LIVE FACEBOOK Q & A

[bobscott]

Personally I don't 'do' Facebook, but lots do, so this may be of interest to you: (it's gone to Nicosia for UK expats in cyprus but is being circulated round all eu expat communities).

From: James.McCamley@fco.gov.uk... [mailto:James.McCamley@fco.gov.uk]
Sent: 07 April 2017 12:27
To: Nicosia.Consular@fco.gov.uk...
Subject: FCO Live Facebook Q&A session for British Nationals 11/04/17: Are you a UK national living in the EU and want to find out more about your rights and status following the triggering of Article 50?
Importance: High

Dear Colleagues,

We are contacting you regarding a Facebook live Q&A session with the Director of the UK consular services – see below. Could you kindly share this information with your membership/groups and promote the event on your web or social media pages.

“Are you a UK national living in the EU and want to find out more about your rights and status following the triggering of Article 50?

Julia Longbottom, Director of Consular Services with the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office, invites you to participate in a Facebook Live Q&A session on Tuesday, 11 April, at 11am (UK time) on the FCO travel Facebook page. She will be answering questions from British nationals living in the EU on the concerns they may have around the UK exiting the EU.
'Like' our page to get notified when the live broadcast begins. You can post your questions in advance in the comments section.”

Additional sources of information on exiting the EU: Advice for British Nationals travelling & living in Europe , Information about the UK leaving the EU and Advice for EU nationals living in the UK .”

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

There is no need to respond to this email .

Regards,
James McCamley

[filippos]

That sounds a bit premature. Nobody will know for certain until that part of exit negotiations are complete.

[Kilkis]

Since they are talking about rights and status following the triggering of Article 50 I would have thought it would be quite a short session. They are identical to what they were before Article 50 was triggered. If they want to extend it to what they will be when the UK finally exits the EU then again it should be short. No bloody idea. What else is there to discus?

On the positive side, both Theresa May and the EU Parliament have stressed that agreeing a deal on the status and rights of UK citizens living in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK is a high priority so perhaps there is some hope they will reach a sensible outcome. There again, we have all witnessed a football team insisting most vehemently that a player is not leaving the club the day before they sign the transfer deal so I am still not holding my breath.

Warwick

[SatCure]

Warwick has expressed my views perfectly. Nothing to add.

[YoMo2]

The words flannel, spin, PR, and horse-poo spring to mind.

Andrew

[bobscott]

The words flannel, spin, PR, and horse-poo spring to mind.

Andrew

The last of those just about sums up my view on facebook - but then I am an ancient fuddy-duddy. Bob.

[Carolina]

For those interested, the direct link to the FCO Facebook page is here

https://www.facebook.com/fcotravel/

[SatCure]

Looks as if I missed it. I see nothing there of interest.

FWIW the sole purpose of Facebook is to collect personal information about its "members". The information is used for advert placement and (allegedly) more nefarious purposes.

[Kilkis]

I discovered yesterday, through a conversation with a friend, that some (perhaps all?) accountants are registering their clients as non-tax resident in Greece by the simple expedient of stating that they are resident in Greece for less than 183 days per year.

While we still have no idea what the outcome of the Brexit negotiations will be, a common theme in various interviews has been that foreign nationals who have lived in a country for some defined period of time should be allowed to stay. Whether that will be agreed, or what the period will be if it is agreed, I have no idea BUT claiming NOT to be resident in Greece for more than 183 days in each year may impact on the ability to prove long term residence? Since this is the time of year when people tend to have meetings with their accountants, anybody who is registered as non-tax resident might find it useful to ask on what basis they are registered as non-tax resident?

I want to stress that I do not know if tax residency status will be a factor in determining long term residency or suggest that this will be a problem BUT it might and at least forewarned is forearmed. I suspect that many people have no idea how their accountant is declaring them as non-tax resident. It might be prudent to find out.

