The Brexit, for those of you who don’t know, was declared on Thursday June 23rd after the population of Great Britain voted 51.9% to 48.1% in favour of leaving the European Union. This has caused a landslide of effects for everything in the EU, whilst the UK is in a period of turmoil but this shouldn’t let it affect your travel plans. The future of the EU’s open boarder policy is in tatters and will cause long term affects for travellers.
Although this is true, nothing in the immediate future is going to change; the UK won’t leave the EU until 2018, leaving two years of continued open border policies. So for everyone already working in the EU, you are fine to stay where you are and even to go back next year. The EU and the UK will negotiate visa policies and decide on the best course of action however this is nothing to worry about as the EU will implement a visa policy which is fair for British travellers going abroad as well as EU citizens travelling to Britain. Tourists or travellers from the rest of the world will not be affected as currently you need a separate visa to visit Britain anyway.
Seasonnaires and British workers in the EU will not be affected for the next two years, even when they implement a working visa it shouldn’t be too hard to obtain, as many European Citizens still want to work in Great Britain. Summer season companies are already gaining visas for their employees working in Turkey so it won’t be new to them and they will still employ British workers (it will just take a little more paperwork).
The only workers that it is likely to effect are those who are visiting countries and then obtaining a job but I believe the working visas will have little or no restrictions and will be easy to obtain whilst in the given country.
The only significant impact from the Brexit right now is the significant drop in the value of the pound, the pound fell today to a 30 year low (now is not a good time to buy currency). One of the main reasons for this is the fact that all the pre-published polls suggested that Britain would remain in the EU. For this reason the banks and investment bankers invested in the currency just before the first result was announced because they believed with a vote to remain in the EU the currency value would significantly increase. When the first votes started being announced they realised they had make a mistake and started selling all their pounds, this dramatically decreased the value of the pound. By Friday morning the value of the pound was rock bottom providing the perfect time for bank and investors to buy back their currency and get their money back. This resulted in the pound increasing in value once again over the duration of Friday 24th.
The currency value being at an all time low does provide the perfect opportunity for travellers and tourists to visit Britain, as a country which was significantly more expensive than the rest of Europe to visit is now affordable for the majority of the world.
So rest assured if you are planning on taking a trip to Europe as now is the best time to do so and for everyone working in the EU or thinking about going, now is the best opportunity you will get- so what are you waiting for (take a look at my blog post on a beginners guide to working abroad).
All these opinions are my own and obviously no one knows how the EU negotiations will work out with visas but I believe it won’t be a problem.
Great post. I was hoping to move to either Germany or Malta in the future. Not yet but in quite a few years. I’ve been worried about getting a job there now as it’s been said that jobs will be offered first to EU citizens so would it be very hard to get a job? Not a travel one but any regular job x
Thank you. I don’t think it will be too difficult, especially if you have the skills/experience needed for the job. Every country will always want expats and whoever is best for the job no matter what their nationality
Thank you. I hope so. It would be a shame if it becomes harder for Brits to work abroad x
Yes it would be such a shame, I enjoyed my time working in Greece and France. Would be such a shame if the opportunity wasn’t available for others!
I agree. Especially if people would like to permanently move to another country they need the ability to work there. X
Yes they do. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully they will figure out a way for people to work and live within the EU without any problems