Bulgarian and Romanian EU nationals and rights in the UK

On this page

On 1st January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. As European Economic Area (EEA) nationals, Bulgarians and Romanians are able to move and reside freely in any Member State. They do not require leave to enter or remain to reside legally in the UK. However, they do not have an automatic right to work here.

This page explains the restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals taking employment in the United Kingdom. If you are a Bulgarian or Romanian national you are free to come to the United Kingdom to live. You will need to be able to support yourself and your family in the United Kingdom without becoming an unreasonable burden on public funds.

Please note from Jan 2014, the UK Government will continue to impose restrictions and if you would like to get legal advice on the impact, contact us on 0207 237 3388 or e-mail us on info@icslegal.com.

Until 1 January 2014, if you were a Bulgarian or Romanian national you only had a right to reside in the UK if you came into one of the following categories:

  • you were working in authorised employment and had registered with the Workers Authorisation Scheme

  • you had completed 12 months' authorised employment with fewer than 30 days of nonworking time within that period

  • you were self-employed

  • you were self-sufficient

  • you were a student

  • you were a family member of an EEA national in the UK who themselves had a right to reside.

From 1 January 2014, you no longer have to register with the Workers Authorisation Scheme if you are working in the UK. From this date, all Bulgarian and Romanian nationals have the same rights as other EEA nationals to live and work in the UK. However, like them, if you want to claim certain benefits you must show that you have a right to reside in the UK and that you intend to settle here and make it your home for the time being. 

Permanent residency and British nationality

You can apply for a permanent visa stamp ( the equivalent of Indefinite Leave to Remain) after 5 years of 'exercising European treaty rights', ie after 5 years of working, studying, being self-employed or self-sufficient (or a combination of above). Did you know there is no obligation to apply for Permanent Residency? This status comes automatically, after exercising European Treaty rights in the UK for 5 years. There is no 'visa stamp' which comes automatically but status gets achieved without having to apply for a 'visa stamp'.

On the other hand, if you are planning to subsequently apply for British Citizenship, then you have to formally apply for permanent residency first. This is new from 12 November 2015, before that it was possible to apply straight for Citizenship after 6 years in the UK. 

Related FAQ's

We specialise in Immigration Law, Human Rights Law, British Nationality Law & European Law. Our lawyers provide honest, exceptional service to our clients. We believe that our service starts when we submit your application and we want our client to know we will keep them informed, answer there questions and your case worker will be just a phone call away.

Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.

There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.

Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.

Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.

The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.

We are regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). OISC is the government regulated body and it is a criminal offence if someone is providing Immigration advice without being regulated by the OISC. We are also members of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). JCWI is an independent national voluntary organisation, campaigning for justice and combating racism in immigration and asylum law and policy.
Your case worker would take some background information regarding yourself. Relevant questions would be asked to ascertain whether your case can be handled by our team. You will also be able to ask questions, understand what is required to meet the Immigration Rules, Nationality Law and EU Law where relevant. Should we be able to provide assistance, your case worker will give you a customer care letter whereby it would outline the service agreement and the cost associated.
After each consultation we aim to provide a consultation report which would outline what was discussed, the action plan and what to do next.
We have a procedure in place for ensuring client confidentiality. We keep the affairs of our clients and all information relating to our clients confidential, except where we are compelled to disclose information by reason of a legal or regulatory obligation.
A customer care letter from us will ensure that we outline the service we would be providing, it would also provide a break down of the costs associated so you can rest assure that there are no hidden charges and that fees do not go up unless changes are made (i.e. Home Office fees etc).

We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents. We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.

 

Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors. Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.

Yes, we have a special provision with the Home Office and majority case decisions are made on the same day.
As a private legal firm, we want to ensure we can provide the service you want. Our fees are very competitive and that is why we do not provide a No Win No Fee service as we do not feel the need to over charge our clients with such schemes.
With us, you will know exactly what we would be charging. The fees are to be paid through cheque, cash or bank transfer. Home Office fees can be paid to us and we can make the payment on behalf of you. If there is any changes in Home Office fees, we will let you know immediately.
Our commitment to our clients is that we will update you every time we get an update from the Home Office. The waiting period can be a very daunting time as decisions can be life changing however the Home Office do set some guidelines on waiting times, but we intend to keep you updated throughout the process.
No, and this is the same even if you use a no win no fee service, it would be impossible for anyone to guarantee a successful application. The likelihood of an application being successful can be given based on previous cases or success rates, however we do not operate such a policy of selling our services based on previous applications.
We aim to ensure that this service is not used by any of our clients, but there are times where even with the best possible applications are unsuccessful. As we take our clients cases personally, we would like to provide a helping hand. We have designed an aftercare service whereby if your case fails, then your case worker would be able to help you look at other formalities of staying in the UK should you have valid leave still remaining or help you make an out country application. Please note should you require appealing on your matter, we can only deal with the initial appeal and your application will be straight away referred to an advisor who deals with representations.
It is vital that all our clients can provide honest feedback, we would encourage this and this helps us to become better on our service delivery.
No, we are a law firm which provides support in UK Immigration, Nationality and EU Free Movement Rights. However we have a subsidiary company which is jobslibrary.co.uk whereby you can look for work, apply and discuss with potential employers. We cannot influence any decisions and finding work is not something our team deals with.

1) You contact us through e-mail or phone.

2) We take some basic information, we ask some relevant questions to understand the type of query and what type of support is required.

3) Your case then gets passed to a case worker.

4) Case Worker would contact you to set up an initial meeting.

5) You attend a consultation, an action plan is drawn up and we find out whether ICS Legal can support your case. A report would be sent where there is a requirement to outline what was discussed and what to do next.

6) You authorise us to be your legal representative by signing our customer care letter.

7) We will then start to request documents and information about your case this will build up your case pack.

8) We will then write our legal report and use Home Office caseworker’s documents to ensure everything has been checked and all requirement have been met.

9) Where possible we will go through every aspect of your case before case submission.

10) We will continue to update you throughout the case life cycle .