This is how much EU citizens will have to pay to stay in Britain post-Brexit

Residents from the continent will have to fork out £65, or £32.50 for under 16s, to apply for ‘settled status’.

To apply for this EU citizens will generally have to have ‘lived continuously’ in the UK for five years. This means for example that stay-at-home parents, retired people

and students can all be eligible to apply.

However people with less than five years’ continuous residence will be granted pre-settled status and be able to apply for settled status once they reach the five-year point.

Residents who have a valid permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain document will be able swap it for ‘settle status’ for free.

EU citizens will have until June 30, 2021, to submit their applications if they wish to remain in Portsmouth and the UK following Britain’s departure from the European Union, with the scheme being fully rolled out across the country in March 2019.

The government announced the plans for the EU Settlement Scheme today and says it will allow EU citizens to ‘stay and continue their lives’ in the UK post-Brexit with the ‘same access to work, study, benefits and public

services that they enjoy now’.

Under the plans EU citizens ‘close family members living overseas’ will be able to join them here in the UK ‘in future’.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid MP said: ‘I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge, but the Home Office already issues around seven million passports and three million visas each year and so processing applications on the scale required is not new to us.

‘The new application system will be streamlined and user-friendly and draw on existing government data, to minimise the burden on applicants to provide evidence of their residence.

‘This streamlined process will take applicants through three simple stages: proving their identity, checking they are not a serious criminal, and evidencing their residence in the UK.

‘To make the process as simple as possible for the great majority of EU citizens, we will check employment and benefits records for proof of residence.

‘As is now standard for the launch of new services in government, there will be a private beta phase to enable us to test the system and processes at scale so we can ensure that they work effectively, followed by a

phased roll-out from late 2018.

‘We will set out further details of this over the summer. The scheme will be open fully by 30 March 2019.’

Portsmouth voted to leave in the EU referendum in June 2016.