Message to UK nationals living and working in Luxembourg
A message from the Her Majesty´s Ambassador to Luxembourg, John Marshall, about the transition period and citizens rights for UK nationals in Luxembourg.
John Marshall, HM Ambassador to Luxembourg
Hello everyone,
You will have seen that the Withdrawal Agreement signed by the EU and UK last October has now been ratified by the British and EU Parliaments.
This means that the UK will be leaving the EU at midnight tomorrow, Friday 31 January.
There are two parts of the Withdrawal Agreement that I particularly want to draw to your attention: the transition period and the chapter on citizens rights.
The Withdrawal Agreement provides for a transition period that will run until 31 December 2020. During this 11-month period, although the UK will have left the EU, we will still be subject to the EU acquis. free movement rights therefore continue until the end of the year, so you can work, study and travel in the EU, as you do now.
The Withdrawal Agreement also includes a chapter on the citizens rights of those UK nationals living in the EU (and EU nationals living in the UK) who fall within the scope of the Agreement. In short, anyone currently living or working lawfully in Luxembourg at the end of the transition period will be able to continue to do so.
The Luxembourg government announced last year that UK nationals living in Luxembourg who fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement will be issued with a new residence card that shows that they are beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement. These will be issued automatically to those affected, in phases during the transition period, i.e. there is no need to apply for a new document. Existing residency cards will remain valid until the end of 2020.
UK nationals who work in Luxembourg but live in a neighbouring country, and who meet the definition of a cross-border worker (a person who works in one Member State and lives in another Member State, to which they return every day or at least once a week), will be able to continue to do so. According to the Luxembourg government cross-border workers will need to apply for a document, which certifies their rights deriving from the Agreement. They will set out details of how to do this at a later date.
We are in close contact with the Luxembourg authorities and will update you as soon as there is further information on how these processes will work.
In the meantime I encourage you to familiarise yourself with the information that the Government of Luxembourg have made available on guichet.lu and government.lu, and our own Living in Luxembourg Guide.
We plan to hold the next in our series of citizens outreach meetings in early March. We will use the meeting to inform you of what the Withdrawal Agreement means for you, and to answer questions. Details will be announced on the Embassy’s Facebook and website pages next week.
In the meantime, we encourage you to:
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make sure you are registered under the existing system with your local commune
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exchange your driving licence for a Luxembourgish one if you have been resident here for more than 6 months
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Sign up for alerts to the Living in Luxembourg guide
Finally, some of you might be wondering how talk of a possible ‘no deal’ Brexit in December 2020 would affect you. This is a reference to the possibility that at the end of the transition period the UK and EU may not have reached agreement on the future trade relationship. This does not affect your rights as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement to continue living and working in the EU.
Many thanks
John Marshall, HM Ambassador