Earned Settlement 2026: New ILR Rules Explained

Earned Settlement 2026

For most people on a UK visa, the wait for indefinite leave to remain is going up from five years to ten. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed the final earned settlement policy in the House of Commons on the afternoon of Monday 2 November 2026. From now on, how long you wait to settle will depend on what you earn, the work you do and whether you have kept to the rules, not just on how long you have lived here.

Our phones in Manchester started ringing before the statement had even finished. The same questions keep coming up. Am I caught by this? Can I still apply on the old rules? What about my wife and children? This guide answers them in plain English, using the Home Secretary’s own statement and the Government’s published response to the consultation.

Key takeaways

• Ten years becomes the standard wait for ILR, including for anyone earning under £50,000.
• Five years stays open to people earning over £50,000 and to doctors, nurses, teachers and similar public service roles.
• Three years for top earners on more than £125,000 and people on the UK’s highest talent routes.
• Four baseline tests for everyone: no criminal record, a high standard of English, no debt to the taxpayer, and at least three years of National Insurance contributions.
• Care workers who arrived before May 2025 and met their visa conditions keep their five-year route.
• Refugees face 5, 20 or 30 years depending on how they arrived, with 10 years taken off for work or study.
• The proposed 15-year tier for lower-paid roles has been dropped.
• Nothing is law yet. Rule changes start to be laid from December 2026 and roll out over 2027.

If you are close to five years in the UK, timing now matters more than anything else. Our ILR eligibility calculator is a quick first check, but please speak to a solicitor before you rely on it.

What is earned settlement?

Earned settlement is the Government’s new model for deciding when someone on a temporary visa can apply for indefinite leave to remain. Until now, most people qualified after five years of lawful residence, more or less automatically. Under the new model, the qualifying period is set by contribution, measured both financially and through public service.

The Home Secretary put it simply in the Commons: settlement should not be automatic, it should be earned.

Why does this matter so much? ILR is the gateway to almost everything that makes life in the UK settled. It gives you free access to the NHS and state education, the right to claim benefits if you ever need them, and in most cases the route to British citizenship. A longer wait means more visa renewals, more Home Office fees, more Immigration Health Surcharge payments and more years of uncertainty for your family.

The policy has been a long time coming. It was first trailed in the May 2025 Immigration White Paper, then put out to consultation from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026. The Government says it received 204,667 responses, and its own findings show that 84% of individuals and 79% of organisations disagreed with the original proposals. The final version is softer in places, but the 10-year default has stayed.

The four baseline requirements for ILR

Before any years are counted, every applicant has to clear four tests. The Home Secretary described them as disqualifying criteria, so failing any one of them stops the application.

• No criminal record. The Home Office already applies suitability rules at ILR stage, and these are expected to tighten.
• English to a high standard. The statement did not name the level. We expect it to be higher than the B1 most applicants need today.
• No unpaid debt to the taxpayer. This is likely to cover NHS charges, tax owed to HMRC and benefit overpayments, though the full list is not out yet.
• At least three years of National Insurance contributions. People who have worked through payroll will usually meet this. Spouses, carers and students who have not worked need to look at this one carefully.

Two further rules sit alongside these:

• Any immigration breach pushes settlement back to 20 years. Overstaying, working in breach of conditions or using deception could all count. We do not yet know whether short, historic gaps will be treated leniently.
• Anyone who has claimed benefits must show five continuous years off public funds before applying.

The exact evidence requirements have not been published. We will update this page when they appear in the Immigration Rules.

New ILR qualifying periods: 3, 5, 10, 20 or 30 years

Once the baseline tests are met, you fall into one of the tiers below.

That last row is easy to miss, but it matters. If you are on the BN(O) visa, the Home Secretary confirmed your path stays as it is today.

People on the 10-year path are not shut out. They can keep renewing their temporary visas until they qualify. The Government’s argument for the fastest tier is that a top-rate taxpayer contributes around £1.5 million over a lifetime.

A practical point. Salary now shapes your immigration timeline directly. A Skilled Worker on £48,000 is on the 10-year path. The same person promoted to £52,000 could be on the five-year path. If you are near a threshold, talk to your employer and to us before you renew.

Care workers, NHS and education staff: what the transitional protection means

Care workers were the biggest single theme in the consultation responses, and it shows in the final policy. Around 250,000 people and their dependants arrived on, or switched into, the care route between 2022 and 2025. The Government has split them into two groups.

Group one: care workers who met their visa conditions. If you earned at least £25,000 a year working in social care, as your visa required, you keep your existing five-year route to ILR. Meeting that condition is treated as your contribution.

Group two: care workers who did not meet their conditions. This is roughly a quarter of the cohort. Many ended up here because their sponsor turned out to be fake or exploitative, not through anything they did. They are being offered:

• a further five-year care visa
• freedom from their old employer, so they can leave a rogue sponsor
• help finding a legitimate care provider
• more time before their current visa is curtailed
• the chance to apply for settlement again at the end of the new visa

The Home Secretary said around 1,400 exploitative employers have already lost their sponsor licences. If your sponsor was one of them, read our guide to the care worker visa and get advice before your current leave is cut short.

NHS and education roles. The same transitional arrangement covers public sector roles in healthcare and education identified by the Migration Advisory Committee, such as auxiliary nurses.

