How to respond to the UK government consultation on settlement (ILR) and what’s at stake

Updated 27 November 2025

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is a UK immigration status that allows you to live, work, and study in the UK without the time restrictions of a temporary visa. ILR is commonly called “settlement.” After a year of ILR those that meet requirements, such as continuous and lawful residence, can apply for British citizenship.

Since 2006 those qualifying on work immigration routes have been able to settle after five years (before that it was four) and partners on family visas since 2012 (when the qualifying period went up to five years from two or immediately for those who had been married for four years).

On 20 November 2025, the UK government launched an open consultation on “earned settlement.” These are their new plans to increase the standard qualifying period for ILR from five years to 10 years for many. This includes proposals for people to “earn” deductions to the new baseline 10-year period depending on their contribution to the UK, or indeed face even longer periods of applying for temporary status, largely dependent on an employer or partner.

A major parliamentary statement by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood added more detail to the proposals first floated in the UK government’s Immigration White Paper last May.

You can read more about the proposals in this summary by Alex Piletska. They replace a relatively simple set of rules where most people work towards settlement after five years, with a complex points-based qualification for settlement, with years added on or taken off for various reasons.

The Home Secretary insisted that rules would not change for those already granted ILR, but they would for those still on immigration routes to ILR when she anticipates the rules to change in a phased rollout from April 2026. While the standard route would now be doubled to 10 years for most applicants, she said the government is open to hearing from people and organisations on how certain people, for example public servants, may be able to “earn” a shorter route to settlement, while others may face even longer qualifying periods, for example if someone has claimed welfare benefits. Shabana Mahmood called on “all those interested to make their voices heard.”

Below, I have described how to add your opinions to the consultation which runs until 23:59 on 12 February 2026.

Which UK government proposals for ILR are definitely happening and not up for consultation?

New ILR rules will apply to immigrants already in the UK with temporary leave as well as those applying for a visa after they are enacted. The Home Secretary said the rules would be enacted from April 2026, though some more complicated measures could take longer. Though she said the changes would affect those on a route to ILR who had not yet reached the requisite lawful residence in the UK by the time the rules are implemented, the Secretary for State added that the consultation would look at transitionary measures for them.

The current five-year baseline to ILR will double to 10. Certain contributions will allow some to earn a shorter path to settlement. Others who have relied on state benefits or broken immigration laws face longer qualifying periods.

A consequence of the proposed system is that there will no longer be a separate long residence route, the statement accompanying the consultation warns: “the purpose of the existing long residence route will be superseded by arrangements in which the baseline qualifying period is adjustable for considerations relating to contribution and integration.”

A certain amount of National Insurance will have to have been paid to qualify for ILR.

Current litigation, NHS, tax or other government debt at the time of application would preclude ILR being granted.

There will also be a higher English language requirement, equivalent to foreign language A-level.

It is proposed that the current criminality requirement of not having a custodial sentence of over 12 months will change to “a clean criminal record” subject to a review of criminality thresholds across all immigration routes. In what would be a major change, the Home Secretary warns: “our expectation is that you should not be able to settle with a criminal record. Revised thresholds will be set out in due course.”

Many will earn enough taxable income to “earn” suggested shorter routes to settlement of three or five years by earning figures well above the minimum salary threshold for Skilled Workers. Others will enjoy a five year route to ILR by working in certain skilled roles in the public sector, or through voluntary work.

The Home Secretary insisted that unlike the Reform UK Party’s proposals, a Labour government would not change people’s settled status once they had earned it.

For those on the EU Settled Status path there will not be a longer path to settlement. Likewise, those who hold permission as the parent/partner/child of a British citizen and meet core family requirements, as well as British Nationals (Overseas) (BN(O)s) from Hong Kong, would stay on a five-year path, assuming there are no factors that would increase their qualifying period, such as current or previous overstaying. Though there is still no clarity on whether this will also be true for family dependants of settled people.

Which changes to settlement is the government consulting on?

The Home Secretary said she would consult on the following changes, adding that anyone is invited to respond with opinions.

