In its response to the earned settlement consultation, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: Government Response to the Consultation (CP 1707, November 2026), the Government has confirmed the policy framework it intends to introduce for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). The standard qualifying period would increase from five to ten years, alongside three- and five-year pathways for eligible groups, stricter mandatory requirements and targeted transitional protection. Notable changes from the original consultation include the removal of the proposed fifteen-year default for below-RQF 6 occupations, protection for certain existing care workers and revised arrangements for families. The measures will not alter the current law unless and until the necessary Immigration Rules take effect.

The Government response sets out intended policy, not Immigration Rules already in force. The general earned settlement reforms have not yet been implemented, and the Government has not specified a comprehensive commencement timetable or published the detailed general transitional provisions.  In her speech on 02 November 2026, the Home Secretary indicated that the Statement of Changes is likely in December, with implementation to follow – spread throughout 2027, though this is not certain at present. 

A separately enacted increase in the English-language standard for specified settlement routes is scheduled to take effect on 26 March 2027.

1. What Has the Government Decided About Earned Settlement?

The final policy framework in the Government Response rests on four principles: character, contribution, integration and lawful residence. Residence alone will not be sufficient: applicants will also have to meet minimum requirements and the conditions of an eligible pathway. In a significant departure from the 2025 consultation, the Government has dropped the proposed fifteen-year default for occupations below Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 6. Workers in such occupations may instead be eligible for the standard ten-year pathway, or a shorter route if they meet specific criteria.

The Government response includes detailed policy decisions rather than simply inviting further views. Existing settlement applications remain governed by the Immigration Rules legally applicable to them.

2. Proposed Earned Settlement Qualifying Periods: Three, Five, Ten, Twenty and Thirty Years

Three years: there will be an accelerated route for applicants on eligible immigration pathways who earn at least £125,141 in three of the four years immediately before applying, or who qualify through specified highest-talent arrangements. The Government response indicates that the high-talent pathway remains subject to further review, including Migration Advisory Committee advice. Meeting a salary threshold or holding a particular visa is not, by itself, a guarantee of entitlement to settlement: applicants must satisfy the relevant route and mandatory requirements.

Five years: there will be a route for higher earners who meet the £50,271 threshold in three of the five years immediately before applying, eligible health and education workers in specified national-pay-scale occupations, people with defined British connections and certain protected transitional cohorts. It will be necessary to hold permission on a route eligible for the claimed pathway and meet all applicable settlement requirements. Accelerated earnings provisions should not be assumed to apply to every family or private-life applicant.

Ten years: this is the starting point for applicants who meet the required standards but do not fall within a shorter pathway. For the standard contribution-based route, the Government’s summary table refers to earning at least £12,571 annually in five of the seven years immediately before application. Exemptions and alternative arrangements apply in defined cases.

Twenty years: under the incoming framework, specified immigration breaches committed as an adult would ordinarily place an applicant on a twenty-year qualifying pathway, irrespective of otherwise higher earnings or contributions. Applicants who have accessed specified public funds in the five years before settlement may also need a twenty-year pathway unless they complete a qualifying five-year period without that support or fall within an applicable safeguard or exemption. Criminality may instead prevent settlement outright. Separate arrangements apply to refugees and to illegal entry, as explained below.

Thirty years: the thirty-year period concerns certain refugees who remain on the twenty-year Core Protection pathway and are subject to an additional ten-year period because of illegal entry. It is not a general thirty-year rule for everyone who enters the UK illegally. A person moving onto Protection Work and Study could instead face a twenty-year period in the circumstances described in the Government response. The additional illegal-entry period is not intended to apply where Article 31 of the Refugee Convention affords protection; implementation details remain outstanding.

3. Earnings, Minimum Contribution and the ‘Best Years’ Test

A central change is the ‘best years’ assessment, designed to avoid automatic disadvantage from a limited period of reduced earnings owing to maternity or parental leave, caring responsibilities or illness. The stated income tests are: £125,141 in three of the last four years for the three-year earnings pathway; £50,271 in three of the last five years for the five-year earnings pathway; and £12,571 in five of the last seven years for the standard ten-year earnings pathway. These figures are intended to track relevant tax thresholds.

