Immigration lawyers told The Guardian that visa and immigration officials had privately admitted at a recent conference that they were struggling to entice enough staff.

According to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, an additional 700 immigration caseworkers have already been recruited since the Brexit vote and 500 more will be recruited by April.

However, immigration lawyers are sceptical that even this level of staffing will be enough to handle 3 million EU registration applications.

In evidence submitted to Parliament, they said that would mean just one caseworker for every 1,500 cases.

The Home Office said that it “recruits on merit, not nationality” and strives for a representative workforce.

It acknowledged that the jobs were not “UK restricted”, but added that it had received a high number of applications from existing UK residents for the new roles.