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What Brits in Austria must do to prepare for the realities of Brexit

The realities of Brexit for Britons living in Austria will soon kick in but as is the case around Europe the challenge to ensure people get the right information and take the steps to guarantee their futures is increasingly difficult in the second wave of a pandemic.

Published: 4 December 2020 14:23 CET
Updated: 12 December 2020 11:19 CET

What Brits in Austria must do to prepare for the realities of Brexit

AFP

Austria is home to around 11,500 British citizens, around 4,500 of whom live in the Vienna area.

The Austrian government, like the other 26 EU member states, is currently pushing thorough legislation that guarantees Brits living legally in the country by the end of this month the right to stay and work.

But they will soon have to be in possession of a new residency card named an “Article 50 EUV” permit if they want to remain as a legal resident of Austria, unless that is they also have another EU nationality such as Irish. Those Britons who have taken Austrian citizenship also do not need to apply.

'People are coming out of the woodwork'

The cards will have a duration of either 5 or 10 years depending on how long the applicant has lived in the country for, but they guarantee the right to permanent residency, just as being an EU citizen did.

As in other EU countries the job of being the messenger of this crucial news has fallen on the shoulders of UK embassies but mainly on recently formed citizens' rights groups like British in Austria, which is part of the British in Europe umbrella group.

The citizens' rights section of the Withdrawal Agreement was first published in November 2018 and eventually ratified in January this year but many Britons in Austria and around Europe are still cottoning on to the ramifications.

“People are still coming out the woodwork and starting to understand what they have to do,” says Mike Bailey from British in Austria.

The group, which has produced pages of valuable information online, have found that even with just weeks to go before the end of the transition period, more and more people are coming forward looking for help.

“We've been increasing our efforts and sending out more and more reminders to people,” Bailey said. “People including those in precarious seasonal employment or on zero-hours contracts are contacting us with questions about their circumstances”.

One particular group of Britons that have proved difficult to reach and to help are seasonal workers, many of whom have lived informally in Austria on and off and might have nominally registered, but maybe not as their principle residence.

Some face having to pay a fine

“There are people who may have come over originally for a ski season, but were never in the system. Seasonal workers, if they are still able to come over for a season, will have to be part of the system,” says Bailey. “We've also had people contact us saying they got their residence permit back in 1983 and they were under the impression it would be valid forever.”

Even before Brexit Brits living in Austria, unlike Britons living in France for example, had to register once they were in the country.

They have had to get a residence registration form (Meldezettel) within 3 days of moving into their new home and since 2006 they've been obliged to get a registration certificate (Anmeldebescheinigung) within 4 months of arriving in Austria.

Those who didn't don't face a barrier to taking up permanent residency after five years, but do face having to pay a small fine (€50 to €70) as the price of being to able to apply for the post-Brexit residency card.

The application process for the new “Article 50 EUV” card is not yet open.

Brits in Austria will be given 12 months from the January 1st to December 31st 2021 to apply for the new Article 50 EUV card, so at least they have time.

“It is therefore not necessary to submit an application at the beginning of the year. There is sufficient time for the application,” says the Austrian government.

Applications will need to be made with local authorities.

'You must be employed or afford to stay in Austria'

“This is the provincial governor (Landeshauptmann), the mayor (Magistrat) or the district governor (Bezirkshauptmannschaft). Which authority is responsible depends on where you live,” says the Austrian government website.

This website will help you find out where you have to apply.

However in Vienna officials at the immigration office have started taking bookings for appointments to process the applications for the 4,500 Brits living in the capital.

Within a few days of the announcement of the booking system taking appointments in the capital, many Brits have already booked appointments for January 202. With Vienna officials pledging to process around 400 applications a week there appears to be plenty of time to arrange an appointment. (More details can be found here).

British in Austria report that those living in more rural areas of the country encountered difficulty acquiring the right information from local authorities whilst some who are not fluent in German have found it harder to find local officials who can explain the process to them in English.

Under the Withdrawal Agreement there are certain conditions that come with residency.

“You must be employed or be able to afford your stay in Austria without receiving social welfare benefits for yourself and your family members and have comprehensive health insurance (just as you had to before the UK left the European Union),” says the Austrian government.

But there are no language requirements attached to residency.

So what can Britons do before now and the end of the year?

Both the UK embassy in Vienna and British in Austria are urging British residents to take the necessary steps to make the registration process smoother once it opens.

“It is strongly recommended by the embassy and the Austrian Ministry of the Interior (BMI) that you get all documents before 31st December 2020 to prove you had the right to residence before the end of the transition period,” says British in Austria.

This includes:

a recent passport photo. The photo must not be older than 6 months and a valid passport.
Any registration certificates, certificates of permanent residence, residence cards, permanent residence cards will also be helpful to your application.

If you haven't applied for an Anmeldebescheinigung or Bescheinigung des Daueraufenthalts” yet then you can find more information on what to do here.

British in Austria warns: “You will hear a lot of people, including officials at the registration offices, telling you that the Anmeldebescheinigung becomes invalid after 31st December 2020 – and some officials may try to stop you getting one. If so, demand that your application is processed, and that they give you – on the spot – a confirmation that you have applied. If your German is up to it.

“They are technically correct, but invalid does not mean useless. Having the Anmeldebescheinigung will smooth the application for the new residence permits later.”

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'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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