Published 25 September 2026 · Last checked 3 November 2026 · Information, not immigration advice.
On 2 November 2026 the Home Secretary set out how settlement will work in future. For most people the wait rises from five years to ten. Care workers who came before May 2025 can keep five years if they meet their visa conditions, and the 15-year wait once proposed for care roles has been dropped. None of it is law yet.
Updated 3 November 2026. This page was first written when earned settlement was only a proposal, and much of the conflicting information going round at the time was wrong. The government has now published its decisions, so we have rewritten the page around what was actually announced. The most important point has not changed: until new Immigration Rules are laid before Parliament and come into force, today's rules still apply.
Everything below links to the official source, so you can check it yourself. It is our own read of what has been published, not advice about your own case, and at the end we show you where to get that for free.
Two words, quickly. ILR means indefinite leave to remain, which is settlement: the right to stay with no time limit and no sponsor. Earned settlement is the government's name for its new system, in which how long you wait depends on what you have contributed rather than being the same for everyone.
The law has not changed yet. On a work visa you normally still qualify for settlement after five years, as GOV.UK's indefinite leave to remain page sets out. The most recent changes to the Immigration Rules are still HC 584, laid on 3 September 2026, and they do not touch settlement waiting times.
The new system has to be brought in through further changes to the rules. Immigration specialists expect the first of those in December, with the changes taking effect through 2027. Until a change is laid before Parliament and takes effect, it is a plan, not a rule.
The government's response to its consultation, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, replaces a fixed wait with one that depends on contribution. More than 200,000 people and organisations had replied to the consultation.
| Who | The wait |
|---|---|
| The standard route, for most people | 10 years |
| Earning at least £50,271 | 5 years |
| Specified public service jobs, such as doctors, nurses and teachers | 5 years |
| Earning at least £125,141 | 3 years |
| Breaking immigration rules as an adult, or claiming specified public funds | 20 years |
On the standard route you would also need to show a sustained contribution, which the government sets at earnings of at least £12,571. A partner who arrives with you can still settle at the same time as you, and children under 18 still settle with their parents.
English, and what B1, B2 and C1 mean. B2 becomes the standard English level for settlement, and the proposal that C1 would take a year off the wait has been dropped. These are levels on a scale used across Europe. B1 is everyday English, enough for normal situations at work and in daily life. B2 is a step up, roughly A-level standard, enough to follow a detailed discussion in your own field. C1 is close to fluent. GOV.UK explains which qualifications count at each level.
This is the biggest change from what was proposed. The consultation suggested a 15-year wait for jobs below degree level, which would have left care workers five years behind the nurses they work alongside. The government has dropped it: care workers "will no longer face the 15-year pathway".
What happens now depends on when you joined the care worker route, whether by arriving on it or switching into it.
May 2025 is when the government published its Immigration White Paper. The same announcement sets out a new process, from February 2027, for care workers whose sponsor loses its licence, which we explain in our sponsor licence guide.
Nurses and doctors are among the public service jobs that keep a permanent five-year route. The full list sits in an annex to the government's response, so if your job is not named here, check it there rather than assume. Health and education workers below degree level who are paid on a national pay scale, "such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants", also keep five years if they came before the May 2025 White Paper and meet their visa requirements. The government describes that as a one-off arrangement.
If you are a healthcare assistant, your job code matters for a second reason before the end of the year: what changes on 31 December.
For most people, yes. The government's response says that, outside the protections above, settlement applications are "ordinarily considered under the Immigration Rules in force at the date of settlement decision". Being in the UK already does not lock in today's five years. The response also says skilled workers who came before April 2024 will be able to extend their visas under transitional arrangements until 2035.
One tension is worth knowing about. In September the Home Secretary told MPs that "the rules that apply to you are the rules in force at the point of your application", and the government's press release on 2 November says the rules "continue to apply at the point of application". Its formal response refers to the date of the decision. The exact wording will be in the new rules, and it matters most to anyone close to five years.
