that they have reasonable grounds for making a ‘late’ application. Note the EUSS Caseworker guidance does say there are normally 'reasonable grounds' for such a late application if the applicant previously only visited without intending to stay in the UK.

Derivative rights: This includes family members of certain British citizens (Surinder Singh and Lounes dual nationals), and adult carers whose rights are linked to the rights of residence of a British or EU national child.

Who is waiting in the EUSS backlog?

People waiting in the EU Settlement Scheme backlog fall into the following five categories:

The four categories set out in the previous section who are still able to make applications after 30 June 2021:
- Late applications - those who missed the deadline
- Repeat applications - mainly upgrades from pre-settled to settled status
- Joining family members
- Derivate rights applications
Pre-deadline applications made by 30 June 2021

The pre-deadline backlog is made up of people who applied in time, on or before June 2021, but who are still waiting. By our interpretation of the published statistics, there are still over 8,000 people who applied in time - at least four years and nine months ago - and who have yet to receive a decision. This does not even include those who received a refusal and are awaiting the outcome of an Administrative Review or appeal process.

The backlog of applications is fairly steady at around 110-120,000. Almost 40% of this backlog is made up of people who have been waiting for more than 3 months, with 7% of the backlog seemingly persistently stuck, having waited for over four years.

Behind every application, there is a person being left in limbo for months or years on end, having no security about their future in the UK.

How long have people been waiting in the EUSS backlog?

The Home Office does not publish data on processing times or waiting times, so what we know has been obtained through Freedom of Information requests. In recent quarters, we have been unable to receive these FOIs in a timely fashion, despite escalations to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

The make-up of the backlog has changed over time, as the following graphs show.

As at 30 September 2025, our latest FOI, 18,494 individuals had been waiting for over 2 years for their decision. Almost 24,000 people had been waiting longer than a year, almost 30,000 had been waiting for more than six months.

The number of cases pending for more than two years had been steadily growing, but in the quarter Apr-June 2025 there was a reduction, and a very small further reduction in the quarter Jul-Sep 2025.

How long does it take to receive an EUSS decision?

The Home Office does not publish data on processing times, so what we know has been obtained through Freedom of Information requests. In recent quarters, we have been unable to receive these FOIs in a timely fashion, despite escalations to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

The website entitled EU Settlement Scheme: current estimated processing times for applications states “It may take one month to decide applications where UKVI does not need to ask for more information or do further checks.”

Over the lifetime of the EU Settlement Scheme (as at the end of September 2025, our latest FOI), 52.6% of applications were completed in less than a month, and 1.3% of applications took more than a year.

However, by comparing the figures from the latest FOI with those obtained in earlier FOIs, we can see that decision making is now much slower than at the start of the scheme.

The following chart shows that although 58% of EUSS decisions by 30 Jun 2022 were made within a month, only 28% of more recent decisions (in the quarter from July 2025 to September 2025) were made within a month.

When we look at the actual number of EUSS decisions, it is clear that the vast majority were made in the earlier years, which makes that faster response time from the earlier years have a disproportionate weight when looking at the average response times over the lifetime of the scheme.

The following chart excludes the period before June 2022, in order to be able to see the change in processing times by year more clearly.

And finally the following chart takes a more fine-grained look at the changes in processing times over recent quarters. It shows a slowing down. This may be in part due to very old applications finally being decided, however it also shows reducing percentages in appilcations decided in less than a month, and in 1-3 months - with a shift towards applications taking more than 3 months or even more than 6 months.

What happens when people challenge an EUSS refusal via Administrative Review?

It used to be possible to challenge an EUSS refusal decision by submitting an Administrative Review (AR), however since April 2024 this is no longer possible. An AR was a way to ask the Home Office to look again at the application, without having to incur the costs and stress of submitting an appeal via the Immigration tribunal.

Waiting times for AR decisions have steadily increased, and since February 2025 the Home Office has stated they take over 30 months (two and half years!). A chart below shows how much this advertising waiting time (on the Government's EUSS AR website) has changed over time, from just 1 month when the EUSS was first opened.

Even though it has not been possible to submit any new ARs since April 2024, there were still over 1,519 unprocessed ARs almost 2 years later, as at 2 March 2026. A chart below shows that on average, around 600 of these are processed each month, meaning that at current processing rates, the backlog may finally be cleared within the next three months.

