Jaffna, 3 November 2026: Most migrants living in Britain on work visas, including Sri Lankans, will have to wait 10 years instead of five before they can apply for permanent residence. The British government confirmed on Monday that its new “earned settlement” model will apply to people already in the country.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the final policy in a statement to the House of Commons on 2 November. On the same day, the Home Office published its response to last year’s public consultation, titled A Fairer Pathway to Settlement. The government estimates that more than 500,000 people will now become eligible to settle later than they would have under the current rules.
Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is Britain’s form of permanent residence. It allows a person to live, work and study in the UK without time limits and is normally the step before citizenship. Under the rules still in force, most people on work routes can apply after five years. Under the new system, the waiting period will depend on a person’s income, occupation and immigration record.
The new waiting periods
People earning at least £125,141 a year, the threshold for the additional rate of income tax, in three of the last four years can apply after three years.
A five-year route is open to people who have earned at least £50,271 in three of the last five years. It also covers eligible public service workers in health and education, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, and the partners and parents of British citizens.
Everyone else falls under the new 10-year default. They must show earnings of at least £12,571 in five of the previous seven years.
People who have committed specified immigration breaches as adults, or who drew specified public funds in the five years before applying, face a 20-year wait.
The earnings thresholds are tied to UK income tax and National Insurance thresholds. Couples can combine their incomes against a household threshold of £25,142.
All applicants must also meet mandatory conditions. They must speak English at B2 level, which the government describes as equivalent to an A-level in a foreign language. They must have no outstanding debt to the state, including NHS charges, tax and National Insurance, and they must have a clean UK criminal record. The Home Office document states that “any adult applicant with a criminal record in the UK will be refused settlement”. The rule covers cautions, fines and community sentences as well as prison terms. The Life in the UK test remains.
Children under 18 are exempt from the income, debt, English and Life in the UK requirements but are still subject to criminality checks. People aged 65 and over are exempt from the English requirement.
Care workers keep five-year route
Proposals published in November 2025 would have made care workers wait 15 years. Mahmood dropped that plan after pressure from within the Labour Party.
Care workers who entered or switched into the Health and Care visa route before the government’s Immigration White Paper of May 2025 will keep the five-year route. To qualify, they must earn at least £25,000, meet their sponsorship and employment conditions and satisfy the new mandatory requirements. Those who do not qualify after five years can apply for a further five-year care visa. That visa is limited to genuine work in the sector and carries no access to public funds.
The same arrangement applies to public service workers in health and education who are below degree level and paid on national pay scales, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, provided they arrived before May 2025. Care workers who arrived after May 2025 are on the 10-year pathway. A separate proposal for a 15-year wait for all workers below degree level has also been dropped, and those workers will now be on the 10-year route.
Mahmood described the care worker arrangement as a “fair solution”. She told MPs that contribution “is judged crucially, not just financially, but also in terms of public service.”
What it means for Sri Lankans
Census figures for 2021 and 2022 recorded about 147,000 Sri Lanka-born residents in the UK. Those who already hold British citizenship or ILR are not affected, and the Home Secretary has said the changes will not apply to anyone who already has settled status.
For Sri Lankans who do not yet hold ILR, the effect depends on the route they are on. Care workers who arrived before May 2025 are likely to keep the five-year route if they earn at least £25,000 and have complied with their visa conditions. Doctors, nurses and teachers in eligible public service roles can also settle after five years. The Home Office says guidance setting out the qualifying occupations will be published before the rules take effect. Skilled workers outside those groups who earn less than £50,271 a year now face the 10-year default.
Spouses and children who arrived with a main applicant can settle at the same time, provided each meets the requirements. Partners who join later must complete the full qualifying period themselves. Partners of British citizens keep a five-year route. The government estimates that about 39,000 people who came on family routes but were not sponsored by a British citizen will move to a longer pathway. This would include families in which the sponsoring spouse holds ILR but not citizenship.
The changes for refugees are larger. Sri Lankan nationals lodged more than 2,000 asylum claims in the UK in each of the past three years, according to Home Office statistics. Under the new model, refugees who arrive through government-designated safe and legal routes, such as the UK Resettlement Scheme, can settle after five years. Those who claim asylum by other means are placed on a “core protection” track with a 20-year wait. If they move into sustained work, education or training, they can settle 10 years after that move, but time already spent on core protection does not count.
Anyone who entered the UK illegally, including by small boat, will ordinarily face an additional 10 years, bringing the total to 20 or 30 years. The government says the extra period will not apply where a person is protected by Article 31 of the Refugee Convention, and that details will follow before the rules are implemented.
The document links the extra 10 years to illegal entry. Many Sri Lankan asylum claimants first arrive on valid student or work visas. Home Office data released in March 2025 listed Sri Lanka, with Pakistan and Nigeria, among the most common nationalities of asylum seekers in government accommodation in 2024 who had originally entered the UK on a visa. On the government’s wording, claimants who entered legally would ordinarily be placed on the 20-year or 10-year protection tracks and not the 30-year track.
When the rules take effect
The government has not announced a start date for the wider changes. They will be introduced through a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, and the Home Office says it will publish further guidance first. A separate rule already laid before Parliament raises the English requirement for settlement to B2 level from March 2027.
The five-year rules remain in force for now. However, the Home Office document states that “applications are ordinarily considered under the Immigration Rules in force at the date of settlement decision.” It does not say whether applications lodged before the new rules begin will be protected. Apart from the care and public service workers who arrived before May 2025, it sets out no protection for people who are close to completing five years.
UK immigration law firms are advising migrants who are approaching five years of residence to check their dates and seek advice on applying under the current rules while they remain in force.
Who is exempt
People who already hold ILR or British citizenship are unaffected. Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa holders, members of the armed forces, people with a British connection and those on legacy routes such as Windrush will keep their current arrangements. Mahmood confirmed in the Commons that victims of domestic abuse will remain eligible for immediate settlement.
Reaction
The consultation received 204,667 online responses. An independent analysis published alongside the government response found that 84 percent of individual respondents and 79 percent of organisations disagreed with the proposals as drafted. It also found that 68 percent of individuals wanted transitional protection for people already on a route to settlement. The government noted that respondents were self-selected and not representative of the wider public.
Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, criticised the decision to apply the rules to people already in Britain. “You can come in legally, you can work legally, and then have your residency rights turned upside down. How can that be fair?” she said.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the care worker concession a “u-turn” and said the government would continue to rely on “mass low-skilled immigration”.
Mahmood told MPs that her own family’s history shaped her approach. “Over 50 years ago, my parents came to this country from rural Kashmir,” she said. “They came here knowing one thing above all else, that they would be treated fairly here.”
