Thank you very much @Sandcastle for this response - much appreciated.
Of note is that the same problem / issue can arise for EU spouses of UK citizens who want to move back to UK - it seems a five year absence from the UK prior to ‘freedom’ day removes the right to the UK WA rights. And probably after too.
Below is the link to one reported case - tragic. Presume they didn’t just say ‘we visited for a day or so’.
My wife took citizenship for this very reason, that and a complete lack of trust in the settled status system.
My wife very grudgingly applied for settled status when we lived in the UK (she’d been living there for 25 years). Some smart legal work by an immigration lawyer then unearthed the fact that she was in fact entitled to UK citizenship, thanks to legislation personally backed by Margaret Thatcher when PM. However my wife was so disgusted with the whole Brexit fiasco, seeing it as a final straw, that she declined to seek UK citizenship and frankly couldn’t wait to leave the UK. She told me if I ever want to return to the UK, I will be doing so on my own! I have no such plans…
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