A British widow who has called Sweden home for more than 20 years is facing deportation after missing a Brexit-related residence application deadline.
Joyce Thomas, 78, moved to Sweden 22 years ago with her husband and son, but did not submit the formal paperwork required after Brexit to secure her right to remain in the country.
The grandmother said she only became aware of the issue several years after the EU-UK withdrawal agreement came into force. Since then, her applications and appeals to stay in Sweden have been refused, and Tuesday is the final day she can leave voluntarily.
When the UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020, British nationals lost their automatic EU citizenship rights, meaning they could no longer remain indefinitely in European countries without meeting new residency requirements.
Britons who were already living in Sweden were given 12 months after the UK’s departure to apply for residence status. However, Ms Thomas said she and her husband, who died from cancer three years ago, were unaware that they needed to complete the application.
The problem only came to light in 2023, when she left Sweden and later encountered difficulties returning because she could not show the required residence documents to the authorities.
After years of challenging the decision, Sweden’s migration agency, Migrationsverket, told Ms Thomas she must leave by September 8, a ruling that would separate her from her son, grandchildren and the friends she has built her life around.
‘I’m tired, I really am tired and I’m not young anymore,’ she told the BBC.
Joyce Thomas, 78, who has lived in Sweden for over two decades, is set to be deported due to a Brexit-related application form
Ms Thomas, who regularly visits her husband’s grave, added: ‘Where is the empathy? I’ve lived here for more than 20 years – I’ve got friends, I’ve got family.’
‘This is absolute hell. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. You get up in the morning, you don’t know what’s going to happen,’ Ms Thomas added.
More than 20 people, including doctors, friends and priests, testified in support of Ms Thomas being allowed to stay.
The grandmother, who is a frequent churchgoer, was reportedly still waiting today to hear back from the government following her lawyer’s latest arguments.
Her legal representatives previously told a court in Luleå that upheld the decision to deny her application that it was ‘not proportionate for [Ms Thomas] to be deported solely because she missed a deadline due to insufficient information’.
‘Furthermore, it is not acceptable that the Swedish authorities failed to inform her that she needed to file an application and of the deadline by which it was to be filed,’ they said.
Under Article 18 of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, people who are late to apply for their residence status can still have it granted if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ for doing so.
In the court ruling, authorities decided she was not ‘particularly vulnerable’ and still had a pension in the UK, as well as another son.
Swedish authorities told the BBC that they will assess whether there are any measures that can be adopted to ‘make the process easier for those affected’.
‘I don’t take anything from this country. I am self-sufficient, I put money in this country, have no criminal record,’ Ms Thomas told The Guardian last week.
If she does not leave voluntarily by September 8, Ms Thomas could be denied re-entry and put on a watch list that would prevent her from being able to visit a Schengen country.
Sweden has reportedly already deported or forcibly removed 458 British citizens since Brexit.
Last week, a 34-year-old Brit was deported from the country despite having lived there since he was ten and marrying a Swedish national.
And last month, a family was battling to stop an elderly man, who receives specialist care for his vascular dementia and vascular Parkinsonism, being deported despite living in Sweden for more than 20 years.
