Here are a couple of bits of information relating to Brexit issues.
- Common Travel Area (UK – Ireland only)
- Spanish dual nationality
Common Travel Area (UK – Ireland only)
Here is the link to the official UK government confirmation dated 22 December 2017 that the Common Travel Area will continue irrespective of the outcome of Brexit negotiations.
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Guidance Citizens’ rights – UK and Irish nationals in the Common Travel Area
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Spanish Dual Nationality
Here is a copy of the Wikipedia article about dual nationality in Spain:
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In Spain, Spanish citizens by descent can have dual citizenship; Spanish laws knows a “dormant citizenship” for citizens naturalizing in Iberoamerican countries: They do not lose their citizenship, but their status and their rights as citizens of Spain—and of the EU—are inactive until they move back to Spain. Foreigners wanting to naturalize in Spain must usually renounce their old citizenship; exceptions are made for citizens of some Iberoamerican countries, Puerto Rico, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, and Portugal. Since 2014, Spain has granted Spanish nationality to Sephardi Jews regardless of nationality
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As you can see, us UK Foreigners residing in Spain would not be able to keep our British passports if Spain issued Spanish ones to us.
It is not yet clear what the end result will be regarding rights of residence of British people in Spain. If there is agreement at EU-UK level what the procedures should be, then Spain will follow that guidance. If there isn’t any EU-UK agreement, which is the case at the moment, then Spain would be free to impose whatever restrictions it wants on UK residents in Spain – which may include compulsory Spanish passports for permanent residence, especially for residents who have lived in Spain for 5 years or more in total.
Spain doesn’t have a good history for treating Non-EU foreign residents well – they have previously imposed special taxes on such residents and excluded them from state healthcare as well. Because they are non-EU, EU rules don’t apply.
UK people will be non-EU after the UK leaves the EU and therefore the current (EU based) healthcare entitlements in Spain for British working people and British retired people will end at that time.
It is speculated that the existing EHIC arrangements will continue into the future whereby British people resident in the EU will be able to use their EHIC for full healthcare (not just emergency treatment) and the cost will be transferred to the UK for payment. This is, like other aspects of Brexit, not yet confirmed by the UK government. If this isn’t agreed, then all British residents in Spain will likely have to setup private medical insurance.
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A further piece of information relating to International Labour is that when the UK leaves the EU, the EU can legally give priority to EU citizens for job vacancies. This means, in practice, that UK citizens will find it very hard to even get interviews for EU jobs, let alone a positive outcome of applying for a work visa if they actually get offered a job. To make things even worse, the EU will no longer automatically recognise UK qualifications (not even UK degrees). It will be at least as hard for UK people to work in the EU as it is for them to work in the USA at present – if not harder. Perhaps the UK Labour Party realise this, nor do they realise the implications for the future job prospects of UK young people. The Tories don’t seem to care of course, which is much worse.