Warwick

[BST]

So many issues and who knows what will happen. The most important concern for many will be healthcare and whether Brits will lose entitlement to NHS and EHIC cover if out of the UK for more than 183 days.Trying to prove whether your a Greek resident or not will then become irrelevant unless you are well off!

[Carolina]

The most important concern for many will be healthcare and whether Brits will lose entitlement to NHS and EHIC cover if out of the UK for more than 183 days.

But we may find that as big a concern may be that a 90 day tourist visa means you will have to leave the country every 3 months and not be able to return within another 3 months, Overstaying of visa coming with a 1000 euro fine or whatever! As said, we as yet have no idea, but there is certainly the possibility of having more rights as a current permanent resident.

[Kilkis]

While agreeing that nobody knows what the outcome will be my thinking is as follows:

1 Both the UK government and the EU parliament have publicly stated that reaching an agreement on residency rights of citizens is a high priority. While I tend to ignore what any government says, because they usually lie, I think this one may be true. This suggests that there is a reasonable probability that some agreement will be reached.
2 Allowing residency rights for existing EU citizens in the UK is not going to go down well with the more rabid end of the Brexit spectrum so I suspect that the UK government is going to want to put some pretty tight constraints on those rights in order to minimise criticism or at least be able to counter it.
3 If the UK imposes pretty rigid controls on the residency rights of EU citizens in the UK I would expect the EU to want to impose similar controls on the rights of UK citizens to reside in the EU. I may be wrong in this assessment but reaching an agreement with the EU means reaching an agreement with lots of different groups and I am pretty sure that there are some groupings within the EU who will want to appear as hard line as the UK.
4 I would expect the rigid controls to revolve around proof of residency but will probably include other factors similar to those contained in existing EU Directives.

BST is completely correct that withdrawing healthcare support might force individuals to choose to give up living in Crete but at least it is a choice, albeit with a financial imperative. Withdrawing the right to reside leaves no choice at all.

Warwick

[filippos]

If figures quoted in a recent Grauniad piece can be believed it's in the UK government's interests to encourage expatriate British citizens to maintain that status. It seems that on average UK pensioners living abroad cost the UK taxpayer roughly half as much as pensioners living in the UK: £2,300 against £4,500.

The article is here. The link within the article ref: McNaught is slightly confusing (well, it confused me) but the relevant bit is that timed at 4:17 (Lisa O'Caroll)

[Kilkis]

At least two of the ex-pats I know living here were advised by their doctors to move to warmer climates. One was told he would be dead within 5 years and the other was told that she would end up in a wheelchair if she stayed in the UK. Both cost the UK very little in healthcare. The one who was told he would be dead in 5 years has been here over ten years now and is the fittest 75 year old I know. He will go on 13 hour walks in the middle of August, including walking up into the White Mountains and will often cycle 10 km to the coast, swim for an hour and cycle 10 km back.

Personally, although I have IKA and use it for regular prescriptions, I normally pay for any treatments I need. The cost to see a specialist is usually very low compared to the UK and readily available. If I was forced to move back to the UK all my healthcare needs would fall on the NHS.

Based on that experience I can well believe that it is cheaper to provide healthcare abroad. Of course, you could argue that it would benefit the UK overall if people like my 75 year old friend died earlier since that would save on pension payments. Don't tell the government or they'll probably make it compulsory.

Warwick

[bobscott]

[quote="Kilkis"
Personally, although I have IKA and use it for regular prescriptions, I normally pay for any treatments I need. The cost to see a specialist is usually very low compared to the UK and readily available. If I was forced to move back to the UK all my healthcare needs would fall on the NHS.

Based on that experience I can well believe that it is cheaper to provide healthcare abroad.

Warwick[/quote]

Don't disagree with the logic Warwick, but let's face it - frozen state retirement pensions and refusal to pay healthcare for 'Fat Cat Expats living it up in the Sun' are vote-winners for any government - especially a government voted in by a majority who want to believe everything bad they are told about the EU. Bob.