The May 2025 cut-off. All of this protection applies only to people who joined the relevant route before the Immigration White Paper was published in May 2025. If you came after that, the Government says you should have known a 10-year default was coming. The Home Secretary also repeated that the rules applied are those in force on the date of decision, not the date you arrived.

Care workers should start gathering evidence now. That means payslips, P60s and contracts showing £25,000 or more a year in social care, and proof of the date your route began.

Refugees and humanitarian protection: settlement now depends on how you arrived

The reforms draw a hard line between refugees who come through official channels and those who do not.

• Safe and legal routes: five years to settlement, the same as higher earners.
• All other refugees: a standard 20-year qualifying period.
• Illegal entry, including by small boat: a further 10 years, so 30 years in total.
• Work or study: refugees who enter employment or education can take 10 years off. A refugee who did not arrive by small boat and is working could therefore settle at 10 years.

The Government stresses that protection itself continues for as long as it is needed, whatever the settlement timeline. Even so, a 20 or 30-year wait has real effects on family reunion, travel, student finance and the sense of being able to plan a life.

If you hold refugee status or humanitarian protection, your work and study record is now one of the most valuable things you have. Keep payslips, enrolment letters and tax records together. Our guide on whether a refugee can apply for ILR explains the current position while the new rules are drafted.

Partners, children and other routes: what we know so far

This is where the detail is thinnest, so we will be careful not to overstate it.

The Government’s consultation response says the final framework supports families to settle together. The Home Secretary’s statement did not set out how that will work for each route. Until the draft rules are published, here is our reading:

• Partners of British citizens and settled people. The consultation treated family routes differently from work routes. If you are on the spouse visa or the unmarried partner visa, do not assume you move to 10 years. Watch the December rules closely.
• Dependants of workers. Most dependants have historically settled alongside the main applicant. Families on a Skilled Worker dependant visa or Health and Care Worker dependant visa should plan on the basis of the main applicant’s tier.
• EU Settlement Scheme. Holders of pre-settled status were outside the scope of the consultation, and nothing in the statement brings them in.
• Long residence and private life. The 10-year long residence rule and private life applications were not addressed in detail. We expect changes and will report them as soon as they are laid.
• People who already have ILR. You are not affected. If you have been thinking about citizenship, our guide to moving from ILR to naturalisation is a good next step.

When do the new ILR rules start?

Not yet. Answering MPs after her statement, the Home Secretary said the changes will begin to be laid from the December Immigration Rules and will be implemented over the course of 2027. Impact assessments and detailed guidance will follow as each part rolls out.

Until a Statement of Changes is laid and comes into force, the current five-year rules still apply. Because the rules that count are those in force on the date of decision, anyone who qualifies now should think hard about applying before the changes bite. You can apply up to 28 days before you complete your qualifying period.

What should you do now? A practical checklist

For individuals

• Work out your current qualifying date under the existing rules.
• Check which new tier you are likely to fall into, based on salary and role.
• Pull your National Insurance record from your HMRC account and check for gaps.
• Clear any NHS charges, tax arrears or benefit overpayments.
• Book your English test and Life in the UK test early.
• Review your immigration history for overstays, gaps or condition breaches.
• If you qualify under the current rules, take advice on applying before the December changes.

For employers and sponsors

• Audit sponsored staff and list who is within 12 months of five years.
• Flag employees just below the £50,000 threshold.
• Review pay and retention plans for staff now facing a 10-year route.
• Make sure your sponsor licence compliance is in order. Records will matter more than ever.

Three examples from the kind of cases we see in Manchester

Priya, software engineer, £58,000. She reaches five years in March 2027. Under the new framework she would still sit in the five-year tier because she earns over £50,000. Her main risks are the baseline tests, so she should check her NI record and English level now.

Joseph, senior care worker, arrived August 2023. He has always earned above £25,000 with a genuine sponsor. He is inside the transitional protection and keeps his five-year route. He should keep every payslip and P60.

Amir, warehouse supervisor, £34,000, arrived October 2025. He came after the May 2025 cut-off and earns under £50,000. On the confirmed policy he faces a 10-year route. He can keep renewing his visa, and a move into a higher-paid role could shorten his wait.

These are illustrations only. Your own route depends on your full history, so please do not plan around them without advice.

Talk to an ILR solicitor in Manchester

Earned settlement will reshape thousands of immigration plans across Greater Manchester over the next year. The window before the December rules is the best time to get your route checked properly.

Our team, led by Muhammad Usman Rasheed, has more than 11 years of experience in UK immigration law and is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We can map your timeline, test you against the baseline requirements and tell you honestly whether applying now makes sense.

• Book an appointment with an immigration solicitor
• Try our free visa assessment
• Or contact us by phone, email or WhatsApp

This article reflects the Home Secretary’s statement of 2 November 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. We will update it when the Immigration Rules are published.

Sources and further reading

• Earned Settlement: Government response to the consultation (GOV.UK, PDF)
• Earned settlement consultation page (GOV.UK)
• Immigration Rules (GOV.UK)
• Check your National Insurance record (GOV.UK)

Call us today on 0161 464 4140 or book your consultation online to get started. Let us help you plan your visit to the UK with confidence.

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