The Government response states that applicants will generally need to demonstrate economic contribution of at least £12,571 a year, subject to defined exemptions. Although the main text describes a minimum of three years’ contribution, the more specific summary for the standard ten-year earnings pathway requires the threshold to be met in five of the seven years immediately before application. The precise interaction of these formulations, the evidence required and the rules for different pathways will need to be checked when the implementing Immigration Rules are published. Exemptions from the individual earnings requirement are intended for children, applicants aged 65 or over and people unable to meet it because of a medical condition.

4. Care Workers: Who Retains the Five-Year ILR Route?

The Government response confirms a targeted, one-off five-year settlement pathway for care workers who entered, or switched into, the care route before publication of the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025. To benefit, they must meet the specified annual salary requirement of £25,000, the relevant sponsorship and genuine-employment conditions, and strengthened general settlement requirements including character and English language, unless an exemption applies. Five years’ residence alone will not guarantee ILR.

Care workers who entered or switched into the route after the White Paper’s publication will generally fall within the proposed standard ten-year pathway, subject to other qualifying options. The previously proposed fifteen-year default for occupations below RQF level 6 has not been retained. The transitional protection is specific to the relevant cohort: it cannot be relied upon as a universal five-year exemption for every worker on a Health and Care visa.  

5. What if an Existing Care Worker Does Not Meet the Five-Year Requirements?

A care worker within the protected cohort who cannot qualify for settlement after five years is intended to be able to apply for a further five-year Health and Care visa, restricted to genuine work in the sector. This provides an opportunity to meet the applicable requirements and apply again; it is not an automatic grant of settlement. The Government response says the further permission will continue to be subject to no recourse to public funds. The detailed conditions for such grants will need to be checked once the relevant Rules and guidance are published.

6. Sponsor Licence Revocation: Extended Time for Affected Care Workers

The Government also announces a separate measure for care workers who lose employment because their sponsor’s licence has been removed. From 1 February 2027, affected workers are intended to have up to 120 days to secure a genuine job offer and a further 60 days to resolve their immigration and employment position. If those steps are not completed within the specified periods, the response states that the worker’s visa will be curtailed and they will have to leave the UK. The legal effect on any particular worker will depend upon the implementing provisions and the relevant curtailment decision. This should not be taken as confirmation that all existing visas automatically carry an additional 180 days.

7. Which Health and Education Workers Can Still Settle After Five Years?

The permanent public-service discount is intended for specified health and education occupations paid according to national pay scales, rather than all public-sector employment. Annex C of the Response lists the eligible occupations, drawing on Table 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations. It includes medical practitioners, registered nurses, several allied-health professions, teachers and social workers. Applicants must still satisfy the other eligibility criteria.

Separately, a one-off five-year route is proposed for workers in certain national-pay-scale health and education occupations below RQF level 6 – examples include nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants – who arrived before the May 2025 White Paper and meet their visa requirements. Workers arriving after that date will normally be on the ten-year pathway unless they qualify for an alternative accelerated route. Occupational classifications, salary arrangements and the date of entry are therefore central to the assessment.

8. Will Existing Skilled Workers Keep Their Five-Year Settlement Rights?

Not automatically. The Government response proposes targeted transitional protection rather than preserving the existing five-year qualifying period for all Skilled Workers already in the UK. Some will qualify under an accelerated earnings pathway, an eligible public-service category or another defined exception, while others may face the standard ten-year route. These are announced policy decisions: the existing five-year Skilled Worker settlement rules remain operative until amended. Any effect on applications already made, accrued qualifying residence or workers approaching their fifth anniversary must be assessed against the commencement and savings provisions when published.

For some Skilled Workers who entered the route before the April 2024 salary changes, the Government has recognised a different issue. Where existing transitional salary arrangements were originally due to expire in 2030, the response states that qualifying workers in below-RQF 6 occupations who need ten years to settle will be able to extend on those salary terms until 2035. This assists with maintaining lawful sponsored permission; it does not itself preserve a five-year ILR route.  