Transitional arrangements to “ease the impact”- though the Home Secretary insists the changes will apply to everyone who hasn’t been granted settlement when the rules change.

How shorter routes to ILR are earned – it is proposed that those on a taxable annual income of £50,270 or above in the three years prior to applying would earn a five-year route, while an income of £125,140 and upwards would mean just three years, as would three years on an Innovator Founder or Global Talent visa. It is also proposed that certain public servants of the right skill level and those who volunteer may also earn a five-year path.

Those on work visas at a skill level under the new standard minimum Skilled Worker level of RQF6 – for example people working on the Temporary Shortage List and other Skilled Workers already in the UK on lower skill levels – there is a suggestion that they face a 15-year route to ILR.

Settlement paths for cohorts who have had easier requirements, including children, victims of domestic violence, adult dependent relatives, armed forces and bereaved family members. These groups are likely to avoid the harsh changes other immigrants face, but the consultation will be examining how and whether there will be other new hurdles for them.

Whether ILR affords rights to welfare and council housing as it does now, or whether these rights only come with citizenship.

Who can respond to the government consultation?

The consultation is open to anyone who wishes to share their views, including individuals, organisations and other stakeholders who may be affected by or have an interest in the proposed changes. The Home Office will also carry out separate, targeted research during the consultation period to explore potential impacts on those currently on a pathway to settlement.

After this consultation ends on 12 February 2026 the government will consider the outcomes before deciding on the final policy.

How do I respond to the consultation on earned settlement?

The ‘Fairer Pathway to Settlement’ consultation seeks to gather feedback from businesses and members of the public to inform the government’s policies.

We would encourage any business or person who wishes to contribute to this consultation to respond by following this link: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/earned-settlement

Scroll down to “Ways to respond” and then follow the link “Respond online”.

According to the accompanying statement, it should take 20 – 30 minutes and “personal information you provide will be handled in strict accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. Your data, including any personal data, may be shared with a third-party provider or other government department or organisation for the purposes of analysing and summarising responses. Technology such as artificial intelligence may be used to support this analysis. All responses will be aggregated and anonymised in any reporting.”

What questions is the UK government asking in its ILR consultation?

You can review the consultation questions in advance by reviewing the .pdf version here, starting at Annex B on page 36: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691edda450b16caf978153d8/Command_Paper_final_-_reviewed7.pdf

In advance of completing the questionnaire, please note that together with multiple choice answers (which you may review in the above document) it includes the following questions where you may reply in a free text box. It may be useful to prepare your responses in advance if you have considered answers or where you may require some prior preparation, consultation with members of your organisation, gathering of evidence etc.:

Do you have any comments on how ‘Character’ should be considered in relation to settlement?

NB: Government proposals include refusal of applications relating to character and conduct (for example, having any criminal conviction, non-compliance with immigration requirements and considerations pertaining to the public good). It will be mandatory to meet such requirements and there will be no ability to trade with other considerations to determine the qualifying period.

Currently, someone with a criminal sentence under 12 months can apply for settlement. The Home Secretary’s statement to parliament talked of changing this requirement to a “clean criminal record” with no mention of a period of time that could elapse after a criminal conviction.

Do you have any comments on how ‘Integration’ should be considered in relation to settlement?

NB: Under the proposals, to be eligible for settlement applicants will need to demonstrate meaningful engagement with British society. This includes passing a Life in the UK test (a current requirement) and speaking English at an upper intermediate level (B2 standard under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). This is a higher level than the current B1 and roughly equivalent to attaining an A-level in a foreign language. According to the CEFR B2 includes understanding the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in your field of specialisation; interacting with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers possible; producing clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explaining a viewpoint on a topical issue.

One proposal is that with an even higher advanced English attainment level of C1, immigrants will be afforded one year off the qualifying period. Another, that there should a Life in the UK test for settlement.

Are there any groups that you think should be exempt from the requirement to have earned above £12,750 for at least three to five years?

NB: Under the proposals, all applicants must have contributed to the Exchequer by having annual earnings above £12,570 for a minimum of three to five years. Would this be the case now for dependants joining partners on a visa? What if they are bringing up children? What about vulnerable groups?

