Earned Settlement - what it means for you

Originally, the government asked care workers to wait 15 years before they could settle. Ministers have now agreed to some concessions.

If your visa started before 12 May 2025

Care workers who entered or switched onto the Health and Care Worker visa route before 12 May 2025 (when the Immigration White Paper was published) will be eligible for settlement after 5 years. This is provided they meet mandatory eligibility, sponsorship and employment requirements, and the specific care worker salary requirement (£25,000 per year). Note: We have asked the Home Office for clarification on how long this cohort needs to have earned £25,000 for, and will update this guide accordingly.

Applicants who do not meet these requirements will be able to apply for a further 5-year Health and Care Worker visa - details are yet to be announced. 

If your visa started after 12 May 2025

Care workers who obtained their Health and Care Worker visa on 12 May 2025 or later will be on a 10-year route to settlement in line with the new policy.

If your sponsor had their licence revoked

From 1 February 2027, care workers whose sponsor lost its licence will have 120 days to secure a job offer from a sponsoring employer, and a further 60 days to obtain a Health and Care Worker visa with this new sponsor. If a care worker is unable to meet this criteria, their permission to remain will be curtailed, and they will need to leave the UK. Note: we await further details on how this will work in practice and will update this guide accordingly. 

You can learn more about what to do if you are facing exploitation in the workplace or if your sponsor’s licence was revoked through our online guide.

While the baseline qualifying period for settlement will be set to 10 years, high earners will be eligible for a shorter baseline. Crucially, this will apply to everyone, except refugees, who are subject to separate rules (see section on refugees below).

• Those earning between £50,271 and £125,139 per year will have a 5-year baseline qualifying period.

• Those earning at least £125,140 per year will have a 3-year baseline qualifying period.

Note: These thresholds are linked to income tax thresholds, and could change if HMRC changes its thresholds for income tax.

Those on Global Talent, Innovator Founder and International Sportsperson visas are expected to qualify in 3 years, subject to a pending Migration Advisory Committee report.

Certain healthcare and education professionals will have a baseline five-year qualifying period for settlement, even where their occupation is below RQF Level 6 (degree level) or where their salary is below £50,271 per year.

Examples of occupations eligible for this concession (fully listed in Annex C of the government’s response) include nursery teaching professionals, primary and secondary education teaching professionals, social workers, medical radiographers, nurses and dental practitioners.

Applicants aged 65 and older will not need to meet a minimum income requirement to be eligible for settlement. Additionally, they will continue to be exempt from the English language and Life in the UK requirement, as per the current rules. Note however, they are still expected to meet any route-specific requirements (i.e. qualifying residence period of 10-years).

Most adult applicants for settlement will need to earn at least £12,571 per year, for a number of years that varies with their route. In contrast to the original proposals, the government has now agreed that partners’ incomes can be combined to clear that threshold. Simply put, if at least one partner earns over £25,142 per year that is sufficient to enable the couple to settle.

Migrants with a British connection will continue to have a baseline qualifying period for settlement of 5 years. This cohort includes:

• Eligible partners, parents and citizens of British citizens.

• Commonwealth citizens on the UK Ancestry visa.

They will have a baseline qualifying period for settlement of 5 years, provided they meet the mandatory eligibility requirements (such as the minimum income requirement, English language and suitability).

Some groups are excluded from the scope of Earned Settlement. This includes people with the following statuses:

• Afghan Schemes, who can settle immediately, subject to scheme eligibility. 

• Legacy Safe and Legal Routes, who can settle after 5 years, subject to route requirements. These are the UK Resettlement Scheme (arrivals before 6 April 2027), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and predecessor refugee resettlement schemes.

• Windrush survivors, who can have their existing British Citizenship or settled status confirmed, with no qualifying period required. 

• HM armed forces (including Gurkha and Hong Kong military unit veterans discharged before 1 July 1997).

It also includes those with separate statutory arrangements on routes which are generally closed, namely:

• EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).

• Turkish ECAA Businesspeople and Workers.

• Tier 1 (Investors).

• Pre-2012 Overseas Domestic Worker.

• Calais Camps and Section 67 Relocations.

Notably, the government made exemptions for particularly vulnerable groups, who will be subject to existing immigration rules. These applicants will not be subject to the standard Earned Settlement rules:

• Bereaved Partners: Immediate settlement remains available for eligible individuals following the death of the partner upon whom their status relied, bypassing standard Earned Settlement duration criteria.

• Unaccompanied asylum-seeking youth: 5-year settlement framework preserved.

• Youth under local authority care: Specialised settlement pathways maintained.

• Young individuals with precarious status raised in the UK: Standard 5-year settlement process retained.

• Domestic Abuse Survivors: Immediate settlement provisions persist for qualified applicants when domestic violence leads to the breakdown of their qualifying relationship.

Currently, people who have been granted refugee status are able to apply for settlement after 5 years of continuous residence in the UK. Earned Settlement profoundly changes that:

• Refugees admitted under specified ‘Safe and Legal routes’ can apply for settlement after 5 years, and will be exempt from requirements around accessing public funds. This group would also have a lower English Language requirement of A2 instead of B2.

• People who receive Core Protection after claiming asylum in the UK will only qualify to apply for settlement after 20 years. This is provided they meet the standard B2 English Language level proficiency, and ‘No debt’ conditions, generally don’t access public funds during the 5 years before settlement, and repay any asylum support costs or set up a payment plan.

• The 20 year Core Protection wait can be reduced to 10 years, for people who move into what the government calls the Protection Work and Study route through “sustained work, education or training”. Switching onto this route would not reset the clock. For example, someone who spent 2 years on Core Protection and then switched into the Protection Work and Study route would need to spend another 8 full years on that route and reach the total 10 year mark to qualify for settlement. The mandatory income and English requirements also apply.

There is still a lot of detail to come in relation to these routes for refugees and we will update this guide as and when it is appropriate to do so.

The government imposed a harsh new 10 year penalty for small boat arrivals and illegal entrants in their original Earned Settlement paper, and this penalty was maintained after the consultation.

Anyone who entered the UK illegally faces an additional 10 year wait. For people who then go on to successfully claim asylum, this means a wait of up to 30 years (if they remain on Core Protection the whole time), but the illegal entry penalty extends to all routes. The government further clarified this 10 year penalty will not apply for individuals protected by Article 31 of the Refugee Convention. This is a complicated area of law and it is important that those who are seeking asylum make sure to get advice on Article 31 recognition when proceeding with a claim and after they have a decision.  

Currently, many immigration routes come with a condition that the individual cannot access public funds (also known as No Recourse to Public Funds or NRPF). People seeking settlement via the 3, 5 or 10-year pathways are required to not have accessed public funds for 5 years immediately prior to their application.

Anyone who continues to use public funds and fails to meet the requirement above will face a wait-time of 20 years before being able to apply for settlement.

Limited exemptions and safeguards are expected to be announced in due course. This penalises individuals for experiencing unemployment, illness, or modern slavery, forcing them into a choice between financial distress, or a protracted path to settlement.

The criminality requirement is significantly tightened under these new proposals. Any adult with a criminal record in the UK (including custodial or suspended sentences, out-of-court disposals, cautions, court fines, community sentences, and civil orders involving a conviction) will face automatic refusal of settlement, to the point where even a minor infraction can turn into lifelong social exclusion.