The UK plans a 10-year wait for migrants to settle. Will it survive next week?
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants most migrants to wait 10 years, not five, to stay in the UK for good. Her final rules are due next week.
What happened
The Home Office will not comment on Mahmood’s final decisions until they are presented to Parliament in the coming week.
The Home Office will set out its final settlement rules next week. On the BBC reported that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce her decision in the coming week. Settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain, lets a person live, work and study in the UK for as long as they like.
In Mahmood proposed that most migrants wait 10 years for settlement instead of five, and some lower-paid workers up to 15 years. The Guardian describes the plan as five to 15 years, also for people who arrived from 2021. The public consultation closed on and drew 200,000 responses.
The BBC understands that care workers already in the UK will likely be spared the longer wait. Most other workers would still need 10 years, which they can shorten by contributing to their local community or earning a higher income. The Home Office does not comment before the rules go to Parliament.
The plan has split the government. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner described it as “un-British” before she rejoined the cabinet, and dozens of Labour MPs oppose it. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he is “Team Angela and Shabana”. On the Guardian reported that senior ministers will decide on care workers over the next 10 days.
MPs sit on 2, 3 and and then take a break until . After the rules can still be published on the government website, but not presented to MPs in person.
Settlement will no longer be granted automatically after a fixed period. Instead, migrants will need to earn it by demonstrating sustained good conduct, contribution and integration.
Home Office, Earned settlement consultation, 20 November 2025
Sources: BBC (2), GOV.UK, The Guardian (2), UK Parliament
The Pattern
We looked for cases where a UK government put a tougher rule out for public consultation, the rule also reached people already in the system, and the government then set out its final version. We found six since 2010, three on visas and three on disability and sickness benefits. In four of them the final version kept the main rule from the consultation.
Show the other 4 cases
The Read
In four of six past reforms the final version kept the main rule, and the BBC report of points the same way. Yet five of the six gave something back, and in four of them more than one group gained. The BBC report names care workers already in the UK and says nothing about other groups.
There are reasons for doubt. Only three of the six were about visas, all under the same Home Secretary, Theresa May, in 2011 and 2012, and none changed the wait to settle for all workers. The one reform settled by a vote of MPs, on disability payments in 2025, was weakened on both points within two days after pressure from Labour MPs. The BBC does not name the source of its report, and ministers are still meeting to agree the details.
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