EU nationals who wish to stay on in the island after Brexit will not be charged an application fee to settle here, the Chief Minister has announced.

The move by Howard Quayle follows shortly after UK premier Theresa May told the House of Commons that the £65 fee for the UK’s EU Settlement Scheme would be removed.

Shortly afterwards, Jersey’s Home Affairs Minister said the £25 fee for the island’s Settled Status Scheme would be scrapped to ensure EU nationals living there are not put at a disadvantage.

Now the Manx Chief Minister has followed suit and will waive the £65 fee for the Isle of Man Settlement Scheme.

He tweeted: ’I am pleased to advise there will be no fee for EU citizens who wish to apply to remain in the Isle of Man after Brexit.’

The 2016 Isle of Man Census indicated there were 4,184 EU citizens living and working in the Isle of Man.

An Economic Affairs labour market report from September the following year suggested that there were 2,861 EU nationals working here, representing 6.7% of the island’s working population.

The Isle of Man EU Settlement Scheme will be introduced as an appendix to the Immigration Rules scheduled to go live in March this year.

It will closely align to the UK scheme based on the agreement Westminster has reached for EU citizens and their families.

EU citizens and their family members who, by December 31, 2020, have been continuously resident here or in the UK for five years will be eligible for ’settled status’ under immigration law, entitling them to stay indefinitely.

EU citizens and their family members who arrive by the end of 2020, but won’t have been continuously resident for five years, will be eligible for ’pre-settled status’, enabling them to stay until they reach the five year threshold for ’settled status’.

PROTECTED

Close family members - spouses, civil and unmarried partners, dependent children and grandchildren, and dependent parents and grandparents - living overseas will still be able to join EU citizens resident here. Future children are also protected.

There will be no fee for applications made under the EU Settlement Scheme.

The application process will be streamlined, quick, simple and user-friendly. The applicant will not be required to show they meet the requirements of the current free movement rules, for example comprehensive sickness insurance.

EU citizens and their family members who arrive during the implementation period - which ends on December 31, 2020 - will be able to live, work and study as they do now, but they will need to register if they intend to stay longer than three months.

Irish nationals won’t be required to apply for settled status.

The UK has not made clear its position in respect of the treatment of EU nationals arriving after March 29 in the event of a no-deal Brexit.