9. How Will Partners and Dependants Qualify for Settlement?

The Government has moved away from requiring every adult dependant to earn settlement wholly independently. A dependent partner arriving alongside the principal applicant is intended to be able to settle at the same time if they meet the relevant requirements; a partner who joins later will ordinarily need to complete a corresponding qualifying residence period of their own. The response illustrates this using a five-year principal applicant. It does not conclusively settle how the proposed arrangements will operate for every partner of a migrant who obtains settlement on an accelerated three-year route. 

Eligible couples may use combined household earnings to satisfy the minimum economic-contribution test. The response sets a household threshold of £25,142, twice the individual minimum of £12,571. One partner may earn the full amount or the couple may combine earnings, provided the relationship is genuine and subsisting and only one person relies on the other’s earnings for this purpose. This is not an assurance that a partner can automatically pool earnings to meet the separate £50,271 or £125,141 accelerated thresholds.

10. What Happens to Children and Young Adult Dependants?

Children under 18 are intended to continue settling with their parents, subject to the relevant relationship, suitability and criminality requirements. The response exempts them from the income, Government debt, English-language and Life in the UK test requirements. The position of children with separate private-life and vulnerability-based settlement rights is also intended to remain protected.

Young adults aged 18 to 24 who retain child-dependant status are intended to be able to settle alongside their families without demonstrating individual earnings, although adult mandatory requirements will generally apply. Those aged 25 or over when their family qualifies will normally have to establish an independent basis for settlement or switch to a suitable route. Families whose settlement is delayed by these reforms should assess the position of dependent children well before they approach that age.

The Government response envisages greater alignment between the settlement dates of principal applicants and partners who arrive together, but the final Rules will need to clarify how this operates where a principal applicant qualifies for accelerated settlement after three years. Under current rules, dependent partners in certain talent and work routes may still need five years even where the principal applicant can settle earlier. Families should therefore avoid assuming that the new policy automatically permits all accompanying partners to obtain ILR after three years.

11. British Citizens’ Families, UK Ancestry and Other Protected Routes

Eligible partners, parents and children of British citizens, and qualifying Commonwealth applicants under the UK Ancestry route, are intended to retain a five-year settlement pathway subject to their route requirements. This does not mean that every family or private-life applicant qualifies in five years. Some applicants relying on family or private life outside the recognised British-connection category may face ten- or twenty-year periods under the new framework.

The Government also intends to honour existing special settlement commitments for Hong Kong BN(O) migrants, eligible Afghan and legacy safe-and-legal schemes, certain armed forces personnel and family members, and protected vulnerable groups. The EU Settlement Scheme and certain historic or statutory routes remain outside the principal earned-settlement system. Bereaved partners and eligible victims of domestic abuse are to retain immediate or bespoke arrangements, while children in care and qualifying children or young adults who have grown up in the UK are to keep existing protections. Some strengthened mandatory standards may nevertheless apply unless an exemption or safeguard is available. See CP 1707, Chapter 4 and Chapter 6.

12. Is the Ten-Year Long Residence Route Being Abolished?

The Government response confirms its intention to close the separate Long Residence route when the new earned-settlement framework is implemented. Under the proposed structure, time spent on expressly temporary routes will not count towards settlement merely because it forms part of ten years’ lawful residence. The listed routes include Student, Graduate, High Potential Individual, Global Business Mobility, Youth Mobility, specified temporary work and visitor categories, among others.

This is especially significant for people who have accumulated years of lawful residence as Students or Graduates and expected to rely on Appendix Long Residence. However, Appendix Long Residence remains in force as at this update. The Government response does not itself repeal it or settle the transitional treatment of every individual with accrued residence. The commencement rules, any savings provisions and specific facts of a person’s immigration history will be decisive.

The new framework will count time on designated long-term work, talent, family and protection pathways, subject to eligibility. It also plans to prevent time on protection or human-rights routes from being combined with time on work or family routes to achieve earlier settlement, so that changing between those types of pathway ordinarily starts a new qualifying period. See CP 1707, Chapter 4, pages 18–23.

