EU citizens in UK anxiously seek security before Brexit
LONDON — Sam Schwarzkopf, a German neuroscientist at University College London, was startled to receive a letter from the British government telling him that his application for permanent residence had been rejected and he should prepare to leave the U.K.
As a European Union citizen, he is legally entitled to live in Britain, and last year’s decision by U.K. voters to leave the 28-nation bloc hasn’t changed that. But he is one of hundreds of thousands of Europeans battling British bureaucracy to confirm their legal status — and sometimes discovering that the process only increases their uncertainty.
Schwarzkopf, who has lived in the U.K. since 1999 and is married to a Briton, thought his application for a permanent resident card “would be a formality.”
When he got the rejection saying he should prepare to leave, he was at first surprised, then angry.