Earned Settlement: March 2026 Updates
Indefinite leave to remain in the UK is in the process of undergoing significant changes. As we look ahead to April 2026 and beyond, Total Law reviews the developments of the past few months and the changes yet to come.
Our professional, fully qualified immigration advisers are on hand to assist with your UK settlement or visa applications. Call us on +44 (0) 333 305 9375 or reach out to us online today.
Earned Settlement: The Changes So Far
The UK government has announced comprehensive plans to overhaul the way ILR is conferred to foreign nationals. As well as increasing the baseline qualifying period of residence from 5 years to 10 years, this qualifying period will also be able to be shortened or lengthened based on a variety of factors on a new criteria of ‘earned settlement’. General minimum requirements to obtain ILR will also be raised for all applicants.
The changes were first outlined in a white paper published in May 2025. Since then, the plans have undergone numerous revisions in response to public and government feedback.
The latest of these responses is a House of Commons committee report published earlier this month, containing various recommendations to the Home Office on how the conferral of ILR should be implemented in future and possible amendments to be made to current plans.
The UK government has two months to respond to the committee report, which means that we likely won’t receive a substantial update on the new plans for ILR until May. Until then, we have reviewed the latest updates for the new ILR plans below, including a summary of the contents of the new House of Commons committee report.
The House of Commons Committee Report
Overview of the Report
The House of Commons Committee Report on earned settlement is a comprehensive inquiry into the government’s new plans for ILR, drawing upon original research and feedback from immigration professionals, charities, representatives of key target groups and the general public.
A public consultation on the new plans for ILR was conducted between November 2025 and February 2026, which garnered over 130,000 responses. The House of Commons also conducted oral evidence sessions with immigration experts, representatives of key groups and individuals who may well be affected by the upcoming changes.
The report is a thorough and comprehensive review of some of the most pertinent parts of the new plans, specifically aspects with a “significant risk of unintended consequences”, such as exploring potential transitional periods for those already on pathways to ILR, young people, and medium-skilled workers facing a 15-year wait to settlement.
The full report can be read on the official parliament website here. However, we have collated some pertinent conclusions and highlights from the report in the next section.
Highlights from the Committee Report
Some important highlights and recommendations from the report include the following:
- It may be reasonable for the new changes to apply retroactively to people already on a pathway to settlement in the UK. However, it is recommended that the government “carefully consider and set out clear mitigations—including suitable transitional arrangements—for people already in the UK who are affected by the changes.” In particular, vulnerable people who may struggle to meet the new criteria should receive dedicated protections.
- The new changes should not be applied to people in the UK who arrived before 2021 and would under the current rules be on track to settle in the UK through a 10-year route.
- The Home Office should take note from previous experience that it is more important to “get changes right than to implement them quickly”, while the report recommends “adequate time to assess the impact of its final policy” and to set out “a clear and realistic implementation timeline” for the benefit of affected parties.
- There should be “reasonable exceptions” for those unable to meet the new minimum income requirement for settlement, such as for those who are disabled, are full-time carers or in full-time study.
- When considering the 15-year route to settlement for lower-paid income workers, they should be judged based on their income and not the RQF classification of their role.
- Reductions in the qualifying base periods for settlement based on income should be judged on a household level and not an individual level.
- Caution should be taken when considering settlement options for health and care workers and their dependents to reduce exploitation and overall fiscal impact.
- Children should have “clear, realistic and accessible pathways to settlement”, and children should be granted settled status by the time they turn 18, regardless of whether or not they meet all the criteria for earned settlement.
- Applicants who have previously claimed public funds while currently on a route to settlement should not be retroactively penalised by having additional time added to their settlement pathway.
Next Steps After the Committee Report
The House of Commons committee report is a substantial piece of text drawn from over 130,000 individual responses, consultations and discussions with a variety of key stakeholders and members of the public.
