It feels it was yesterday when I arrived at London Heathrow for the beginning of a new phase of my life.

After thirty years living in Portugal I decided to move to the UK,  two months after my wife Inês and my daughter Sara joined me.

In the last 5 years, my experience has been very positive, I and my family were well received and respected by everyone, first in London then in Edinburgh. My second daughter was born here and now both are going  to school and made good friends.

It was a bit of a shock the result of the Brexit referendum last year, it got me worried for a couple of months, but after the dust settled I realized that I had at least two more years with the UK inside EU. Meanwhile, I can apply for permanent residency and after one year I can apply for citizenship.

The process of applying for permanent residency got an overhaul in February (probably because they must be overloaded with requests), no longer you need to fill a 85 pages form manually. You now have an online form that guides trough your questions, and if you have P60 for all the 5 years you are living in the UK it’s all that you need.

The Home Office also made available theEuropean Passport Return Service available around the UK, so you no longer need to send your ID card or Passport to them.

I did all this process last week, it took less than half hour to fill the form, and I manage to book an appointment for the European Return Service for the next day!

So now I’m waiting for the answer from the Home Office if all goes well in one year I will be applying for citizenship, wish me luck!