EU Settlement Scheme – Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)

If you are a non-EEA or Swiss family member of an EU national and have been granted an EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit to enter the UK, then you will need to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme to continue residing in the UK after the expiry of your permit.

You can apply under the EU Settlement Scheme if the EU national has been granted either pre-settled or settled status in the UK. If you do not have a permit or residence card with a biometric chip then you will not be able to use the EU Exit App to scan your ID documents. This also means you will not be able to take a photograph of yourself through the EU Exit App to verify your ID. Instead you will be required to upload a photograph of yourself through the online application. The photograph you upload cannot be your passport photograph.

After completing all sections of the online application, you will be required to book your biometric enrolment appointment through UKVCAS for a BRP. You will need to book your appointment within 30 days of completion of the online application. The full application will not be submitted until the biometrics have been enrolled. Currently, the only free appointment centres, known as ‘core sites’ are Croydon, Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow. Other appointment centres charge a fee. The fee includes additional services such as document scanning and checking. However, these services are irrelevant to the EU Settlement Scheme because documents can only be uploaded through the UKVI website when completing the online application.

Thus, applicants seem to be booking appointments at these locations for the purposes of convenience of location. It seems far more reasonable for appointments at these centres to be free for those who are applying under the EU Settlement Scheme. We will wait to see whether additional ‘core sites’ are added to help ease the volume of applications.