If you already have ILR, none of this takes it away. When it consulted, the government said it "would never take away settled status from those who have already been granted it".
The government's case is that settlement should reflect what someone has put in, not just how long they have been here, and that a system adjusted for contribution is fairer than one that treats everyone alike. On care, its announcement also points to "rogue and exploitative companies sponsoring workers for jobs that did not exist" during the years the care route was open.
The original plan had been criticised from several directions. The Commons Home Affairs Committee called it "odd and unnecessary to use RQF skill levels as a proxy for income". The Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee said longer waits for people already here would be "manifestly unfair". NHS Employers argued that all health and care staff should share the same baseline. Dropping the 15-year route meets the main objection about care workers, and social care leaders welcomed it. Whether a ten-year default is fair to people who came expecting five is the question that remains.
Is it ten years now?
Not in law. The government has decided ten years will be the default for most people, but today's five-year rules apply until new rules are laid and take effect.
I am a care worker. Is it fifteen years?
No, that proposal has been dropped. If you joined before May 2025 and meet the conditions, it is five years. If you joined before May 2025 and do not, there is a further five-year care visa. If you joined after, it is ten.
My sponsor lost its licence. Does that end my route to settlement?
Not on what has been announced, if you joined before May 2025: not being sponsored at five years puts you in the group that can apply for the further five-year care visa. For what happens to your current visa, see our sponsor licence guide.
Will the years I have already done count?
Yes, towards the qualifying period. The question is how long that period will be, and unless you are in one of the protected groups it may become ten years rather than five.
I am close to five years. Should I apply now?
Today's rules still apply until new rules take effect, and nobody can tell you exactly what the transitional wording will say. Take advice on your own case before you decide; the link is below.
What about my partner and children?
A partner who arrives with you can settle at the same time. A partner who joins you later has to complete the qualifying period from their own arrival. Children under 18 settle with their parents.
I already have ILR. Am I affected?
No.
Will it cost more?
For anyone moved to a longer route, yes. A longer wait means more visa extensions and more years of the health surcharge, the NHS fee paid up front with each visa. Analysis by Free Movement before the decision put family costs over a decade at more than £70,000.
Someone has offered to fast-track my ILR. Should I pay?
No. Nobody can fast-track it, and the detailed rules have not been written yet. Anyone selling certainty right now is selling something they do not have.
Nothing here is advice about you, and your situation may turn on details this page cannot see. Immigration advice in the UK is regulated: anyone giving it must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, or be a solicitor or barrister. Many charities and law centres give regulated advice free.
GOV.UK runs the official search: find an immigration adviser. Check anyone who offers you help against that register before you pay them anything, or tell them anything.
You should not have to rely on anybody's summary, including ours. Two official sources update whenever something changes.
This story is not finished. When the new rules are laid, we will re-check this page against them and re-date it. If you find something here that is out of date, please tell us. We would rather fix it than have you quietly stop trusting us.
Sources and last check. Last checked 3 November 2026 against: the Home Secretary's statement to Parliament on earned settlement (2 November 2026); the Home Office's press release (2 November 2026); A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: government response to the consultation (2 November 2026); the GOV.UK Immigration Rules updates page, checked 3 November 2026, which shows no change since HC 584; HC 584 (3 September 2026); the Home Affairs Committee report on earned settlement (HC 1409, 13 March 2026); the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee report Settlement, Citizenship and Integration (July 2026); NHS Employers' consultation response (13 February 2026); the Home Secretary's evidence to the Home Affairs Committee (September 2026); Free Movement (3 November 2026) on the care worker groups and the expected timing of the rules, and its earlier cost estimates (7 April 2026); and GOV.UK guidance on indefinite leave to remain. Where something is a plan rather than law, we have said so. If you spot something out of date, please tell us — we would rather fix it than leave it.
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