As a Romanian or Bulgarian national you are now able to move and reside freely in any Member State of the EU. You do not require leave to enter or remain to reside legally in the United Kingdom. You will have a right of residence in any EU Member State for the first 3 months of residence on an unrestricted basis and you can remain legally resident in that state as long as you wish, providing you are exercising a treaty right as a student, a self-employed person, or if you are self-sufficient. You will not have an automatic right to reside as a worker in the United Kingdom (unless you are exempt from work authorisation requirements).

If you want to live or work in the UK, or to remain for more than three months, you may qualify for the issue of a specific type of registration certificate or accession worker card depending on your circumstances. Your family members may also qualify for the issue of a registration certificate or an accession worker card or, if they are non-EEA nationals, a residence card. A description of each of these documents is outlined below.

These certificates indicate that the holder can work in the UK without restrictions. Holders of a blue registration certificate can include highly skilled migrants and Romanian/Bulgarian spouses or civil partners of a UK national or a person settled in the UK. Blue Registration Certificates can also be issued to other Romanian and Bulgarian nationals who are exempt from the requirement to obtain an Accession Worker Card.

These certificates are issued to those Romanians and Bulgarians exercising a treaty rights as a self employed person, self sufficient person or student. These certificates indicate that the holder has limited access to the labour market and will state the manner in which the holder is exercising a treaty right in any one of the available categories.

These are issued to Romanian and Bulgarian nationals who wish to work in the UK but are subject to work authorization.

These can only be issued to your family members if they are non EEA nationals. They confirm the holder´s right of residence under European law.

If you wish to apply for permanent residence in the United Kingdom as a citizen of Bulgaria or Romania who is here to establish in business under the terms of the former European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) that applied until those countries joined the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2007. The ECAA lapsed on that date and citizens of Bulgaria and Romania may now exercise their treaty rights of self-employment as citizens of the European Economic Area.

In addition to your initial permission to come here in this category, you will need to have been given at least one extension of your stay. You do not need to obtain a second extension, even if this means your permission to stay here expires before you have lived here for five years. You must meet all the requirements of the ECAA throughout the five years.

You may apply for permanent residence if you are established in business and you:

are a citizen of Bulgaria or Romania, and entered the United Kingdom with a valid visa as a person intending to establish in business under the provisions of an EC Association Agreement, and

were given an extension of stay before 1 January 2007 to remain in business under the provisions of the agreement, and

were established in business in the United Kingdom, spent a continuous period of five years in the United Kingdom in this capacity and are still in that business, and

met the requirements in the paragraph below throughout those five years, and

submit accounts for the first four years of trading, and

management accounts for the fifth year, and

have sufficient knowledge of language and life in the United Kingdom.

The requirements mentioned above are that throughout the five years:

If you have established yourself in a company in the United Kingdom which you effectively control, the requirements are that:

If you have established yourself as a sole trader or in a partnership in the United Kingdom, the requirements are that:

You must be in the United Kingdom to apply.

There are few ways of acquiring British citizenship; and it is also important to note that although British citizenship can be acquired by birth, not all children born in the UK are British citizens. Some people may also have to either Register as British or Naturalize to become British.

British citizenship can, therefore, be acquired in the following ways:

BY BIRTH

The legal sources of British Citizenship are contained in the British Nationality Act of 1981 which abolished citizenship by birth in the UK. Children born in the UK after commencement of this Act, will only become British citizen if at least one of the their parents is British or settled in the UK. From 1st July 2006, children can become British through their father even if he is not married to their mother.

BY REGISTRATION

Registration as of right will apply to:

Other applicants:

BY NATURALIZATION

SPOUSE OF A BRITISH CITIZEN:

An applicant under this category must:

Other applicants:

Good Character Requirement:

There should be two British referees to confirm that they know the applicant for the past 3 years and one of them should be a professional; i.e. Solicitor, Doctor, Dentist, Architect, Teacher, etc.

Criminal Records Generally:

a person who has been convicted of a criminal offence cannot be regarded as a person of good character; therefore, all applicants must give full details of all criminal convictions, except those which may be regarded as “spent”.

Bad Associates:

Applicants with no convictions, but who are strongly suspected of engaging in crime or are known associates of criminals, will normally be refused. Although financial irresponsibility, serious insolvency or bankruptcy, commercial malpractice, etc. might bring about a refusal; financial incompetence, unemployment or receipt of social security benefits, defects of temperament, etc. are not in themselves sufficient to justify a refusal.