Scottish National Party (SNP) parliamentary leader Ian Blackford argued against the deadline in the House of Commons on 30 June, claiming that "hundreds of thousands of European nationals still without the settled status, including thousands of children”.

He said that there are "hundreds of thousands of cases to be processed", but Boris Johnson considers the European Union Citizens Registration System [EU Settlement Scheme, EUSS] "a fantastic success".

“It's fantastic that 5.6 million people have applied. We are processing applications as quickly as possible. Clearly, the most important thing is for anyone who has not yet applied to do so today,” he urged.

The deadline for enrollment in the EUSS expired yesterday, having opened in 2019 following the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union to guarantee residence status for citizens of the EU, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein and their close family members.

Settled status is granted after five years of continuous residency in the country, but those who have been in the country for a shorter period of time receive provisional status pre-settled status until they complete the necessary time.

Without proof of status, or a certificate of application, people lose their rights to reside and work and access health, education and social services in the UK.

The Ministry of Interior has promised a “pragmatic and flexible approach” and will accept applications after 30 June, on a case-by-case basis when there are reasonable reasons for the delay.

In recent weeks, there will have been 10 thousand to 12 thousand applications per day due to the deadline.

Official statistics confirm that, as of 31 May, 334,500 applications out of the 5.6 million received were still to be completed.

By the end of March, the British Government had received 376,440 applications from Portuguese and 359,070 were completed, of which 203,310 received settled status and 143,080 provisional residence status.