UK eases settlement rules for care workers, doubles wait for most

Hundreds of thousands of migrant care workers in Britain will keep a five-year path to permanent residency, even as the government doubles the wait to 10 years for most other foreign workers and imposes much longer waits on some refugees.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the revised rules in Parliament on Monday after opposition from Labour lawmakers to an earlier proposal that could have made care workers already in the country wait up to 15 years. The five-year exemption applies to care workers who arrived before May 2025, earn at least £25,000 a year and have met the conditions of their visas, the BBC reported. Those who have not met the conditions can apply for another five-year visa and seek settlement afterward.

“Settlement should not be automatic. It should be earned,” Mahmood told lawmakers. She said care workers deserved a five-year route because they “answered our call when we needed them” after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Permanent residency, known as indefinite leave to remain, allows people to live, work and study in the UK without a time limit. It can also make them eligible for benefits and provide a route to citizenship.

Under the changes, workers earning less than £50,000 a year will generally have to wait 10 years to settle. Those earning more than £50,000, along with qualifying healthcare and education workers such as doctors and teachers, can apply after five years. People earning more than £125,000 can apply after three years. The rules will also affect workers already in the UK and are set to take effect next year, Al Jazeera reported.

Mahmood said refugees arriving through new safe and legal routes could settle after five years. Al Jazeera reported that the standard wait for other refugees would be 20 years, with another 10 years for those who entered by an illegal route, such as a small boat. The BBC reported that people arriving by small boat or another illegal route would face a 20-year wait if they work or study, and 30 years if they do not.

Applicants can also be disqualified for a criminal record, insufficient English, money owed to the government or fewer than three years of national insurance contributions, according to Al Jazeera. The BBC reported that existing settlement paths will remain for certain groups, including Hong Kong British nationals overseas, armed forces members and people covered by the Windrush scheme.

Mahmood told the BBC she had not reversed course, saying about 500,000 people would still have to wait longer to settle. The BBC reported that the revision reduced the number whose settlement would be delayed from 799,000 under the earlier proposal to 517,000. Mahmood said the changes would save billions of pounds but declined to give a cost for the care-worker exemption, saying an impact assessment would come later.

The outlets reported different government forecasts for total settlements between 2026 and 2030: the BBC cited a central Home Office estimate of 1.9 million, while Al Jazeera reported an estimate of as many as 1.4 million.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called the care-worker exemption a costly “U-turn.” Refugee Council representative Imran Hussain called a 30-year wait for some refugees “unfair and unworkable.”