UK Earned Settlement: Planned 10-Year ILR Path

Last updated: November 5, 2026 · Aval Visa content team

On 2 November 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the government’s UK earned settlement policy in a statement to the House of Commons. The same day, the government presented its final policy to Parliament as a command paper, CP 1707. Under the policy, the standard wait for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) would rise from 5 to 10 years. Income, job, immigration route and record would make it shorter or longer. The policy is not yet in the Immigration Rules. The rule changes, a start date and transition details are still to follow.

The policy follows a public consultation that received 204,667 responses. The Home Office says the next step is to turn the framework into detailed rules. Before the changes take effect, it will publish further technical guidance and a full impact assessment. No date has been given for any of this.

Until the Immigration Rules are amended, the current rules apply. Skilled Worker settlement, for example, still needs 5 continuous years in the UK. No statement of changes for earned settlement has been laid; the newest, HC 584, is dated 3 September 2026.

What ILR is

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), also called settlement, is the right to live in the UK permanently without immigration restrictions. It gives unrestricted access to work, and access to public funds and social housing.

ILR is not British citizenship. It can lead to citizenship, but that is a separate application with its own conditions. Under the current rules you can apply after 5 years in the UK and 12 months with ILR. If you are married to a British citizen, you do not need to wait the 12 months. The 2 November documents announce no change to citizenship.

The 3, 5, 10 and 20-year paths

The policy sets 10 years as the standard path. Some people would qualify sooner and some would wait longer.

Minimum wait	Who it is for	Main test
3 years	The highest earners, and the Highest Talent Group	Earned £125,141 for 3 years (or 3 of the last 4 years), or qualifies through the Highest Talent Group
5 years	Higher earners, eligible public service workers, people with a British connection	Earned £50,271 in 3 of the last 5 years, or 5 years in an eligible public service job, or a British connection
10 years	The standard path for everyone who follows the rules and contributes	Earned £12,571 in 5 of the previous 7 years
20 years	People who used specified public funds or committed an immigration breach	Earned £12,571 in 5 of the previous 7 years

The 20-year path. The 3, 5 and 10-year paths would be closed to anyone who used specified public funds in the 5 years before applying. The same would go for anyone who committed a qualifying immigration breach as an adult. They would need 20 years, whatever they earn. Someone who used public funds could instead wait until they have completed 5 continuous years on a qualifying route without them, and then use the 3, 5 or 10-year path. The breaches will be listed in the Immigration Rules and will include overstaying, breaking visa conditions, deception in an application and frustrating immigration controls. The list of benefits that count is still to be set out.

Illegal entry. Anyone who entered the UK illegally aged 18 or over would ordinarily wait an extra 10 years, whatever route they later settle on. The policy says this applies to all migrants, not only refugees, so the total wait could reach 30 years. It does not apply to people protected by Article 31 of the Refugee Convention; details of that safeguard will follow before implementation.

How earnings are counted. The thresholds follow income tax: £50,271 matches the higher rate and £125,141 the additional rate, and both move if those income tax thresholds change. The test would look at your best years, so years of maternity leave, caring or illness could be the ones below the threshold. Children, people aged 65 and over and people whose physical or mental condition prevents them meeting it would be exempt from the £12,571 test.

The Highest Talent Group is under review pending a report from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). Global Talent and Innovator Founder holders using the 3 or 5-year path would need their most recent grant to be on that route.

Income alone is not enough. You also need to hold a route that counts towards the path you want. Family and Private Life permission, for example, would not qualify for the 3 or 5-year paths. Every applicant would also have to meet the conditions below.

The conditions every applicant would have to meet

The Home Office lists four conditions that apply to everyone, whenever they arrived, and the command paper adds the Life in the UK test. Higher earnings or public service could not make up for a missing condition.

A clean criminal record. Today, a custodial or suspended sentence of 12 months or more leads to refusal. Under the policy, any adult with a UK criminal record would be refused, including court fines, conditional cautions, discharges and community sentences. Convictions abroad would count where the conduct is a crime in the UK. No exemption would apply to this condition.
English at B2, equivalent to A level in English as a foreign language. Today the usual level is B1, equivalent to GCSE. Children, people aged 65 and over and people unable to meet it because of a physical or mental condition would stay exempt. C1 English would not shorten the wait.
No debt to the government, including NHS debt, unpaid tax, National Insurance and legal costs owed to the Home Office.
Sustained contribution: a record of National Insurance contributions, tested through the £12,571 earnings threshold.
The Life in the UK test, which would continue with its current exemptions.

Who can use the 5-year path

Besides higher earners, the policy keeps a 5-year path for these groups, if they meet the other requirements:

Health and education workers in public-sector roles paid on national pay scales at RQF level 6 or above, such as doctors, nurses and teachers. The list also covers pharmacists, dentists, paramedics, social workers and others. They would need 5 years in an eligible job.
People with a British connection: eligible partners, parents and children of British citizens, and Commonwealth citizens on the UK Ancestry route. People who came on a family visa sponsored by someone who is not a British citizen are not in this group. The command paper counts 39,000 such people among those expected to settle between 2026 and 2030 and says they will move to a longer path.
Some care workers and health and education workers covered by the transition arrangements below.

