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These are the upcoming Brexit events for Brits in Spain

The British Embassy and its consular team are stepping up efforts to inform British citizens living here how to prepare and what to expect in the coming months.

Published: 14 March 2019 10:28 CET

These are the upcoming Brexit events for Brits in Spain

Photo: ruskpp/Depositphotos

Having already held outreach events all over Spain and it's islands, starting with towns and cities with the densest population of British residents, the British Embassy and Consulate teams are now venturing further afield and include cities on Spain's north coast on their itinerary.

The team will cover issues ranging from residency, registration, healthcare and pensions, and will invite those in attendance to ask questions.

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In the next few weeks, events will be held in Valencia city, Murcia, Salou, Lloret de Mar, Santander, Llíber, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela.

Another event will take place in Madrid after the last one was so packed that dozens of concerned Brits were turned away.

“As we move closer to March 29th, we will continue to do all we can to update citizens as and when we have more information,” insists British Consul Sarah-Jane Morris.

“In the meantime, I continue to urge all UK nationals living in Spain to ensure you are correctly registered and to stay up to date with the latest news, by signing up for email alerts and visiting the Living in Spain guide on gov.uk and following our Brits in Spain social media channels, including on Facebook.”

These events are free and open to all interested British nationals.

KEEP UPDATED:

Check in regularly to the FCO website Living in Spain HERE and their Facebook page HERE

Visit the Spanish government dedicated Brexit information page HERE

READ ALSO: The ultimate No-Deal Brexit checklist for Brits in Spain

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Thousands of Britons still moving to EU countries despite Brexit

The data refers to the number of first-time residence permits being issued last year.

It’s defined as “any authorisation issued by the authorities of an EU country allowing a third-country national (non-EU citizen) to stay legally on its territory”.

Based on information provided by national authorities to the EU statistical office, 42,029 first-time residence permits were issued to UK citizens in 2023, a slight drop compared to the 45,794 in 2022.

The largest proportion of these permits were issued for employment reasons(13,423), followed by family reunions (11,074), “other reasons” (10,961), and then education (6,571). “Other reasons” include any option not covered by the other three, from retirement to international protection.

Spain and France the most popular

Spain is the country that issued the largest number of new residence permits to UK citizens (10,166), but only 1,266 were because of jobs. Most of the first-time permits (3,768) were issued for ‘other reasons’, followed by family (3,311) and education purposes (1,821).

The recent news that a British football coach was denied a dream move to Real Madrid due to work permit rules showed that Britons can’t move to Spain so easily after Brexit especially for employment reasons.

The coach found out the hard way that getting a work permit to live in Spain is now quite tricky, especially for young Brits, who will need to prove that they’re highly skilled while employers must demonstrate that there are no other suitable candidates.

To give some perspective, although the data is not exactly comparable, Eurostat’s immigration data show that some 23,900 British citizens moved to Spain alone in 2018, and over 33,900 in 2019 – so prior to Brexit.

READ ALSO: The reasons why Brits are moving to Spain post-Brexit

France followed, with 8,114 first residence permits granted to UK nationals (although France’s Interior Ministry released figures earlier this year that revealed a slightly higher number of Brits – 9,261 – had been given residency permits in 2023).

The largest proportion of permits received by Brits in France was for employment reasons (3,649), coming before education (1,798), other reasons (1,666) and family reunions (1,001).

READ ALSO: Thousands of Brits move to France despite post-Brexit hurdles

Germany reported 4,584 first residence permits to UK citizens in 2023, of which 1,765 for work, 1,468 for other reasons, 882 for family reunions and 469 for education.

READ ALSO: The reasons Brits are moving to Germany post-Brexit

The other two most popular countries for British nationals in 2023 were the Netherlands (3,750 first residence permits of which 1,713 for employment) and Portugal (2,565 of which 1,144 for other reasons).

Italy reported 2,177 first residence permits for UK citizens, of which 1,124 for other reasons 621 to join family, 278 for employment and 154 for education.

For Denmark, the total was 1,852, but the majority (1,264) were for work purposes, 280 to join family, 243 for education and 65 other reasons.

Sweden issued 1,632 first residence permits to British nationals, mostly for family reasons (710), followed by employment (474), education (247), and other reasons (201).

Austria reported 529 first residence permits to UK citizens, of which 201 for employment, 191 for family reasons, 70 for education, and 67 for other purposes.

Outside of the EU, but part of the free movement area, Norway registered 1,736 new residence permits to UK nationals, of which 1,033 for employment, 366 to join family, 146 for education, and 201 for other reasons.

In Norway, Britons were the third nationality for first residence permits and in Bulgaria the fourth, although the number of UK citizens moving to Central and Eastern Europe is much lower than in Western Europe.

The Eurostat database does not yet include 2023 data for Switzerland.

Data on first-time residence permits gives a general indication on the number of people who moved to EU countries in a given year, although Eurostat told The Local that “the date of issuance of a permit does not necessarily mean the physical movement of the person on that date, as non-EU citizens might have already temporarily resided on the basis of e.g. short stay visa” or due to irregular stays.

More than 3.7 million first residence permits

In total, in 2023 EU countries reported the granting of more than 3.7 million first residence permits, a 4.7 percent increase compared to 2022, and the highest number ever recorded.

Employment remained the main reason (1.3 million or 33.8%), followed by family (986,000 or 26.4% of the total), other purposes (956,000 or 25.6%) and education (185,900 or 14.3%). The increase compared to 2022 was due to permits issued for education, family reunification and other reasons, while those for employment slightly declined.

The top 10 nationalities receiving these permits were Ukraine, Belarus, India, Morocco, Syria, Türkiye, Russia, China, Brazil and Afghanistan.

Poland issued the largest number of first residence permits in the EU (642,789), followed by Germany (586,144), Spain (548,697), Italy (389,542) and France (335,074).

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