Around 500,000 EU citizens living in the United Kingdom still have to apply for a special residence status there. They need it to stay in the country. They have time until the end of the year to arrange that.

An estimated 3.5 million EU citizens live in the country. Security Minister Brandon Lewis has previously warned that they risk being expelled from the country if they do not apply for residency status in time. Official figures show that around 3 million EU citizens and their family members have already done it.

Among the applications that have been processed so far, most people (58 percent) received permanent residence status. A condition is that the applicant has been living in the country continuously for five years. About 41 percent received temporary permission to stay, which can later be converted into permanent status.

The UK left the EU about a week ago, but remains bound by EU law for a transitional period of 11 months.