Contributors: Jack Freeland

Date published: 3 November 2026

Home Office announces major changes to settlement

The Home Office has now confirmed the final design of ‘earned settlement’, the new framework for indefinite leave to remain. The detail is outlined in the Home Office’s document: A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: Government Response to the Consultation.

The headline is the doubling of the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten. The changes will apply to people already in the UK, with only limited transitional provisions for specified groups.

Applicants can qualify sooner (after three or five years) through higher earnings, specified public service roles or a British connection. Those who have breached immigration rules or relied on public funds will face a 20-year pathway.

None of this is law yet. The changes will be made through a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, with further guidance before implementation. No implementation date has been given. Until then, the current settlement rules continue to apply.

The new settlement framework

Every applicant on every route must meet five mandatory requirements:

Good character and suitability
No outstanding government debt
English at B2 level
A pass in the ‘Life in the UK’ test
Sustained earnings contribution

These cannot be offset by higher earnings or the other contributions outlined below. The usual exemptions continue for children; people aged 65 and over; and those prevented by a physical or mental condition from completing them.

How long someone must wait then depends on which pathway they qualify for. The government’s own summary table (Table 1 of the response) has been reproduced for reference below:

Minimum residence	Who is this pathway for?	Must have	Must not have
Three years	People making an exceptional economic contribution to the UK	One of: earned £125,141 for three years (or three of the last four years); or qualifies through the Highest Talent Group	Accessed public funds in the last five years; committed a qualifying immigration breach
Five years	People making a strong contribution to the UK, including higher earners, public service workers and people with a British connection	One of: earned £50,271 for three of the last five years; worked in an eligible public service occupation for five years; or a British connection. Meets all mandatory requirements	Accessed public funds in the last five years; committed a qualifying immigration breach
10 years	The starting point for anyone playing by the rules and making a contribution to the UK	Earned £12,571 for 5 of the previous seven years. Meets all mandatory requirements	Accessed public funds in the last five years; committed a qualifying immigration breach
20 years	People whose immigration non-compliance or access to public funds prevents them from qualifying for an earlier pathway	Earned £12,571 for 5 of the previous seven years. Meets all mandatory requirements	None

We have summarised the key elements of these requirements below.

Character

Criminality and government debt will prevent settlement altogether. But immigration breaches, illegal entry and reliance on public funds will lengthen the route instead.

Criminality

Any adult applicant with a UK criminal record will be refused. A criminal record now includes:

Custodial and suspended sentences of any length
Absolute and conditional discharges, and conditional cautions
Court-imposed fines and community sentences
Detention and training orders
Civil orders where there has been a conviction

Overseas convictions will also lead to refusal where the conduct would be an offence in the UK. There is, however, discretion where legal systems differ.

This is a significant tightening of the current rules, where only sentences of 12 months or more lead to mandatory refusal.

Government debt

Applicants must have no outstanding NHS debt; unpaid tax or National Insurance; or litigation debt owed to the Home Office. Asylum support that must be repaid needs to be repaid in full or under an agreed plan.

Under the current rules, refusal for debt is discretionary.

Immigration breaches

In another significant extension of the character rules, an adult who commits an immigration breach cannot settle until they have completed 20 years on a qualifying route. Higher earnings, public service or a British connection cannot shorten this. These breaches will include:

Overstaying a visa
Breaching a condition of permission
Using deception in an application
Frustrating immigration controls

The full list is not yet published. Open questions include:

Whether there is any minimum period of overstaying
Whether the current allowances for short or excused overstays will carry across
How breaches committed before the new rules come into force will be treated

Breaches committed as a child do not count.

Contribution

All applicants will now be subject to a minimum contribution requirement of £12,571 a year.

They can qualify sooner through higher earnings or occupation:

10 years (default): This requires earnings of at least £12,571 in five of the seven years before applying, plus the other mandatory requirements.
Five years (higher earners): Earnings of at least £50,271 in three of the five years before applying.
Five years (public service): This covers five years in an eligible health or education occupation paid on national pay scales. Examples are doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, pharmacists, dentists, teachers and social workers.
Three years (exceptional economic contribution): Earnings of at least £125,141 in three of the four years before applying. Global Talent and Innovator Founder holders may also qualify through the ‘Highest Talent Group’, but that is subject to a pending Migration Advisory Committee review.

All earnings thresholds are tied to income tax thresholds and will move with them.

