Table Of Contents
- What is the UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme
- What would the UK-EU YES (Youth Experience Scheme) look like
- Disputed issues for the UK-EU youth experience scheme
- What is the current status of the proposed UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme
- Summary
The UK currently offers the YMS (Youth Mobility Scheme) visa system in place with certain countries and territories, including Andorra, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Uruguay. These schemes allow young adults (aged 18 to 30 or 18 to 35, depending on where they are from) to come to the UK for a temporary period of up to 2 or 3 years to live and work here, without needing job sponsorship. Under this scheme, one can enter the UK at any time during the validity of their YMS visa, and leave and come back at any time during their stay.
It is reciprocal, allowing British citizens to get similar temporary visas in those countries and territories. YMS schemes aim to promote cultural exchange, and not just to provide a source of workers in the labour market.
What is the UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme?
Post Brexit (UK leaving the EU), free movement (automatic immigration rights between the UK and EU) stopped. This means EU citizens generally need visas or immigration permission to work or settle in the UK and vice versa.
But now both the UK and the EU have proposed to create a UK-EU youth experience scheme that, in principle, would work similarly to the ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’ which the UK currently has with certain countries and territories.
Both sides at the inaugural UK-EU Summit in May 2025 agreed in principle to negotiate a reciprocal YES (Youth Experience Scheme). The joint statement said this scheme would facilitate the UK’s and EU’s young people’s participation in various activities, such as work, studies, au-pairing (allowing young Europeans and British citizens to temporarily stay with families abroad under simplified visa arrangements), volunteering, or simply travelling, for a limited period of time.”
The UK EU youth experience scheme proposal is not about restoring free movement. Instead, it would be a time-limited, separate route operating alongside the United Kingdom’s existing immigration system and would not provide a direct pathway to settlement.
Participants under the proposed UK-EU youth experience scheme would be free to switch between activities during their stay, which distinguishes it from the Student or Skilled Worker visa, both of which are tied to a specific institution (education provider) or a sponsor. The scheme would allow young people to live, work, study, travel, or take part in cultural exchange activities in each other’s territories for a limited period.
This would not be a direct route to settlement or citizenship.
What would the UK-EU YES (Youth Experience Scheme) look like?
While neither side has yet published a formal framework, the likely shape of the scheme is becoming clearer based on the UK’s existing youth mobility scheme model and the negotiating positions of both sides.
Similar to the Youth Mobility Scheme visa, this proposed YES scheme between the UK and EU would allow people from the EU aged 18 to 30 (possibly up to 35) to come to the UK to work, study, au-pairing, volunteering, or simply travel for up to 2 or 3 years without the need for employer sponsorship and vice versa.
Disputed issues for the UK-EU youth experience scheme
Negotiations have been ongoing since the UK-EU May 2025 summit, and two significant sticking points have so far prevented a deal from being reached. These two points of contention are delaying any agreement between both sides with the next summit between the UK and the EU not expected to the end of June or early July.
1. UK wants to cap the number of young people from the EU
It has emerged that the UK wants to put a cap or limit the number of young people from the EU coming into the country as part of the Youth Experience Scheme to below 50,000.
The EU has already rejected the idea of putting a cap and wants unlimited visas for young people from the EU with an annual review on numbers instead, to allow an “emergency brake” (a safeguard mechanism that would allow the UK or the EU to temporarily restrict or slow down the number of participants if the numbers become unexpectedly high) on the scheme if politically desirable.
Effectively, this would be a reviewable cap instead of a fixed upfront one.
It is understood that the UK is willing to consider a “balancing mechanism” (a system designed to keep the number of participants fair and manageable for both sides) that allows both the UK and the EU to jointly review and modify quotas, ensuring that any increase in numbers happens through mutual agreement rather than as an automatic right.
2. The UK Government does not intend ‘access to home tuition fee status’ for EU students to be part of the arrangement
While the EU wants ‘access to home tuition fee status’ for EU students to be part of the arrangement, which would allow eligible EU citizens to study in the UK for the same fees as home students and vice versa instead of paying international rates, the UK government has firmly stated that tuition fees were not part of the arrangement so it does not need to engage on the issue.
What is the current status of the proposed UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme?
As of May 2026, people from both sides are actively negotiating the YES scheme as part of a broader post-Brexit “reset” in UK-EU relations.
Negotiators are aiming to secure a political agreement during or following the upcoming UK-EU summit expected in summer 2026. However, even if an agreement is reached in 2026, reports indicate that the actual scheme may not start before 2027.
So, currently, the scheme is only a proposal under negotiation, no applications are open yet, and no side has officially confirmed final rules.
Summary
The proposed UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme is a planned temporary mobility arrangement between both sides that would allow young people to live, work, study, travel, or take part in cultural exchange activities in each other’s territories for a limited period.
The scheme is being discussed as part of efforts to improve UK-EU relations after Brexit stopped free movement between the UK and EU.
Key features currently being discussed include age eligibility likely between 18 and 30, possibly up to 35, temporary stay of up to 2 or 3 years, rights to work, study, travel, volunteer, or au pair.
This would be a visa-based and time-limited system and not a direct route to settlement or citizenship.
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