UK to Double Wait for Permanent Residency for Most Foreign Workers

Most foreign workers in the United Kingdom will have to wait 10 years before they can apply for permanent residency, double the five years that applies now. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the revised settlement rules in Parliament, Al Jazeera reported.

Permanent residency, known in the UK as indefinite leave to remain and also called settlement, carries the right to work, study, use the National Health Service and claim welfare benefits. Under the new rules, the 10-year wait is the general case, with a number of exceptions.

Care workers can settle after five years if they have met their visa conditions and earn at least 25,000 pounds a year. People earning more than 50,000 pounds a year can apply after five years, and those earning more than 125,000 pounds a year after three.

Refugees who arrive through the government's safe and legal routes can settle after five years. Other refugees face a standard 20-year wait, and up to 30 years if they entered by an illegal method such as crossing in a small boat.

Applicants will be disqualified if they have a criminal record, cannot speak English to a high standard, owe money to the government, or have not made at least three years of National Insurance contributions, the payments that go into the UK's payroll-based social insurance system.

The changes are set to take effect next year and will apply to workers who are already in the country. The government said the overhaul means 500,000 people will settle later than they otherwise would have. It estimates that as many as 1.4 million people will receive settled status between 2026 and 2030.

The settlement changes follow a 12-week public consultation that drew more than 200,000 responses. Reuters reported on 2 November that an earlier government proposal had set a wait of 10 to 15 years for lower-skilled workers, up from five years. Reuters

The government first set out plans to make settlement harder to obtain in November 2025. Reuters reported at the time that the plan included exceptions to the 10-year wait for doctors and nurses. Those earlier plans have since been revised, and the rules announced this week set out the current position, including the care worker exemption.

The 10-year baseline now applies to people who arrived through official government resettlement programmes as well, according to the government's published guidance on the subject. Those rules are set to take effect next year.