Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the financial costs are for a British citizen to acquire a permanent resident permit or the equivalent of such document in each European Union member state.

Each Member State implements the permanent residence requirements of the Free Movement Directive (2004/38/EC) differently and information is not held centrally on the fees charged for equivalent documents. For example, the Netherlands currently charge €51 for permanent residency, and this charge will remain the same for obtaining a status under the Withdrawal Agreement.

Country-specific information, where available, is detailed in the ‘Living in Guides’ which you can find at:

https://bit.ly/2PJAHjx

The Free Movement Directive sets out the registration requirements and the rules of charging for permanent residence that Member States must follow in their processes.

Under this Directive, a Member State can require a person living there for more than three months to register within a time frame, which should be no less than three months from the date of their arrival. The Directive also states that a citizen’s possession of such registration documents cannot be a precondition for exercising their Treaty rights. It provides that all documents, including registration certificates and permanent residence documents, shall be issued free of charge or for a charge that is no more than that which nationals of the Member State pay for a similar documents.