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Today is 1 March and Britain has begun the final countdown towards Brexit, due to take place at 11pm UK time on Friday, 29 March 2019 unless postponed. With that deadline in mind, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) yesterday published an urgent update on the implications of Brexit for Australian travellers.

It includes some useful advice and some handy links.

It reads:

The United Kingdom (UK) is scheduled to leave the European Union (EU) on 29 March 2019. The UK is currently negotiating the terms of its exit with the EU.

If you are an Australian living or working in, or travelling to, the UK or the EU nothing will change in the short-term, including for visa arrangements. This also applies to Australian-British dual nationals.

Australians who plan to continue living in the UK after it leaves the EU can use the UK’s visa and immigration tool to seek guidance on visa status and rights to stay.

The UK and the EU are providing updated guidance on the negotiations and the implications for issues such as travel, residency, education and employment.  You can check for the latest information through the UK’s Department for Exiting the European Union and the European Commission’s Preparedness Notices.

These websites will be the best source of up-to-date information on potential changes on a range of issues.  Consider signing up to notifications to keep updated on issues relevant to you.

You could also contact your service provider directly to check if and when there will be changes to contracts and/or consumer services provided as a result of Brexit. Consider whether you should seek legal advice or engage a migration agent, insurance broker, or another type of consultant to support you.

Further information:

That’s the end of the DFAT advice. Separately, just out of interest and for the record, the graphic below shows how different age groups voted in the historic Brexit vote on 23 June 2016.

Below: Brexit vote breakdown. The older voters were, the more likely to vote to leave.

 

Edited by Peter Needham