13. Stricter Character, Immigration Compliance and Government Debt Conditions

The response proposes a materially stricter criminality standard in its first Chapter. It states that an adult applicant with a criminal record in the UK will be refused settlement and defines criminal records broadly, including custodial and suspended sentences and various non-custodial disposals. Overseas convictions will be relevant where the underlying conduct would be criminal in the UK; the policy also envisages discretion where legal systems differ and separate consideration of childhood offending.  How Part Suitability is amended will also be determined in the incoming Statement of Changes. 

Specified immigration breaches committed as an adult – including overstaying, breaches of conditions, deception and conduct frustrating immigration controls – are intended to result in a twenty-year settlement pathway regardless of an applicant’s otherwise positive contributions. The Government also proposes a mandatory requirement to have no outstanding Government debt, including NHS, tax and National Insurance debt and litigation debts owed to the Home Office. Precise definitions, exceptions and the relevant legal decision-making tests remain to be enacted.  

14. English Language, Life in the UK, Public Funds and Volunteering

Under earned settlement, B2 is intended to be the usual English-language standard, subject to exemptions, and C1 English will not reduce the qualifying period. The Life in the UK test will continue, with applicable age and disability exemptions. Separately, the Home Office has already enacted an increase from B1 to B2 in speaking and listening for settlement applications on specified routes made on or after 26 March 2027, subject to the actual route provisions and exemptions.  

The new policy would require those seeking settlement through a three-, five- or ten-year pathway not to have accessed specified public funds during the previous five years. Otherwise, a twenty-year qualifying period may apply, although the Government acknowledges that it still needs to define which public funds are relevant and establish safeguards for vulnerable groups. Certain refugee cohorts will be treated differently. The original proposal to reduce qualifying periods for volunteering has been rejected because of fairness, evidential and safeguarding concerns.  

15. Refugees, Safe and Legal Routes and Illegal Entry

The response retains a distinct framework for refugees. Those admitted through designated safe and legal resettlement or sponsorship routes are intended to qualify after five years. The UK Resettlement Scheme cohort is to have an A2 English requirement, with exemptions from the proposed five-year public-funds restriction and, until a suitable A2 test exists, the Life in the UK requirement.

People granted protection following an asylum claim made in the UK outside a designated safe and legal route are generally intended to move onto “Core Protection”, with a standard twenty-year settlement pathway. Those who move into sustained work, education or training and qualify for “Protection Work and Study” may instead have a ten-year pathway beginning when they enter that route; time previously spent on Core Protection will not ordinarily count towards those ten years. The Government response acknowledges that further provisions are needed concerning some people who received protection before the new routes were introduced, including the treatment of earlier refugee-status residence. The position of an individual refugee will therefore depend on their grant date, route history and the eventual transitional provisions.

The Government also intends an additional ten-year waiting period for people who entered the UK illegally. This could produce a twenty-year pathway for an eligible refugee on Protection Work and Study or a thirty-year pathway for a person remaining on Core Protection. However, the response expressly recognises protection under Article 31 of the Refugee Convention for refugees who meet its conditions. The additional period would not apply in such cases. The relevant distinctions, safeguards and commencement provisions will require careful examination of the implementing Rules.

16. Will the Changes Affect Migrants Already Living in the UK?

Yes. The Government intends the new settlement framework to apply to many people already in the UK who have not obtained ILR, but has rejected a blanket five-year saving for everyone already resident. Instead, it has confirmed defined transitional concessions, notably for care workers who entered or switched into the relevant route before publication of the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025 and specified pre-White Paper health and education workers. Other measures address the continuation of pre-April 2024 Skilled Worker salary arrangements. People who joined the care worker route after the White Paper cut-off cannot rely on the special care-worker five-year concession merely because they were already in the UK on another visa.

The legal position for any individual will depend upon the date and terms of commencement, the transitional provisions and the route-specific conditions. A person who entered lawfully when the five-year framework applied should not assume their five-year expectation has been permanently protected.  The Statement of Changes will require very careful scrutiny so that migrant workers can plan ahead of the implementation dates. 

17. When Will the New Earned Settlement Rules Come into Force?

As at 02 November 2026, the Government response establishes its intended framework but does not itself amend the Immigration Rules to introduce the general ten-year system. No comprehensive commencement date or fully drafted set of general transitional provisions has been verified for that framework. The Home Office indicates that further technical and operational guidance will be published before implementation – in an expected December Statement of Changes, and will take effect during 2027. 

