No more restrictions for "Accession 8" nationals and their families

The Immigration Minister Damian Green yesterday announced the closure of the Worker Registration Scheme for workers from those Member States from Eastern Europe that joined the EU on 1 May 2004. The scheme will close from 30 April 2011.

Under the scheme the rights of any national of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia to come to the UK to seek employment were limited for a period of seven years following the Accession of those countries to the European Union. These countries were known as the “Accession 8” or “A8”. The obligations of nationals of these countries were set out in the Accession (Immigration and Worker Registration) Regulations 2004.

This contrasted with the rights enjoyed in the UK by nationals of other European Union countries, whose residence rights (and those of their family members) are set out in the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, which itself implements the Citizens’ Directive (as Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States is known).

Under the “EEA Regulations” nationals of the 27 countries comprising the European Union - and those of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland and their family members all have the right to be admitted to the UK for an initial period of three months.

To stay here longer - an EEA national must either be a worker (which includes people who are looking for work), be self employed, have sufficient resources so as not to be a burden on the UK’s social assistance system or be a student. People who meet these requirements are called “qualified persons” in the EEA Regulations.

The residence rights of an EEA national’s family members (if they themselves are not EEA nationals) depend upon the EEA national being a qualified person.

During the period (from 2004 until the end of April this year) the UK (and also Germany and Austria) restricted the residence rights of nationals of the A8 countries (and their family members) so that their right of residence was dependant upon the A8 national working for a specified employer. European Union member states were entitled to do this under the terms of the Treaty of Accession 2003, but only for a limited period.

The Worker Registration Scheme had no effect upon self employed A8 nationals and their family members.

The restriction period runs out on 30 April 2011 and so from that date there will be no restrictions for A8 nationals at all. In common with all other EEA nationals their rights will be as provided for in the EEA Regulations.

However similar restrictions will remain in force for nationals of Bulgaria and Romania (known as “A2 nationals”) who joined the European Union in 2005 (effective from 2006) and are set out in the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. The UK’s entitlement to impose these restrictions runs out in December of this year (2011).