Do you have any comments on how ‘Contributions’ should be considered in relation to settlement, including any potential benefits or challenges of recognising giving back to the community as a contribution towards settlement?

NB: Where a reduction to the qualifying period is on the basis of salary, this is provisionally linked to rates for higher (£50,270) and additional (£125,140) tax rates, though it is not proposed that these thresholds would be tracked to future tax changes, so perhaps they will become easier to meet over time as a result of inflation and corresponding increases to the different tax brackets. The government proposes that those earning over £50,270 earn five years off the 10 year journey to ILR, while those earning over £125,140 earn seven years off.

To qualify for a shorter journey to settlement on the basis of employment in a specified public service occupation, such as medical and teaching professions, the government proposes that reductions will only be available for certain “skilled” occupations. If this is as suggested, set at the skill level of RQF level 6 and above, nursing auxiliaries, carers and other frontline public servants could face 15 years of continuously applying for visas with all the expenses and insecurity that entails before they could apply for settlement. The consultation will examine which public servants will be able to enjoy a five year route to ILR.

The Home Office is considering whether giving back to the local community, for example, through volunteering, should be recognised as a form of contribution towards earned settlement. How this would work remains open. Volunteering could be formal or informal.

Do you have any comments on how ‘Residence’ should be considered in relation to settlement?

NB: Under the proposals, to meet the qualifying period for settlement, applicants will need to have spent the required time in the UK on a route, or routes, that leads to settlement as set out in the existing Immigration Rules. A person’s pathway to settlement will also depend on their history of compliance with immigration laws. Applicants who arrived in the UK illegally (e.g. via a small boat), arrived in the UK on a visit visa, or who have overstayed their visa for six months or more, would have significant additional time added to their standard qualifying period for settlement – up to 20 years, or prevented from settling in the UK altogether.

This would apply to a significant number of people. The Home Office has reported that in the year ending June 2025, there were 49,341 detected irregular arrivals. Estimates of how many people have overstayed or are unauthorised immigrants in the UK are notoriously unreliable. In 2017 the Pew Research Center estimated a range of between 800,000 to 1.2 million unauthorised migrants in the UK.

People overstay their visas in the UK for a variety of reasons, including applying for asylum after their visa expires, financial inability to return home, difficulties in securing the necessary documents or funds to leave or indeed difficulty gathering the necessary documents and evidence to apply for a long-term residence visa. Often it is by mistake, through misunderstanding Britain’s complex immigration rules.

Are there any other vulnerable groups that you think should be considered as part of this consultation?

NB: The current immigration system includes provisions that protect the most vulnerable in society by allowing them to settle in the UK without certain requirements other routes face (for example English B1 and a Life in the UK test). For example, a person on the family route whose relationship ends because they are a victim of domestic abuse can settle immediately. The government does not intend to lengthen the route of domestic violence victims.

The Home Secretary has also suggested that immigrants in the armed forces and bereaved family members may not be affected by longer routes to settlement.

Similarly, a person on the family route whose partner dies can also settle immediately.  There are special arrangements for children and young adults who have grown up in the UK without an immigration status, allowing them to settle five years after regularising their status. Children in care or care leavers have been treated as vulnerable too.

Adults with long-term care needs can currently join a close relative in the UK and settle where the care they require is not available or affordable in their home country.

Adding extra requirements such as B2 level English to such vulnerable groups could have devastating effects for many.

Do you have any comments on how specific migrant groups should be considered in relation to settlement? We particularly welcome views on how the prosed changes could affect children in the UK.

NB: Currently, most dependant partners of migrants can settle at the same time as the main applicant without meeting any additional conditions. Dependant partners of economic migrants who benefit from accelerated settlement do not themselves benefit from a reduced settlement period. Under the proposed reforms, dependant partners will have their own qualifying period based on their individual circumstances.

For children, it is recognised that they cannot meet certain requirements under the earned settlement proposals, such as National Insurance Contributions. The Home Office intends to keep a window for those admitted as dependants under 18 to settle at the same time as their parents, while considering an age cut-off after which they would need to follow their own route to qualify for settlement.