The one confirmed change already written into Immigration Rules relevant to these reforms is the B2 English-language increase for specified settlement routes, which takes effect on 26 March 2027. 

18. What Did the Public Consultation Find?

The independent analysis by IFF Research records 204,667 online responses and 904 email submissions. Among respondents to the relevant questions, 84% of individuals and 79% of organisations disagreed with the original reforms; 68% of individuals and 73% of organisations supported transitional arrangements for people already on a settlement pathway. Many also raised concerns about families, the position of vulnerable groups and the effect on recruitment and retention. The findings describe self-selecting respondents rather than a representative survey.

The Government response cites that evidence but adopts its own final policy approach. Some consultation concerns are reflected in concessions for care workers, the rejection of the fifteen-year below-RQF 6 default, the revised dependant arrangements and the decision not to reward volunteering with shorter residence periods. The findings themselves confer no immigration rights and should not be confused with either the Government’s decisions or the Immigration Rules.

19. What Should Applicants and Sponsors Do Now?

Applicants nearing settlement should obtain a precise assessment of their eligibility under the current Rules, including continuous residence, permitted absences, sponsorship, salary, English language and Life in the UK requirements. They should establish the earliest lawful application date and keep evidence up to date. They should not submit premature or incomplete applications on the assumption that the filing date will necessarily secure protection from future reforms.

Those with longer immigration histories, dependant children nearing adulthood or care-sector sponsorship issues should review their position particularly carefully. Employers should identify which workers may fall into the pre-May 2025 protected cohorts, the higher-earnings pathways or the pre-April 2024 salary arrangements; check whether salary and occupation evidence can be documented; and avoid presenting the proposals as rules already in force.

20. How Richmond Chambers Immigration Barristers Can Help

Richmond Chambers Immigration Barristers advise individuals, families and employers on routes to settlement.  

An assessment may consider both the Rules presently in force and the practical risks arising from announced but not yet implemented reforms. 

For expert advice regarding managing your route to settlement,  contact our immigration barristers on 0203 617 9173 or complete our enquiry form below.

21. Frequently Asked Questions: Earned Settlement

Has the five-year Skilled Worker ILR route already been abolished?

No. The Government has published its intended replacement framework, but the general ten-year qualifying period is not yet an operative amendment to the Immigration Rules.

How could the reforms affect former Students and Graduates?

The Government intends to close the separate Long Residence route and exclude time on Student and Graduate permission from the proposed new qualifying-residence framework. This may particularly affect people who have accumulated substantial lawful residence while studying or undertaking post-study work but have not yet qualified for settlement. The current Appendix Long Residence remains in force, and the effect on accrued residence will depend on commencement and any transitional or savings provisions. A later move to Skilled Worker permission will not necessarily secure accelerated settlement merely because the person has already lived in the UK for several years.

Will existing care workers still qualify after five years?

Some will. Care workers who entered or switched into the route before 12 May 2025 are intended to retain the five-year pathway if they meet the £25,000 salary, sponsorship, employment and strengthened minimum requirements. The protection is not automatic.

Will all workers earning under £50,271 need ten years?

Not necessarily. Eligible public-service occupations, specified British connections and protected cohorts may have five-year routes, and other pathway exceptions may apply. The applicable route and evidence will be critical.

Can a spouse settle with the main applicant?

The Government intends partners who arrive together to be able to settle together where both meet the relevant requirements. A partner joining later will normally need to complete the same qualifying residence period in their own right. The response does not fully resolve the position of partners whose principal applicant qualifies for an accelerated three-year route, such as certain Global Talent migrants or very high earners.  

Is the ten-year Long Residence ILR already abolished?

No. The Government has decided to close it under the future framework, but Appendix Long Residence has not been abolished by the response document.

Does meeting £125,141 for one year create a three-year route?

No. The Government’s earnings pathway refers to meeting the threshold in three of the four years immediately before applying, alongside all other requirements.

Will B2 English be required?

The B2 rule has already been enacted for specified settlement routes from 26 March 2027, subject to their detailed requirements and exemptions.