Officially, the Home Office will have a maximum of two months to respond to the report and issue official statements on which recommendations contained within the report will be actioned and which will be disregarded. Although the government’s original plan was to start implementing changes to ILR in April 2026, it is unlikely that changes will start to come about this early, given the substantive quantity of changes and amendments the report suggests. For instance, the report emphasises the need for careful, considered and clear transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement in order to minimise negative effects. If the government heeds this advice, it is probable that the new changes may take some time to be fully introduced until a full mitigation plan for the affected parties can be devised and implemented.
It is likely that the government will use at least some of the information contained in the report to amend certain aspects of the new earned settlement model before it is fully brought into effect. Parts of the report are unequivocal in their recommendations, such as the suggestion to judge income-based reductions on a household level rather than an individual level, with the report citing relevant supporting evidence from key figures such as Matthew Percival, the Director (Future of Work and Skills) at the Confederation of British Industry and Dr Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory. On this topic, the report warns against “perverse” and “odd or undesirable outcomes” if changes are not made to the plans.
However, notably, the report does largely support applying the changes to ILR retroactively to certain people already in the UK on a pathway to settlement. Despite receiving a “high volume” of responses from immigrants arguing against this, with numerous concerns about the fairness of such a change, the report concludes that: “extending routes to settlement for at least some people already in the UK is essential for the Government to be able to meet its objective of reducing the impact of the large number of immigrants who arrived to the UK in recent years.” As previously stated, however, the report does support clear transitional arrangements to be put in place for affected peoples and special protections for vulnerable individuals.
Despite this, based on the compelling nature of the information provided and the comprehensive nature of the report’s findings and investigations, we may well see the government announcing slightly less strict and more permissive rules regarding earned settlement announced in due course.
Earned Settlement: Other Responses and Developments
Criticisms of the new plans for ILR have been wide and varied. A news report from POLITICO has recently claimed that Shabana Mahmood’s intentions for the new plans to save the UK over £10 billion are misinformed and that the plans are “fundamentally flawed” in their scope to deliver fiscal benefits for the UK.
Various charities and NGOs have also spoken out against the plans. The Centre for Women’s Justice has raised concerns that the plans will not adequately protect victims of domestic violence, claiming that the original consultation paper “disregards the clearly detrimental and dangerous impact the proposals are likely to have for victim-survivors and fails to offer adequate safeguards”. Meanwhile, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Migrants has condemned the new plans as being “racist and classist” in a damning report that has been co-signed by over 130 different organisations.
Key figures from the Labour party itself have also been outspokenly critical regarding the new plans. Olivia Blake, Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, has argued that the plans should be “scrapped” altogether, claiming that it will “deepen child poverty, hollow out essential services, undermine our industrial ambitions and economy, and corrode community cohesion.”
A report from the Migrants’ Rights Network has also highlighted the mental toll the new plans are taking on immigrants, with feelings of frustration, anxiety and isolation being reported amongst immigrant communities; some have cited the plans as making living in the UK a “living hell” due to the uncertainty caused by the new plans.
One aspect of the new plans has already been put into motion, however. It has been announced that from March 2027, immigrants will now require a B2 level of English proficiency in order to qualify for permanent settlement, up from the previous level of B1. The government has announced this change a full year in advance in order to give immigrants “the best opportunity to integrate into British life”, and it seems likely that this is only the first of numerous changes to affect immigrants in the UK looking to become permanent residents.
Concluding Thoughts
The UK currently sits in a highly transitional period characterised by heightened levels of uncertainty and speculation over the future of immigration. The new plans concerning earned settlement have the potential to significantly affect millions of foreign nationals and their families in the UK, many of whom may potentially find their routes towards settlement disrupted or otherwise thrown into uncertainty.
All eyes are now on Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood on how they will respond to the House of Commons committee report, which is the latest in various voices advising for a slightly softer and less reactive approach to the influx of immigrants coming to the UK.
Will you be affected by the upcoming changes to settlement, or concerned that you and your family may be negatively impacted by the upheavals that may come about later in 2026? Reach out to Total Law’s immigration advisers on +44 (0) 333 305 9375 or contact us online for fast, compassionate and immediate help with your UK immigration situation today.
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