For organisations – please provide any evidence you may have on whether the proposed changes might influence visa applicants’ or visa holders’ decisions to come to or remain in the UK.

NB: Employers will naturally be concerned about reassuring any employees they are currently sponsoring about what this means for them and their future in the UK, as well as the effect that the proposed changes may have on their ability to sponsor future workers from abroad, as these changes may act as a deterrent for potential hires who would have previously considered moving to the UK. This may be particularly true for highly-skilled, mobile workers who may have a number of countries to choose from when deciding to relocate.

It may also be the case that some existing workers who will be affected by these changes will choose to leave the UK as a result. Many who have come to the UK to work and follow the standard five year to settlement under our immigration rules, now face the goalposts being moved substantially for them and their families.

For instance, it is proposed that skilled workers’ loved ones whose immigration path was based on their sponsored partner may not be able to qualify for settlement until they attain foreign language A-level standard English and have worked in the UK for three years.

The government appears to be doing its best to discourage immigrants working at a skill level of RQF3 – RQF 5 (skills equivalent of A-level to HND or second year of university), who they are proposing would need to be sponsored at that skill level for 15 years to qualify for ILR.

Since July 2025, employers have only been able to sponsor roles under RQF6 if Skilled Workers are already sponsored in these roles in the UK rather than new workers from abroad, unless their roles are on the Temporary Shortage List or Immigration Salary List – which are meant to be temporary. These employers and workers now face massive uncertainty.

For organisations – Do you have any further comments on the potential impacts on your organisation in relation to the proposed changes to settlement?

NB: Financially speaking, increasing the qualifying settlement period would also mean a substantial increase in the costs associated with sponsoring skilled workers earning under the threshold for a five-year qualification, particularly for employers paying for their sponsored workers’ application fees. There will also be the further cost of an additional five years of the Immigration Skills Charge, which is set to rise by 32% in December 2025.

Employers have already had to weather many significant changes to sponsoring skilled workers in the past year, including the recent increase to the minimum skill level of occupations eligible for sponsorship, a further raise of minimum salaries for sponsored jobs, new changes that have excluded many sponsored workers from being joined by their spouse or child, and the introduction of severe penalties for passing the costs of sponsorship, such as the cost of a sponsor licence application, to the sponsored worker.

Replacing a standard five-year route to settlement for workers and their families that companies can easily cost with a complex earned settlement system where it is possible an employer may invest in sponsoring talent that might never be able to qualify if they were caught smoking pot, for instance, is a burdensome addition of complexity and unforeseeable costs for British businesses.

Is this consultation different to the Home Affair Committee’s call for evidence?

Confusingly, the government consultation on some of the elements of their proposals runs concurrently to Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the government’s proposals to reform the eligibility criteria for ILR. Anyone is invited to respond to that call for evidence – which is open online until 2 December 2025. You can find the details here. The committee is interested to hear about the impact on families, businesses, employers and social integration as well as evidence from other countries’ approaches to settlement.

And if that wasn’t enough contemporaneous consultation confusion, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee has also launched a call for evidence for its new inquiry into Settlement, Citizenship, and Integration. It will also look at measures to aid integration and social cohesion in the processes that lead to permanent settlement and citizenship, as well as proposed changes to settlement and citizenship in the Immigration White Paper and the Home Secretary’s recent Policy Paper on asylum and returns, which would make UK refugee status temporary. Written submissions are requested by 23 January 2026 but in view of the ongoing Government consultation, earlier submissions are welcome. You can find details here.

When will we know the results of the government ILR consultation and the new rules for UK settlement?

The Home Secretary told the House of Commons that she expects these changes will be implemented starting in April 2026 with the next Immigration Rules changes, so we expect the details of these changes in March. It is customary for a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules to be laid before Parliament in mid-March, coming into force 21 days later around 5 April. Some elements of these major changes will take longer to implement.

Can you advise about ILR and citizenship?

Please contact us if you need assistance with ILR or citizenship applications, or have any other questions about UK immigration, nationality, right to work and sponsorship procedures and compliance. You can use the form below, email one of our lawyers or call 0207 033 9527.