“Our members are real people with real concerns”
The following selection of statements expresses the various issues, anxieties and concerns our members have since the UK left the European Union.
The impact on people’s lives is wide-ranging and includes:
- Difficulties with family reunification and mixed-nationality families
- Visa and residency complications, including changing or renewing status
- Barriers to employment, self-employment, or recognition of professional qualifications
- Restrictions on mobility, including time limits under the 90/180-day rule
- Problems returning to or settling in the UK due to mixed-status visa requirements
- Challenges caring for elderly or sick relatives across borders
- Loss of voting rights in local or European elections
- Increased administrative burdens, costs, or legal uncertainty
- Difficulties opening bank accounts, securing mortgages, or maintaining financial services
- Travel disruption, including pet travel
- Emotional and psychological impacts of reduced rights, insecurity, or family separation
“Losing my European citizenship and the right to free movement have had a severe impact on my quality of life.”
“I teach in an international school. This used to be entirely dependent on being able to recruit staff from the UK. Now it’s too complicated and difficult to get visas, so often it is now Irish people who take these positions instead, which is great for them, but it disadvantages British teachers.”
“We are pensioners and permanent residents who want to stay in a Union that respects human rights.”
“I am terrified at the prospect that I may be trapped in a country from which I can no longer afford to emigrate to warmer climes for my remaining years.”
“Brexit denies young British people the ability to study, work, and live in other EU countries, and narrows their opportunities and minds.”
“I have close family both in England and the mainland EU. I want the right to live and work wherever I might be, including the privileges, medical care, etc., that my all-inclusive Brit/EU passport used to afford me.”
“I have lived and worked here for 20 years – it’s my life and home – and to change rules retrospectively seems grossly unfair.”
“Before Brexit, we travelled back and forth to Spain with our two dogs relatively painlessly on their EU passports. Then everything changed when the UK introduced the Animal Health Certificate, which was required at an exorbitant cost and lasting only four months.”
“Our savings and retirement plans are in tatters, meaning that a health condition that much improves with a better climate will worsen.”
“Due to Brexit, the pound lost around 15% of its value, and it has never recovered. This affects our pensions.”
“I took advantage of the freedom of movement offered to me as an EU citizen, and I cannot believe this right has been taken away from me.”
“Married to a Spanish citizen, I have a main concern: whether I will ever need to return to the UK to look after my ageing parents. My husband now would no longer be able to join me due to min income and visa requirements. Before Brexit, it was not a problem.”
“My concerns are not personal. I feel European first and Welsh next. I believe we are stronger together. Together we stand, divided we fall.”
“I’m an immigrant in Spain, and I have never heard racist superiority threats against me, such as those that were said in the Brexit campaign. I want the UK in the EU so that we can be a respected nation with broad horizons, not a sad, closed-door island.”
“My mother has Parkinson’s. Before Brexit, she could have come and lived with me in Spain so I could take care of her. Now it’s too complicated, and her UK pension does not meet income requirements. My biggest concern is that she will have to go back to the UK and live in a care home.”
“The denial of opportunities (travel, study, work, friendships, relationships) for us all, but especially for our young people – who are our future – breaks my heart.”
“Companies in Spain, like many across the EU, now reject applications from British nationals because they don’t want to get involved with lengthy visa applications and minimum income requirements. Why should they employ British people when they have a choice of millions of people from across the EU countries who do not need to jump through hoops or wait for a decision?”
“Freedom of movement, cultural heritage, a healthier old age… It’s heartbreaking to realise how much the British people have lost.”
“My parents used to come and stay with us for a few months each winter because it was better for their health and cheaper than heating their home. Now its much harder as they have to watch their 90 in 180 day allowance, and with my sister living in France, this has made it very difficult for them to visit when they want.”
“So many Brits living in the EU didn’t even get a say in Brexit.”
“We run a business in Spain and used to order many components from UK companies. This has now become so much harder and more expensive. Our supplier has said Brexit really had a bad effect on his business.”
“I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of living in Spain and travelling to and from the UK unhindered. I was happy to be a European. Peace and harmony within Europe is so important.”
“It was heartbreaking to see the increase in abandoned dogs, and other pets, due to UK citizens returning after Brexit. Shelters were overwhelmed particularly in areas with a high UK migrant population.”
“My business has suffered due to Brexit. Everything is so much more complicated and expensive now. Before sending something from the UK to Spain or Spain to the UK was the same as posting it from one UK address to another. Not now.”
“My Italian boyfriend and I will no longer have the automatic right to live and work in each other’s home country.”
