‹ Blog

Working in the EU after Brexit: the routes for UK citizens

Visas7 min · 2026-09-17

Since 1 January 2021 a British passport is a third-country passport in the EU. Working in the EU after Brexit therefore means the rules that apply to Americans and Australians now apply to you: no free movement, a permit for every job. That sounds worse than it is. Every route Europe uses to hire non-EU talent is open to a UK citizen, one door, Ireland, never closed at all, and this guide puts the routes in the order to try them: Ireland, then a sponsored job or the EU Blue Card, then an EU passport by descent, then a remote-work visa, and last the youth scheme that is still being negotiated. First, though, the trap that catches people before any of that: the 90/180 rule, which the EU now enforces with a digital border.

The 90/180 rule: visiting is allowed, working is not

You can spend 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area without a visa, and the 180 days roll. GOV.UK is precise about what that covers: tourism, short courses, medical treatment, and 'travelling for business for your UK employer, for example to attend a business meeting or conference'. Work needs a visa or permit, and so does staying past 90 days. Two things have changed the enforcement. The EU's Entry/Exit System started on 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational at all Schengen borders since 10 April 2026: fingerprints, a facial image and a digital record of every entry and exit in place of stamps, so an overstay is on file rather than in a border guard's memory. And ETIAS, the travel authorisation for visa-free visitors, is scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026 at €20, valid for three years or until your passport expires; the EU says it will announce the exact date several months ahead. Interviewing on a visit is fine. Starting the job on one is not.

Ireland: the door that never closed

Under the Common Travel Area a British citizen can live and work in Ireland with no visa, no residence permit and no employment permit, including as a self-employed person. The arrangement predates both countries' EU membership and does not depend on it, and the two governments signed a memorandum in 2019 to keep it in all circumstances. Brexit changed nothing here. Dublin's tech, pharma and finance employers hire in English at scale and treat UK candidates as locals: of the 257 Irish listings we track as of 17 September 2026, 224 have the ad in English, the highest share of any country we cover. If Ireland fits your field, it is the best first move for a British graduate. Full stop.

Sponsorship and the EU Blue Card

For the rest of the EU the standard route is a job offer that becomes a work permit. The EU Blue Card needs a degree (or, for some occupations, several years of comparable experience), a contract or binding offer of at least six months, and a salary at or above a national threshold that each country sets between its average gross salary and 1.6 times it, with lower thresholds for shortage jobs and recent graduates. A UK degree counts like any other for this purpose. National schemes run alongside it. The Netherlands sponsors fastest when the employer is on the IND's public register of recognised sponsors; Germany sponsors at scale in engineering, IT and healthcare; Spain and Portugal hire British candidates into English-speaking roles. Where are the employers that say so in the ad? Of the 5,787 English-language listings we track, 452 mention visa sponsorship, and inside the EU the count is led by Germany, Spain and Italy. The graduate visa sponsorship guide explains how to read those ads and how to answer them.

An EU passport through your parents or grandparents

An Irish parent or grandparent can entitle you to Irish citizenship, and with it an EU passport and the full free movement that Brexit took away. Italy, Poland and several other countries also grant citizenship by descent, each with its own rules about how many generations back the line may run and what paperwork proves it. It is not a route for everyone, and it is slow. But if a grandparent was born in an EU country, it is worth an evening of research before you spend months on a work permit, because it replaces every other section of this guide.

Remote-work visas and the youth experience scheme

Two more routes, one real and one not yet. Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Estonia and others offer remote-work visas that let you live there for a year or more while working for a UK employer, subject to an income threshold and, in practice, to your employer agreeing; these permits generally do not allow you to take a local job. The youth experience scheme is different: it does not exist yet. The UK and the EU agreed at their summit on 19 May 2025 to cooperate on one, the EU Council authorised negotiations on 20 June 2025, and the UK laid an explanatory memorandum before Parliament on 28 August 2025. As of September 2026 there is no agreement and nothing to apply for. Do not plan around it. If you want a year abroad now, our working holiday visas guide lists the schemes that exist today and which passports they are open to.

What nobody mentions

First, the 90 days are per Schengen area, not per country: a fortnight in Spain and ten weeks in Germany is 84 days, and the clock is now digital. Second, regulated professions. A UK degree is accepted for Blue Card purposes, but healthcare, teaching, law and some engineering roles need formal recognition, and the ENIC-NARIC network is where that starts; allow months. Third, tax. Spend more than half the year in a country and you are usually tax resident there, whoever pays you. Fourth, the junior market. Of the 5,643 junior-friendly listings we track, only 680 have the ad in English, and inside the EU Germany leads with about 130, then France with just over 80, the Netherlands about 60 and Spain about 50. Language matters more than nationality once you are past the permit: Germany's healthcare listings number 430, and two of them are in English. A first job in the EU without the local language is possible; it is a narrower door than the one in Dublin. Our first job abroad guide is about getting through it.

The practical order

The order, then. If Ireland fits, apply this week: no permit, no wait. If not, target the EU ads that name sponsorship or relocation, favour recognised sponsors and graduate programmes, and state your UK status in one plain sentence so nobody wastes a round. Check your ancestry once. Treat the remote-work visa as a way to keep a UK job, not to find an EU one, and treat the youth scheme as news until it is a form. Workcamino reads every ad and flags the ones that mention sponsorship or relocation, so the English-language listings that do are one filter away. Buen camino.

Browse all jobs