An applicant who has accessed specified public funds in the five years before applying cannot use the three, five, or ten-year pathways. They must either complete a continuous five-year period without public funds or wait for the 20-year pathway.

Care workers

Care workers who entered the route, or switched into it, before the Immigration White Paper was published on 12 May 2025 keep the five-year route. This is a one-off transitional arrangement for that cohort. To benefit, they must:

Meet the existing salary requirement of £25,000 a year, plus the sponsorship and employment requirements of the route
Meet the strengthened minimum requirements, including the new criminality rule and B2 English levels

If a care worker in this cohort does not qualify after five years, they get a second chance. They can apply for a further five-year Health and Care visa, restricted to genuine work in the sector, and then apply for settlement again.

Care workers who entered or switched into the route after May 2025 will now follow the standard ten-year route.

Dependants

The government has dropped its proposal that dependants can earn settlement entirely in their own right. Families will generally be able to settle together.

A partner who arrives with the main applicant can settle at the same time, provided they meet the relevant requirements. A partner who joins later must complete the same qualifying period as the main applicant before settling.

A non-working partner is not barred from settlement. Couples can combine earnings but must meet a household threshold of £25,142, twice the individual £12,571 minimum.

Children under 18 are exempt from the income, debt, English and Life in the UK requirements, but remain subject to the suitability and criminality rules detailed above

Young adults aged 18 to 24 who keep child dependant status can settle with their family. They must, however, meet the adult mandatory requirements (except the income requirement).

If someone is 25 or older when their family becomes eligible to settle, they must qualify independently or move onto a route in their own right. This will mainly affect families on longer pathways.

Spouse and partner visa holders

Partners of British citizens have a ‘recognised British connection’ and keep a five-year route. They must meet the requirements of their route and additionally meet the new mandatory requirements: B2 English, no criminal record, no government debt.

The Home Office document is unclear on whether the income contribution requirement applies to those with a recognised British connection. On the one hand, it is listed as a mandatory requirement that applies to all applicants, but the summary table above suggests this may not apply. We will need to wait for further detail on this.

If the income contribution does apply, a couple should meet the contribution requirement jointly at £25,142.

Partners of people who are settled but not British, for example ILR holders or Irish citizens, do not appear to be covered by the British connection. The Home Office response says people on family visas not sponsored by a British citizen will move to a longer pathway, so their default will be 10 years.

However, as per the summary table above, anyone can qualify after five years by earning £50,271 in three of the last five years. Nothing in the response appears to exclude a partner of a settled person from that route, provided their permission is not solely based on Article 8.

Other changes

Eligible parents and children of British citizens, as well as UK Ancestry holders, are also considered to have a recognised British connection and will be able to keep a five-year route.

The 10-year Long Residence route will close, so now only time on a route intended to lead to settlement will count.

B2 English levels are becoming the standard, with C1 English and volunteering no longer shortening the qualifying period. The Life in the UK test continues, though it is under revision.

The following specified groups will fall outside of the earned settlement framework and keep their own arrangements:

BN(O) (five years)
The Afghan schemes
Legacy resettlement routes
Windrush
HM Armed Forces
The EU Settlement Scheme

What to do now

The response settles the framework, but much of the detail will only be fixed when the Immigration Rules and guidance are published. The government says further guidance will follow before implementation, with detail on vulnerable groups expected next year. Separately, the higher B2 English requirement for settlement is already scheduled to apply to applications made from 26 March 2027.

The new rules will apply to people already in the UK who have not yet settled. The government’s position is that, unless transitional provisions say otherwise, applications are decided under the rules in force on the date of decision.

It is unclear whether this is a drafting error. Immigration applications have always been decided under the rules in place at the date of submission, not the date of decision, but for now we must assume that this is the intended drafting. A pending application is only safe if it is decided before commencement of the new rules, or if the rules protect pending applications, which we don’t yet know.

If you are on a route to settlement, we recommend you:

Check your eligibility under the current rules. If you can apply for ILR now, consider doing so promptly.
Gather earnings evidence. Collect P60s, payslips and tax records for the past seven years, and those of your partner if you may need to rely on combined income.
Review your history. Look for anything that could now block or delay settlement: cautions, fines or other convictions; NHS or tax debts; past overstays or breaches of conditions; and any use of public funds.
Plan for B2 English. Book a B2 English test and the Life in the UK test early.
Plan for adult children. If you have children nearing 25, consider their position now.

We will update this article when the Statement of Changes is published. If you would like advice on your own position, please contact our Immigration team.

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