“Brexit has been terrible for all the charities working to rehome animals throughout Europe.”
“My daughter was born in Spain and is Spanish. Therefore, we don’t have the automatic right to move to the UK and live together. She would need to obtain a work visa, which has a relatively high salary threshold.”
“My grandchildren are Spanish – must my son and I leave them behind if we want to return to the UK?”
“When I look at my passport, it makes me sad to think that the old one allowed me to live and work across 31 countries. Now it is so restrictive.”
“My husband is a Spanish national, and we have lived together in Spain for 10 years. Before that, we lived in the UK for 20 years. Will it be possible for us ever to return to the UK to be with family?”
“I’ve lived and worked in Spain for more than 15 years, based on EU agreements, yet was denied the right to vote in a Referendum which would strip me and my children of those rights. What is the direction for them? They are not British by upbringing nor Spanish by birth. They are teenagers who have been here all their lives, who now face restrictions because of Brexit.”
“My husband (a German national) lived and worked in England for 55 years, is in receipt of an English state pension, has two English sisters, our daughters are English, although one lives in France with two English daughters, feels that he will no longer be welcome in England to see his family and friends and if we needed to go back to live what would his status be?”
“Before Brexit, my kids lived with me in Spain, attended school, spoke Spanish, and held permanent residency. After moving to the UK, they can no longer easily return, live, or work here; getting a work visa is difficult since most jobs don’t meet salary requirements and employers won’t wait for lengthy visa decisions.”
“Thanks to Brexit, I don’t get to see my family as often, with travel being more expensive and complicated. As for Christmas and birthdays, we’ve had to say goodbye to receiving cards & presents, thanks to new customs charges.”
“As a retired Brit covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, I consider myself luckier than most. Had I not emigrated before Brexit, my dream of retirement in Spain would have been thwarted, as I would no longer have met the financial threshold.”
“Travelling has become more expensive, complicated and tiresome. I long for a return to those days of sailing through the EU gates as an EU citizen, instead of queueing for hours with all the other 3rd country nationals.”
“Brexit has stolen my EU citizenship rights and made me a second-class citizen.”
“I used to work in Spain as an English teacher. My friend and I just bought a plane ticket, rented a flat, and started teaching privately. Now it’s almost impossible to do that. You need to look for a vacancy first, then apply, then get a visa for that job, but most employers don’t want to wait so they will take other EU citizens who speak English instead.”
“One of my children lives in Spain and the other in France. I used to spend most of my winters and summers between both. Now it is too restrictive. I am very restricted because we can only spend 90 days out of 180 in the EU.”
“Our little regional airport in Spain, like so many others that are popular holiday destinations, only took EU flights pre-Brexit (which, of course, included the UK). No third-country flights ever came in. Now all these little airports have had to install new gates for the new travel systems, purely down to Brexit, because Brits are now third-country nationals. All that hassle, the queuing, all that expense, all due to the stupidity of Brexit.”
“The issue for dual nationals not being allowed to apply for the ETA is problematic, especially since they just announced that those living in the UK can use their other passport, dual national passport, without an ETA (yet those who were born Brits cannot). It would be great if Spain would allow dual nationality for British people who become Spanish through naturalisation, now that we’re not in the EU.”
“I prepared for my retirement but am now in a situation where I cannot live permanently in my own home due to the financial amount required in the bank.”
“I’m worried about home university fees for British people living in the EU, which applies to those of us who are beneficiaries under the withdrawal agreement. When we moved to Spain well before Brexit, our kids were eligible for home university fees if studying in the UK (as EU citizens were at the time). Our daughter should still just make the cut for this, but there is soon an arbitrary cutoff (2028), so for our son (currently 14), we would have to pay international fees, which is potentially £30k+ per year in fees, same as for someone with no prior connection to the UK. I don’t see any good justification for this arbitrary decision.”
“There are so many issues with dual nationality rules around the UK’s EES system. Both passports are meant to be in the same name, but Spanish naming customs are different, so the names are different on each passport.”
“British/Spanish dual nationals should be allowed to obtain an ETA, since British citizens who take Spanish nationality live in a grey area of remaining a British citizen, although having officially revoked British nationality in Spain. They have agreed not to use the rights of a British citizen, so they should not obtain a British passport, and the right of abode certificate is very expensive for someone who only visits the UK occasionally.”
“My British son, who is looking to go to university four years after becoming a resident in Spain. Now, because of Brexit, in most institutions, he’ll be considered an international student in both the UK and the EU, which means international fees.”
