There was a huge rush by EU citizens for UK settled status on Wednesday, with more than 50,000 people scrambling to beat the midnight deadline on 30 June, it has emerged. The Home Office said that more than 5.6m applications had been received with 5m people granted settled or pre-settled status. We speak to three people who have been struggling with the process. Monika Agorelius, 56, journalist and PR consultant The Swede spent 30 years living and working in the UK before moving to France in December. She applied for settled status online in May and is still awaiting a decision. “I thought it would be simple because I already had permanent residence, and I’ve paid taxes and national insurance for years, have owned properties, and have a British driving licence and a British husband, but after doing the online application I was asked to submit further evidence proving I’d lived in the country for five consecutive years. I waited two and a half hours on the helpline to speak to someone at the Home Office to ask why my national insurance records hadn’t been found automatically, and they said that was one of the problems they were having. So I had to upload five years of tax records. “That was in May, but I haven’t heard a beep since. My application is somewhere in the backlog. I’m more angry about it than anxious. I have a certificate of application, and I’m supposed to be allowed to travel into the UK using that, but I’m worried that not all the customs officials will understand the rules, so I wouldn’t risk it until my settled status is granted. I’ve never been one to panic but I just don’t trust the system enough. Britain was my home for more than 30 years and I’ve got a lot of attachments there and might want to return to live there again. I’m sad that all of us Europeans feel so unwelcome.” Fabio, housing policy analyst Fabio was granted pre-settled status in 2019 and went to upgrade it to settled status in June when he reached the five-year mark in the UK. But on Wednesday he discovered the website no longer shows his pre-settled status needed to support his right to live and work in the UK. “This morning I double-checked my account just to make sure things were showing correctly after the 30 June deadline, and I was surprised to find out that the only status reported on my Gov.uk account was ‘certificate of application’, which referred to the latest application I made in June – still pending – whilst information about my current immigration status had disappeared. “I am worried because I’m buying a house so I need to show that I have the right to stay here to get a mortgage and saying I have an application pending won’t be proof,” he said. He said the person on the Home Office helpdesk was “kind and helpful” and tried to change it manually, but after investigation told him there was a technical glitch. Fabio said he was concerned it could be a systemic issue and would affect others if the Home Office was wiping out previous records and just denoting a “pending” application. The Home Office has said all those with a certificate of application will have their rights protected. Mike Goulden, consultant anaesthetist, Liverpool Goulden’s tweets went viral on Thursday when he told of his 83-year-old mother, Erika, resident in the UK for nearly 50 years, having to apply for settled status. She set up home in Liverpool in 1963 after meeting Goulden’s father at a British army base in Germany. She has dementia. Goulden was initially reluctant to apply but “realised that we could risk her becoming an ‘illegal immigrant’. She has no understanding of this process because of her dementia,” he said. “I had to scan her face side to side. She became increasingly upset, saying ‘just tell the government I’ve been here for years and that I’m German’. I was crying on the inside. It was undignified, intrusive and cruel. For those of you who voted for Brexit, is this what you wanted?” The Home Office has said those in the country with indefinite leave to remain are not obliged to apply for settled status but many charities are advising they do so to avoid mix-ups and delays in accessing the NHS and other public services.