Earned Settlement Reform and the New Indefinite Leave to Remain Rules

3, 5, 10 and 20-year routes, family members, special visas and transitional arrangements

The UK government is preparing a major reform of the Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) system. The document “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement”, dated 2 November 2026, sets out the framework for a new model called Earned Settlement. The standard qualifying period is expected to rise from five years to ten years. However, some people may qualify after three or five years, while certain breaches and the use of public funds may lead to longer periods.

Important: The policy announced by the government is not, by itself, a change to the Immigration Rules that has already come into force. The current legal requirements remain in place until the detailed rules and transitional provisions are published.

Earned Settlement will no longer look only at the time a person has spent in the UK. Applications will be assessed under four main headings: Character (personal suitability and criminal history), Integration (English language and participation in society), Contribution (income and economic contribution) and Residence (qualifying and continuous residence).

The five-year route will be retained for certain occupations covered by national pay scales, including doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers. However, working in the health or education sector alone will not be enough. The occupation code, job duties and relevant pay scale will need to be checked. Transitional protection is also proposed for some nursing assistants and teaching assistants below RQF level 6 who entered this visa route before the White Paper dated 12 May 2025.

The government has dropped its general proposal for a 15-year settlement period for Care Workers below RQF level 6. Eligible workers who entered or switched to the Care Worker route before the White Paper dated 12 May 2025 are expected to keep the five-year route if they meet the conditions. These include a salary of at least £25,000 a year, valid sponsorship, genuine employment and the other ILR requirements.

Some people may also be given an additional visa option to continue sponsored employment.

A three-year route is proposed for eligible Global Talent and Innovator Founder visa holders who fall within the Highest Talent Group. Its implementation will depend on an assessment by the Migration Advisory Committee.

The existing distinction between three and five years under Global Talent, a person’s most recent visa status, and the possibility of faster settlement based on income will also be examined separately.

ECAA Turkish Businessperson and ECAA Turkish Worker visa holders are excluded from the Earned Settlement reform. This is an important policy decision aimed at preserving the existing five-year ECAA settlement route.

Even so, it will still be necessary to check how general requirements relating to English language, criminality, suitability and debts to the government may apply to ECAA applications in the future.

The government plans to close the 10-Year Long Residence route, which currently allows qualifying periods of lawful residence under different visas to be combined. Time spent on Student, Graduate, HPI, Global Business Mobility, Youth Mobility, Seasonal Worker and certain temporary visas will not count towards settlement under the new system simply because it was lawful residence.

It is not yet fully clear what transitional protection will apply to people who have already completed eight or nine years of residence.

A stricter approach will be taken to offences committed in adulthood. The assessment may cover not only prison sentences but also suspended sentences, community sentences and criminal fines imposed by a court. For convictions abroad, it will matter whether the conduct would also be a criminal offence in the UK.

However, the full rules have not yet been explained for older and spent convictions, offences committed as a child, rehabilitation and administrative penalties. It would be wrong to say that every minor offence automatically leads to an ILR refusal under the current rules.

Certain periods of overstaying, breaches of visa conditions and acts of deception committed in adulthood may lead to a 20-year settlement route. A high income will not automatically remove this consequence.

The final rules will explain which past breaches are covered, when the qualifying period begins and what human rights exceptions may apply.

Using certain public funds during the five years before an application could extend the settlement period to 20 years where no exemption applies. However, it is not certain that every type of benefit will have the same effect. The benefits covered and any exemptions, particularly for families, children and vulnerable people, will be clarified later.

Unpaid NHS charges, tax, National Insurance and certain Home Office litigation costs may become stricter ILR suitability requirements. Details such as minimum debt amounts, disputed debts, payment plans and repayment at the time of application have not yet been finalised.

There will not be one settlement period for all protection routes. The proposals set out five years for designated Safe and Legal Routes, ten years for Protection Work and Study, and twenty years for Core Protection. An additional period linked to unlawful entry could generally increase the latter two routes to twenty and thirty years respectively.

However, someone who entered the UK on a lawful visa and later claimed asylum will not automatically be treated as belonging to the Safe and Legal category. Protection under Article 31 of the Refugee Convention, the method of entry and transitional arrangements for existing refugees will need to be considered separately.

Earned Settlement will link the right to settle more closely to a person’s economic contribution, integration into society and immigration history, rather than simply the passage of time. Some people may obtain ILR sooner. Others may face a much longer waiting period. The key point is that the reform will not affect everyone in the same way.

At Lex Legal, we are following the transitional provisions and changes affecting ECAA Ankara Agreement cases, Skilled Worker settlement calculations, Long Residence and family members. We recommend an individual review of your immigration history to understand how the new system may affect your application.