As at 2 March 2026, everyone in the AR backlog had been waiting for a result on their AR for over 2 years. We regularly speak to people in this situation, who report feeling very anxious and stuck. The Home Office does not advise people waiting for a decision to travel (a policy the3million disagrees with), so this extended in limbo period can have devastating impact. Furthermore, when someone's AR does finally get processed, individuals can suddenly unexpectedly get requests for further evidence with a very short period of time in which to respond.

Source - FOI.

What happens when people challenge an EUSS refusal via appeal?

When people believe they have unfairly been refused status under the EU Settlement Scheme, they can appeal this to the First Tier Immigration tribunal (FTT). If someone has applied for an Administrative Review (AR) and received a negative decision on that AR, they can then submit an appeal.

Published statistics by the Ministry of Justice show that each quarter, approximately between 30% and 50% of appeals result in the EUSS refusal being overturned, though this rate has been steadily declining over time.

The courts see their own backlog of EUSS appeals however, which continues to increase at an alarming rate. At the end of December 2025, there were almost 30,000 EUSS appeals in the tribunal backlog.

The statistics also show that for the cases that were decided at the First Tier Tribunal during the quarter ending December 2025, appellants had been waiting for their decisions for 41 weeks (almost 9.5 months) on average.

The last six quarters (1.5 years) show a pattern of:

More appeals being made to the FTT each quarter, and fewer FTT decisions being made each quarter. These combine to cause a sharply increasing backlog.
For those decisions that are being made, they are being taken more quickly and are less likely to be successful for the EUSS applicant.

How many family members are applying for EUSS Family Permits?

Family members of EU citizens can either apply for an EUSS Family Permit before they come to the UK, and then submit an application to the EU Settlement Scheme once they are in the UK; or they can apply directly to the EU Settlement Scheme from abroad, if they are eligible to do so.

Consistently, over 60% of EUSS Family Permit decisions are resulting in a refusal.

Since 2022, an average of 60% of EUSS Family Permit decisions have been a refusal.

How long does it take for EUSS Family Permits to be issued?

Despite application numbers remaining relatively steady since September 2021, the rate at which Family Permits are issued has been declining. Families are split apart for months on end, without any expectation management. Family Permits are the only visas which the Home Office does not set an expected time frame to be issued, and instead say they will be processed “as soon as possible”.

The average processing time is lower than its peak of over 10 months in the summer of 2023, but it still takes around 6-7 months to process an EUSS Family Permit.

People who received Family Permits in September 2025 had been waiting for an average of 7 months. This type of entry visa is valid for 6 months, during which people can travel to the UK.

The backlog of unprocessed EUSS Family Permits has not fallen below 6,000 over the last year. As at September 2025, there is still a queue of over 7,600 people waiting for a Family Permit. Once they are in the UK, they need to put in an application to the EU Settlement Scheme, joining their second queue.

This often leads to people being uncertain of their immigration status for extended periods of time, facing hostile employers, landlords and banks, and having difficulties travelling.

How many EU citizens were refused entry at the UK border?

The statistics up to December 2024 show an enormous increase in number of EU citizens refused entry at the UK border since the transition period ended in December 2020, which is very concerning. It shows the Home Office continues to subject people to a hostile environment where the burden of proof is always on the individual to prove their rights. After Brexit, EU citizens are now also treated with suspicion. We are getting more frequent reports of people being stopped at the border and questioned. The EU Settlement Scheme: Border Force guidance has been updated and describes grounds for cancellation of leave.

This is a consequence of removing free movement between the UK and the EU - it’s the same treatment non-EU citizens have always been receiving. Although EU citizens can come to the UK for 6 months as visitors, people who intend to live and work here are questioned at the border and must be able to prove their immigration status.

Whereas before COVID, the number of EU citizens refused entry was generally below 1,000 per quarter, this is now typically around 3,000 per quarter. When looking at EU citizens refused entry as a percentage of all people refused entry, this has also strongly increased and is now around 50%-60%.

Note, the publication of statistics on passenger refusals has been discontinued from December 2024. We received the figures to December 2025 via an FOI.

Out of the 18,956 passengers refused entry at the border in 2025, the top 10 nationalities are as follows: