Romanian and Bulgarian Workers Confused By Home Office Restrictions On Work
Anna Marie from Romania
Anna Marie, a bright young Romanian citizen, came to the UK for the first time as an au pair in 2003. She went back to Romania a couple of years later before her visa expired. Like thousands of other Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, she thought she was about to have another chance to work in the UK when they joined the European Union on 1st January 2007.
She returned to the UK in February and quickly found a job in the care industry. She assumed that she would be treated just like other EU citizens from former eastern bloc countries such as Poland and Slovakia. However, Anna Marie and her employer were in for a shock.
Romanians and Bulgarians do not have the same rights to work in the UK as previous new EU citizens.
When the previous A8 nations joined the EU in 2004, Britain was one of only three European member states to allow free movement of labour. All people from the new EU countries had to do in order to work in the UK was to apply to the Home Office under the ‘Workers Registration Scheme’ (WRS). This is one of the main reasons why far more eastern Europeans migrated to Britain than originally anticipated.
In 2004, Tony McNulty, a Home Office Minister, estimated that around 13,000 people would migrate to the UK from the new EU member states. The fact that over 600,000 people subsequently moved here in the last 18 months led to media driven fears of a “stampede” on 1 January 2007, forcing the government to impose restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants.
The Home Office has stated that although they will not require ‘leave to enter’ (a visa) the UK, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals wanting to work will still need to obtain “authorisation” before starting any employment, unless they are exempt from doing so.
This authorisation will normally take the form of an “Accession Worker Card”. Bulgarian and Romanian nationals will be able to apply to the Home Office for an Accession Worker Card without the need for an employer to apply for a work permit for a limited number of employment categories, including: airport based operational ground staff of an overseas airline; Au Pairs; Domestic Workers; Ministers of Religion; Postgraduate doctors; dentists; and trainee general practitioners. For a full list see the Home Office website.
If the employment does not fall into one of the above categories, the process for obtaining authorisation to work will be as follows:
- The UK employer applies for approval of the employment under the work permit arrangements.
- The Bulgarian or Romanian national applies for an Accession Worker card.
The qualifying criteria and guidance notes can be found on the Home Office website.
In Anna Marie’s case, the only way she could work was for the employer to apply for a work permit. Unfortunately, she did not have the required experience to qualify for a work permit at which point she contacted us for advice.
She said she was surprised by the rules and was not aware of the restrictions on working.
“The information that I got before I came here was not enough. I thought I could start working in the UK when I got an offer from an employer but it was not like that”, she said.
Many of her countrymen have also found themselves stranded in the UK, unable to work. Fortunately, unlike many of the Romanians she has met in a similar position, Anna Marie speaks good English and knows her way around the system in the UK
She has now registered as a student and enrolled in a college providing NVQ courses in Health and Social Care. The vocational course will involve working in a care home to complete the practical part of her studies.
Romanians and Bulgarians should check the Home Office website before traveling to the UK.
Employers need to be aware of the rules when employing Romanian and Bulgarian staff. Further information can be found on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
If you should have any questions or need help please email Charles Kelly info@immigrationmatters.co.uk.
Reader Comments
Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. Always ’bout them, all over the world. But dividing foreigners into groups is more than silly.
I am Bulgarian young woman and I am not pretending to speak perfect English but I’d say I’m quite the same as a lot of the women at my age. Even smarter than some.
My point is that making labour market limitations stop not the Bulgarian and Romanian workers in general, they stop only the groups that British people are afraid of being ousted – educated and well qualified ones, the thieves , prostitutes, illegal workers and all different pieces of grey Economics will work anyway.
Kindly regards from snowy Balkans.
PS: I like the home office page but It’d be more clear which is the target group of this web-page.
I`d like to make same comment actually i am also Bulgarian woman residing in the UK under those rediculous restrictions.I think that its actually humiliating to be treated a sa third class European when Polish,Czech,Lituanians and whatever citizens can feel here free to live as normal people as we should be treated.It is rediculous that you`ve given full rights to Polish nation which dont even spent 1 pound in the UK and save all the money they made here to send back home then leave back themselves,while restrict those people who really wants to work and pay taxes and permanently move to live here respecting this country and its laws.I like this country,i like most of the people here,but i dont like to be treated like 3rd class European and you should know that this is wrong!
Yeah, go BULGARIAN girls, show em them Stupid English Restrictions! HOME OFFICE WE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR IDIOTISM, DISCRIMINATION AND NONESENSE! YOU TEACH PPL EQUALTY GIVE ALL PPL THE SAME OPPORTUNITY TO GAIN SUCCESS, BUT DO YOU PRACTISE WHAT YOU PREACH? DO YOU REALLY?
YOU ARE SO CONTROVERCIAL IN YOUR WAYS OF SORTING THINGS OUT. SO MANY PPL ARE RAPING THIS COUNTRY WITH CLAIMING BENEFITS AND HAVING JOB IN THE SAME TIME. BULGARIAN PPL ARE HONEST AND HARD WORKING, MAKING IT HARD FOR US, YOU MAKE IT HARD FOR YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHEERS
BULGARIA FOR EQUALTY
I am british. I have met a Bulgarian guy who was working here as “self employed” and was being treated worse than a slave because he didn’t know his rights, and was not even aware he was self employed because the hotel organised everything before he came here.
It was only after I met him and asked him about days off (didnt have any),and working hours 24/7, and I informed him of his rights as an employee,that we found out he had no rights becasue he was “self employed”
Obviously it is in the Hotels interests to get people from Bulgaria and Romania to come and work for them so they can abuse them in this way.
We have been living together for one year now and life is still difficult as far as employment is concerned.
He is doing a college course which allows him to work 20 hrs a week legally and after one year of doing this he can work legally as any other.
There are plenty of jobs out there, but as soon as the employers come across this Border agency discrimination against Bulgarian and Romanian nationals they dont want to know.
As a British person I am ashamed of the way Bulgarians and Romanians are treated in this discriminating way. It makes my partner feel very upset and like a second class citizen.
He aims to live here permanently and we hope to get married as soon as we have enough money.
I just wish there was a way this could be dealt with in a court of human rights!
Hello everyone, i am happy to hear a British citizen concerned about our rights and really appreciate.
I am a Romanian business student studying in UK more precisely in Sunderland, North East. To be honest, I feel relative sceptic regarding my opportunities in the UK. I would like to have a job in my area at least temporarily up to one year as I don’t come back in my country only with the degree and with no any experience. However the discriminations are kept even for people who bring money to the UK’s government such as the international students. Beside the work permit, the local employers prefer to wait for a somehow good British application and reject the foreigner ones even if they are better.
I don’t want to have life employement in the UK, appart of that I don’t think to stay there because is better to stay in my poverty with my full rights instead to have a better situation in the UK but regarded as inferior. I really don’t need anything from the UK’s government, but i need to be fair and more supportive with the ones who contribute with fees.
I am sorry for Romanians and Bulgarians and for what other ”inferior” people undergo in the UK. I was naive when i thoght at UK as place for studying. I also really apologise my crime of staying and studying in the UK and contributing to its government and I promise that I will leave once i’ll turn on my plan.
Hello everyone,
I am bulgarian and was working in a hotel in central London as a chambermaid.Mainly workers in the hotel were Polish and almost all of them were housekeeper staff.I was very suprised that these people who had to make even a simple conversation with the guests of the hotel just couldn’t speak proper english and their writing english was even worse.So i want to ask why polish who even can ‘t do their jobs well have rights to work wthout any problems but people like me and other bulgarians can not,no matter that we can speak and write english very well.The other fact is that polish behaved very badly to all other workers from other nationalities.So i think that english employers must have in mind when they hire workers.Workers from Bulgaria and Romania are not worse than these from Poland and probably will do their jobs better if their english is good.Just to hire polish workers who dont’t know even to say their names in english is a shame for the employer.
You are right, English is most important, just as German or would be if you were working in Germany!
There are many colleges offering courses to improve your English.
Majestic College will be running summer English courses.
What a pity! I don’t get the point of EU. So much discrimination! All new members of the EU should be treated the same, no matter the nationality. The new changes in order to meet the EU expectations within Romania and Bulgaria affected these countries in such a way, that the poor people became poorer and a lot of people are still suffering! And the outcome is that they are still treated like a 3rd class citizens. That’s not right! Give full rights or take them all back!
The UK should consider carefully the situation and decide whether they give full rights to all the people or no rights for anybody. That’s a fair way! European Union is not a “union” as long as these issues continue to occur.
I am so disappointed with the Home Office and the “services” that they provide… In fact, they do NOT provide any service and the only put obstacles on your way… For example, when I called the helpline for Bulgarians and Romanians to ask what do I need in order to apply for a Blue card, the first time they told me that I have to send my husband’s passport (he is Italian) to them and an application form EE2 (for permanent residence of EEA citizens). The second time I called them, they told me that I have to apply for BR1 form and if my husband can’t send them his passport because he travels a lot for his work, we have to go to Croydon and apply in person. Again I was told that only his passport is needed. Once we went there, instead, the officer told us that she can’t do anything before my husband applies for a Blue Card (which he is NOT obliged to, according to their website). She also added that the helpline on which I received the information on how to apply for a blue card is not linked directly to their office and there were a lot of people turned down, because of that… At this stage I had already a very lucrative job offer for a Category Manager with one of the leading manufacturers in the FMCG sector in the UK. I explained this to her and asked if there was a possibility to bring the missing documents and the application for my husband the next day or even the same afternoon… She said “NO” with a sadistic smile and told me that I should make another appointment via telephone or online. And you can imagine that I’ve got an appointment in SIX weeks time… So, which normal employer will wait for me that long???? So, what is the solution???? Just surrender and say that they have the right to do it? That they have the right to impose this restriction on Bulgarians and Romanians, who are highly qualified people and who have years of experience? And above all, I don’t fully understand the logic of the whole European Union… This is about EQUAL rights, EQUAL opportunities, and above all FREE MOVEMENT… How some Europeans are FREER in their rights and some others are not? So, it is right to sell their production on Bulgarian or Romanian market, but when it comes to “buy” in a sense the highly qualified labour offered to them, they are not happy to acquire it… I feel discriminated and oppressed by the rasistic division of humans that they imply!!!
nice and true comments!
the only thing i don;t understand is why only romanians and bulgarians are denied?
why us ?
for how long?
they can;t go like this for ever!!!