What the Home Office has announced and what existing visa holders need to know

By Gul Nawaz Khan, Senior Solicitor
Addison & Khan Solicitors
4 November 2026

On 2 November 2026 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood outlined a new Earned Settlement policy. The Government intends to move the standard qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five to ten years.
Shorter routes would reward sustained earnings and specified public service. Longer periods may apply where immigration rules have been breached.
Importantly, this is a policy announcement. The detailed general ten-year rules and their commencement provisions have not yet been brought into force.
Who could qualify after three, five or ten years?
The Home Office proposes a three-year route for qualifying highest earners who meet £125,141 in three of the previous four years.
A five-year route is proposed for qualifying higher earners who meet £50,271 in three of the previous five years. Certain doctors, nurses, teachers and other eligible health and education professionals would also retain a five-year route.
The ten-year baseline is intended for other qualifying migrants, with a contribution benchmark of £12,571 in five of the previous seven years, subject to appropriate exemptions.
Pathway Proposed eligibility
3 years Highest qualifying earners
5 years Higher earners and specified public service workers
10 years Standard qualifying pathway
The original proposal for a 15-year pathway for jobs below RQF level 6 has been dropped. Qualifying workers in those occupations would generally fall within the ten-year framework unless another pathway applies.
Are people already in the UK protected?
This is the question troubling many Skilled Workers.
The Government has not offered blanket protection to everyone who entered under a five-year settlement route.
Its response says that unless transitional provisions apply, settlement is ordinarily considered under the Immigration Rules in force when a decision is made.
Someone who expected to qualify in 2027 or 2028 may therefore be affected by the reforms.
The exact position of pending applications and the legal saving arrangements will only be clear when the new rules are published.
What about care workers and existing public service staff?
There is targeted protection for care workers who entered or switched into the care route before the Immigration White Paper published in May 2025.
Those meeting the applicable £25,000 annual salary requirement, genuine employment, sponsorship and other conditions would retain a five-year settlement pathway.
Certain existing health and education workers below RQF level 6, including qualifying nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, would receive a similar one-off concession.
Care workers unable to meet the conditions may be offered another five-year Health and Care visa to obtain genuine sponsored employment.
These protections are conditional and do not cover every person already in the UK.
The Government also intends to extend certain pre-April 2024 Skilled Worker salary transitional arrangements to 2035.
Long Residence, families and English language
The Government intends to close the separate ten-year Long Residence ILR route.
Under the rules currently in force, qualifying time on Student and Graduate visas can count towards Long Residence.
Under the proposed new framework, temporary routes would generally stop counting in this way.
Eligible family members of British citizens are intended to retain their five-year pathways.
The revised policy also allows qualifying dependant partners who arrive together to settle together, while those joining later will ordinarily need their own qualifying residence period.
Separately, changes already made to the Immigration Rules increase the English-language requirement from B1 to B2 for settlement on specified routes from 26 March 2027, subject to exemptions.
The Government also proposes stronger standards concerning criminality, tax and other Government debts, the Life in the UK Test and sustained contribution.
What about refugees and longer pathways?
The policy also proposes longer waits for certain immigration breaches and Core Protection cases.
A twenty-year pathway is proposed for some groups, with a further ten-year period in particular cases involving illegal entry.
The Government says Refugee Convention safeguards will apply.
These proposals should not be confused with current refugee settlement rules.
When will these changes start?
The Home Secretary indicated that provisions would begin to be laid through Immigration Rules in December 2026, with staged implementation during 2027.
There is not yet a single confirmed commencement date for the whole Earned Settlement framework.
Applicants should not assume that the new ten-year rule already applies, nor that filing before a particular date will automatically preserve the old rules.
Each case depends on the law in force and any applicable transitional provisions.
What should applicants do now?
Anyone approaching ILR should check their qualifying residence, salary history, sponsor position, immigration breaches, English test and any dependant arrangements.
Where an application is imminent, obtain advice before deciding when to apply.
The central issue is whether the present rules or the eventual new rules will govern the individual application.
Addison & Khan Solicitors advises on Skilled Worker settlement, care worker ILR, Long Residence, spouse and family settlement and complex immigration applications.
For advice on how the announced reforms may affect your case, contact our immigration team.
WhatsApp: 07596 100072
Website: www.addisonkhansolicitors.co.uk
Official sources
1. Home Office: A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, Government Response to the Consultation, 2 November 2026
2. Hansard: Immigration: Earned Settlement, House of Commons, 2 November 2026
3. Home Office: Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker
4. Home Office: Immigration Rules Appendix Long Residence
5. Home Office: Statement of Changes HC 1691, 5 March 2026
This article provides general information and does not constitute advice on an individual immigration case. The position is accurate to 4 November 2026 and should be checked against subsequent Immigration Rules and Home Office guidance.