Earned settlement: will ILR change to 10 years?

Earned settlement UK update: what was decided

On 2 November 2026 the Home Office published its response to the earned settlement consultation, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement (CP 1707), after more than 200,000 replies. Settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain (ILR), will no longer rest mainly on time spent in the UK: the wait will depend on what you contribute and whether you’ve kept to the rules. The default will go from 5 to 10 years, with shorter paths for some and longer ones for others.

This is a policy, not yet a rule: no start date has been named.

Among the ideas dropped since the 2025 consultation: the 15-year path for jobs below RQF 6, which will go on the 10-year path instead, and shorter waits for volunteering or for C1 English.

ILR 5 years or 10 years: pathways and salary thresholds

Under the plan, which isn’t in force yet:

Minimum residence	Who it’s for	What you’d need to show
3 years	The highest earners and the highest talent group	£125,141 or more in 3 of the last 4 years, or qualifying through the highest talent group
5 years	Higher earners, listed public service jobs and a British connection	£50,271 or more in 3 of the last 5 years; or 5 years in a listed health or education job, such as doctor, nurse, teacher or social worker; or being an eligible partner, parent or child of a British citizen, or on UK Ancestry
10 years	The new default	£12,571 or more in 5 of the last 7 years
20 years	People kept off the shorter paths by an immigration breach or public funds	£12,571 or more in 5 of the last 7 years

• The earnings thresholds will be tied to income tax and National Insurance thresholds and move with them. Counting your best years is meant to leave room for a period of maternity leave, caring or illness.
• Eligible couples will be able to combine their earnings to reach the minimum: £25,142 between them.
• No £12,571 minimum for children, people aged 65 or over, and people who can’t meet it because of a physical or mental condition.
• Immigration breaches committed as an adult, such as overstaying, breaking a visa condition, deception in an application or frustrating immigration control, will mean the 20-year path, whatever you earn. Illegal entry as an adult will normally add 10 years, on any route, unless Article 31 of the Refugee Convention applies.
• Public funds. The 3, 5 and 10-year paths will ask for no specified public funds in the 5 years before you apply. Otherwise it will take 5 clear years on a qualifying route, or the 20-year path.
• Your route matters too. Earnings alone won’t open every path: not every route leads to every path.

Earned settlement requirements for everyone

Whichever path you’re on, you’d also need to meet all of these, and higher earnings won’t make up for a missing one. Exemptions will apply to all of them except the criminal record, and some refugee routes differ.

• No criminal record. An adult with a criminal record in the UK will be refused. That includes suspended sentences, court fines, community sentences, conditional cautions and discharges. Overseas convictions will count too where the act would be an offence in the UK, with some discretion for differences between legal systems.
• No government debt: NHS debt, unpaid tax and National Insurance, and litigation debt owed to the Home Office.
• English at B2, the level of an A level in a foreign language, up from B1 for most applicants who need it today.
• The Life in the UK Test. Under-18s, people aged 65 or over and people with a physical or mental condition that prevents it will stay exempt from this and from the English requirement.
• Sustained contribution. At the least, £12,571 a year for 3 years; the table above gives what each path asks.

When will earned settlement start?

The government hasn’t named a start date. The framework still has to be turned into detailed rules. It promises technical guidance before implementation and a full impact assessment by the time the reforms start, with guidance on vulnerable groups in 2027.

As of 5 November 2026 the rules haven’t changed. No statement of changes has followed the response: the latest is HC 584 of 3 September 2026. Appendix Skilled Worker still asks for 5 years (SW 21.1), and Appendix Continuous Residence still allows 180 days away in any 12 months.

Two dates to note, one announced in the response and one already in the Immigration Rules:

• 1 February 2027. From this date, care workers who lose their job because their sponsor’s licence was removed are to get up to 120 days to secure a job offer and 60 more to sort out their visa and employment. After that, the visa will be cut short.
• 26 March 2027. The Immigration Rules already ask for B2 English, unless an exemption applies, on settlement applications from this date on the Skilled Worker, long residence and 10-year partner or parent routes (SW 22A.1, LR 13.1, SETF 5.1).

Will earned settlement be retrospective?

It will reach people already in the UK who aren’t settled yet, unless a transitional arrangement covers them or their route is outside the main framework. The government’s position is that an application is normally decided under the Immigration Rules in force on the date of the decision, not those in force when you arrived. It estimates that over 500,000 of the people forecast to settle between 2026 and 2030 will become eligible later than they otherwise would.

The Home Secretary told Parliament that people on the 10-year path will be able to keep renewing their temporary visas until they can settle.

People who already have settlement are outside these reforms: the government says earned settlement won’t take it from them. ILR can still lapse after more than 2 years in a row outside the UK: see ILR outside the UK.

Earned settlement transitional arrangements

The response names three groups, and says these arrangements aren’t a wider exemption for everyone already in the UK.

Who	What they’ll get	On what terms
Care workers who entered, or switched into, the route before the Immigration White Paper of May 2025	They’ll keep the 5-year period	£25,000 a year, the sponsorship and job requirements, and the new minimums such as criminal record and English. If they don’t meet them after 5 years, they can apply for a further 5-year Health and Care visa, limited to genuine work in the sector and without public funds, then apply for settlement again
Health and education workers below RQF 6 on a national pay scale, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, who came to the UK before that White Paper	They’ll keep a 5-year route	Meeting their visa’s requirements, and the minimums every path asks for
Skilled Workers on the salary rules from before April 2024, in jobs below RQF 6	They’ll be able to extend their visas on current terms until 2035, instead of 2030	The 10-year path still applies, unless another exemption does

Care workers who enter or switch into the route after the White Paper will go on the 10-year path. So will those health and education workers who arrive after it, unless they later qualify for a shorter path.

