ILR changes: what earned settlement means if you work in the UK on a visa

Settlement, or indefinite leave to remain, is the right to live in the UK permanently. Until now most work routes led to it after 5 years. Under the earned settlement model published by the Home Office on 2 November 2026, the time you wait depends on what you earn, the job you do and your immigration record. The starting point is 10 years.

Thanks to this 'best years' rule, a period of maternity leave, caring or illness does not automatically push you onto a longer path. Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas), members of the armed forces and family members of British citizens keep their current arrangements.

Whatever your path, these conditions cannot be offset by a high salary or a public service job:

• No criminal record in the UK: any adult with a criminal record will be refused, including suspended sentences, conditional cautions and court fines.
• No outstanding government debt: NHS debt, unpaid tax and National Insurance, and litigation debt owed to the Home Office.
• English at B2 level (the Home Office compares it to an A level in a foreign language), up from B1. The March 2026 announcement gave March 2027 for this change.
• The Life in the UK test, with the existing exemptions for under 18s, people aged 65 and over and some health conditions.
• A sustained contribution: at least £12,571 a year. Couples can combine their earnings to reach £25,142 between them.

Volunteering will not shorten the wait: the Government dropped that idea after the consultation.

This is the group most affected: the Home Office estimates that 146,000 Skilled Workers who would have settled by 2030 move to the 10-year path.

• Earning £50,271 or more: you stay on a 5-year path, as long as you reach that figure in 3 of the 5 years before you apply. The standard Skilled Worker salary today is £41,700, so many sponsored workers sit between the two.
• Working in a listed public service job: doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, pharmacists, physiotherapists, teachers and social workers, among others, keep 5 years whatever their salary. The full list is in Annex C of the Government response.
• Everyone else: 10 years. The Home Secretary said you will be able to renew your temporary visa until then.
• Sponsored before 4 April 2024: the lower salary rules for this group were due to end in 2030. The Government says you will be able to extend on your current terms until 2035.

Apart from care workers and some health and education roles, there is no protection for people already in the UK: the rules in force on the day of the decision apply. Engineers, chefs and architects may still face 10 years, the Institute for Public Policy Research told the Guardian.

Care workers who entered, or switched into, the route before the Immigration White Paper of May 2025 keep the 5-year path if they earn at least £25,000 a year and meet the sponsorship and employment conditions of their visa. They still need B2 English and a clean record.

• If you do not meet those conditions after 5 years: you will be able to apply for a further 5-year Health and Care visa, restricted to genuine care work, then apply for settlement again.
• If your sponsor loses its licence: from 1 February 2027, care workers will have up to 120 days to secure a job offer and a further 60 days to sort out their visa.
• If you joined the route after May 2025: the exception does not apply. You are on the 10-year path.
• Nursing auxiliaries, teaching assistants and other health and education jobs below degree level on a national pay scale get the same one-off 5-year deal if they arrived before May 2025.

Until now, 10 years of lawful residence on almost any visa, including Student and Graduate, could lead to settlement through the long residence route. That route will close, and time on Student, Graduate, Youth Mobility and other temporary visas will no longer count towards ILR.

In practice, your clock starts when you move onto a qualifying route, usually Skilled Worker after your Graduate visa. A Graduate visa lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026 and 18 months from 1 January 2027, and it cannot be extended. A first sponsored job matters more than ever: our graduate CV example shows how to present a degree, placements and part-time work for that first role.

Not yet. In the Commons, the Home Secretary said the changes will begin to be laid from the December immigration rules and implemented over the course of 2027. The detailed rules, a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules, have not been published yet, and the Home Office says further guidance will follow before implementation.

Until then, the gov.uk guidance on indefinite leave to remain still describes the current 5-year rules. Squire Patton Boggs, a law firm, suggests that people who can already apply under those rules consider doing so soon. Whether that applies to you depends on your route and your dates: check with gov.uk or a registered adviser before you decide.

A 10-year path means more years on a sponsored visa, and more chances that you will change job. Those rules have not changed: on a Skilled Worker visa, gov.uk says you must apply to update your visa if you move to a different employer or to a different occupation code with the same employer, and your new job needs a new certificate of sponsorship.

• Only licensed employers can sponsor you. The Register of licensed sponsors: workers on gov.uk lists them, with the routes they can sponsor, and is updated almost every working day. Check it before you spend time on an application.
• Salary now counts twice: for your visa today, and for the 5-year path if you can reach £50,271 in 3 of 5 years. Read the pay line of each job advert with that in mind.
• Overtime and a second job: overtime in your sponsored job is unlimited. You can work up to 20 hours a week in another eligible job; more than that needs a visa update.
• Your right to work is unchanged while your visa is valid. Nothing in the announcement takes away permission you already hold.

A UK CV does not include a photo, your date of birth, your marital status or your nationality. Leave them out, even if a CV format from another country asks for them. Your visa status is a question for the application form or, if you choose, one line of your cover letter, for example: 'I hold a Skilled Worker visa and would need sponsorship to change employer.'

• Right to work checks happen before you start work. If you are not a British or Irish citizen, you prove your right to work with a share code from gov.uk or your eligible immigration documents. You choose, and the employer cannot turn you down for using documents instead of a share code.
• Employers must not discriminate against anyone because of where they are from, gov.uk reminds them.
• Lead with what the job advert asks for: your personal statement should show the role, your years of UK experience and one result. Our guide to the CV personal statement shows how, and the guide to skills for a CV helps you match the advert's words.
• Prepare the salary conversation: if £50,271 is now a target for you, decide your figure before the interview. Our guide on how to prepare for an interview covers it.

This page explains the announcement; it is not legal advice. For your own case, use gov.uk and a regulated adviser: every immigration adviser must be registered with the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly the OISC) or belong to an approved professional body. The IAA Adviser Finder and the Law Societies of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland list them. Check that an adviser is registered, and what they charge, before you pay.