Some groups keep their current routes outside the new framework, including Hong Kong BN(O) holders (5 years), the armed forces and legacy routes such as Windrush. They would still need to meet the new criminality and B2 English standards unless an exemption applies.

Care workers

Under the policy, the 5-year period would stay only for care workers who entered, or switched into, the care route before the Immigration White Paper was published on 12 May 2025. Arriving in the UK before that date is not enough on its own. They would also have to meet the £25,000 salary, sponsorship and employment requirements, and the new criminality and English standards.

Those who do not qualify after 5 years could apply for a further 5-year Health and Care visa, limited to genuine work in the sector. It would not be tied to their old employer, and it would carry no recourse to public funds. When it ends, they could apply for settlement again.

The policy also sets a rule from 1 February 2027 for care workers whose employer loses the right to sponsor them. They will have up to 120 days to find a job offer, and a further 60 days to sort out their visa and employment status. If they cannot, their visa will be curtailed and they will need to leave the UK. Care workers who entered or switched in after May 2025 would go onto the standard 10-year path.

Health and education workers below RQF level 6 on a national pay scale, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, would also keep a 5-year route. They would need to have come to the UK before the May 2025 White Paper and to meet their visa requirements. This is a one-off arrangement for people already here.

Partners and children

The policy keeps families able to settle together, but each person’s arrival date, time in the UK and dependant status matter.

Family member	What the policy says
Partner who arrived with the main applicant	Can settle at the same time, if they meet the requirements
Partner who joined later	Must first complete the same qualifying period: a partner who joins 2 years later applies 2 years after the main applicant
Child under 18	Settles with the parents; exempt from the income, government debt, English and Life in the UK test requirements, but the criminality and suitability rules apply
Child dependant aged 18 to 24	Can settle with the family if they keep child-dependant status and meet the adult requirements, with no individual earnings test; as a dependant, only when both parents settle
Child aged 25 or over when the family becomes eligible	Must qualify independently or move onto their own immigration route

Couples could also combine their earnings to meet the minimum contribution. The household threshold would be £25,142 a year, twice the individual figure. The command paper allows combined earnings for the minimum contribution only; it does not extend this to the £50,271 or £125,141 thresholds of the faster paths. The relationship must be genuine and subsisting, and only one partner may rely on the other’s income.

Refugees

The policy treats people differently depending on how they received protection:

Designated Safe and Legal routes, such as the UK Resettlement Scheme: 5 years. Entering on another visa and then claiming asylum would not lead to this path.
Core Protection: the normal path would be 20 years.
Protection Work and Study: 10 years for refugees who move into sustained work, education or training. Those who work would need to earn at least £12,571 in three qualifying years, and B2 English and the Life in the UK test would be required.
Illegal entry: an extra 10 years, which makes 20 years with Protection Work and Study or 30 years on Core Protection.

The 10 years on Protection Work and Study would start when the person moves onto that route. Time on Core Protection would not count. One year on Core Protection followed by 10 years on Protection Work and Study would mean settlement 11 years after the first grant.

How earlier protection time will count, and how the Article 31 safeguard will work, are still to be set out. One related change is already in force separately: adults and accompanied children who claimed asylum on or after 2 March 2026 and are granted protection receive a 30-month period of protection. Unaccompanied children still receive 5 years. Under the policy, refugees not on Safe and Legal routes who claimed asylum before 2 March 2026 would move to Core Protection, and their time with refugee status would count.

Are people already in the UK affected?

The policy creates no general exemption for everyone already living in the UK. People without ILR may be affected once the new rules apply, unless a transition arrangement covers them.

The command paper and the Home Secretary’s statement say settlement applications are ordinarily decided under the rules in force on the date of decision, unless transitional provisions say otherwise. The Home Office news release says rules apply “at the point of application”. The transitional provisions have not been published.

What to check before you decide

To see how the policy could affect you, start with your visa route, the date your qualifying residence began, your earnings in each year and your family members’ status. A headline saying “settlement is now 10 years” is not a basis for deciding whether to extend a visa, switch route or time an application.

If you are close to applying for ILR, today’s rules still apply until the Immigration Rules are amended. One related change is already in the Rules. Settlement applications made on or after 26 March 2027 on Skilled Worker, Long Residence and several other routes need B2 English in speaking and listening, unless an exemption applies. The other routes include Global Talent, Innovator Founder and UK Ancestry. Apart from the care-worker sponsor rule from 1 February 2027, the documents give no start date for the new framework.

Keep your employment, income, tax and residence records in order. The policy tests earnings over several years, though it does not yet say how they will be evidenced.

To review your own UK options, complete the free Aval Visa assessment form.

Official sources

This article is general information, not legal advice, and it describes published official rules rather than any individual case.

UK Earned Settlement: The Planned 10-Year Path to ILR and What Happens Next

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