Outside the main framework: Hong Kong BN(O) (5 years), the armed forces (4 years’ service; 5 years for partners and children), Afghan schemes, Windrush, legacy resettlement schemes, some children and young people, and bereaved partners and victims of domestic abuse, who will still be able to apply straight away. The new criminal record and English standards will reach these routes too, with exemptions and safeguards, and for vulnerable groups where appropriate. The EU Settlement Scheme and some older or closed routes aren’t affected.

Earned settlement for Skilled Worker visa holders

Under today’s rules a Skilled Worker can apply for ILR after 5 years. Under the plan, Skilled Workers already in the UK won’t be exempt: time on the visa will count, and unless a listed job or a transitional arrangement applies, earnings will decide the path. £50,271 or more in 3 of the last 5 years will keep it at 5 years, and £125,141 or more in 3 of the last 4 will bring it down to 3. Below that it will be 10 years, or 20 after an immigration breach or recent public funds.

Which visas will count: the long residence route will close

• Will count: Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Scale-up, Innovator Founder, International Sportsperson, Minister of Religion, UK Ancestry, partner and parent routes, Stateless Person, the Family and Private Life routes, and protection and safe and legal routes.
• Won’t count: Visit, Student, Graduate, High Potential Individual, Global Business Mobility, Temporary Worker, Youth Mobility, Seasonal Worker, Overseas Domestic Worker and the Ukraine schemes. Leave outside the Rules is on this list too, though the government says it will look again at how to treat it.
• Won’t add up: time on a protection or human rights route won’t combine with time on a work or family route. The clock will start again when you move between them.
• Not every route opens every path. You’d need permission on a route eligible for that path. Family and Private Life permission will lead only to the 10 or 20-year paths. The response lists Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Scale-up, Innovator Founder and International Sportsperson as its high talent group.

The long residence route will close, so 10 years of lawful residence, including on temporary visas, will no longer lead to ILR on its own. The response names no closing date and no transitional arrangement for people part-way through it. Until the rules change, its absence limits still apply.

Earned settlement for partners and children

• Partners. A partner who arrives with you will be able to settle at the same time, if they meet the requirements. A partner who joins later will normally complete the same period of residence first.
• Partners and parents of British citizens. If a British citizen sponsors you and you meet the core family requirements, you’ll keep 5 years. Family visas not sponsored by a British citizen will move to a longer path.
• Children under 18 will settle with their parents, without the income, debt, English or Life in the UK requirements. The suitability and criminality rules will still apply.
• Young adults aged 18 to 24 who still hold child-dependant status will settle with their family and meet the adult requirements, except the income one.
• From 25. Someone who is 25 or over when the family becomes eligible will be expected to qualify independently or move to a route of their own.

Earned settlement for refugees

Refugees admitted through designated safe and legal routes, such as the UK Resettlement Scheme, will be able to settle after 5 years, with no public funds condition. UK Resettlement Scheme refugees will need A2 English rather than B2, and won’t take the Life in the UK Test until a version at that level exists.

People granted protection after claiming asylum in the UK will normally move onto Core Protection, with a 20-year path, or 10 years from the day they move onto Protection Work and Study through sustained work, education or training. If working, that path will ask for £12,571 in three qualifying years. Illegal entry, for example by small boat, will normally add 10 years, so up to 30 in all, unless Article 31 of the Refugee Convention protects the person. Asylum support that has to be repaid will need to be repaid in full, or kept up under an agreed plan.

Refugees not on a safe and legal route who claimed asylum before 2 March 2026 will move to Core Protection, and their time with refugee status will count towards settlement.

Earned settlement and ILR absences

The response sets no new limit on time abroad and doesn’t mention the 180-day absence limit. It keeps lawful, continuous residence on a qualifying route as a requirement. Today’s limit is still 180 days in any 12 months, across your whole qualifying period: check your trips with the ILR absences calculator. If that rule carries over, a 10-year path would mean 10 years of trips to count; the response doesn’t say whether it will.

FlySee’s UK settlement tracker counts today’s rule, and its Log holds every entry with the dates you arrived and left.

Earned settlement and British citizenship

On the usual route you need ILR for 12 months before you can apply for citizenship, so a longer wait for ILR would delay citizenship too. The response doesn’t change the 450 and 90-day absence limits. The 2025 consultation paper said citizenship reforms would follow, and that changing the British Nationality Act needs primary legislation; the response doesn’t set them out.

What isn’t known yet

• the start date, and how people already on a route will move into the new system;
• how applications waiting for a decision on the start date will be treated;
• whether the 180-day limit will stay the same on the new paths;
• when the long residence route will close, and what happens to people part-way through it;
• which routes lead to which paths, beyond the examples in the response;
• which public funds will count, and the safeguards for vulnerable groups;
• the exact immigration breaches that will count, which the Immigration Rules will list;
• the highest talent group, which is under review pending a Migration Advisory Committee report;
• how leave outside the Rules will be treated, and how time already spent will count for people granted protection before Protection Work and Study opens.