Immigration News Update – 6 November 2026
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood confirmation of the earned settlement policy on 2 November 2026 dominated UK immigration news this week. Under the new Earned Settlement framework, the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) doubles from five to ten years for most migrants, with shorter or longer routes depending on earnings, public service, integration and compliance.
Earned settlement confirmed: ILR qualifying period doubles to 10 years
Under the Earned Settlement framework, the default route to indefinite leave to remain will be 10 years, with shorter or longer pathways depending on an applicant’s character, contribution, integration and residence. The Home Secretary confirmed that the changes will begin to be laid in the December 2026 Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules and will be implemented in stages over 2027, with impact assessments and detailed guidance to follow. The new rules will apply to migrants already in the UK, but not to anyone who has already been granted settlement, as eligibility is assessed at the date of decision rather than the date of arrival.
The Government has made several changes as a result: volunteering will no longer be used to shorten the qualifying period, couples will be able to combine their earnings, and families will generally be able to settle together. The proposed C1 English reduction has also been dropped, and the separate 10-year Long Residence route will close.
Mandatory requirements for all settlement applicants
All settlement applicants must meet minimum requirements that higher earnings or public service cannot offset: adults with any UK criminal record, including cautions, fines or community sentences, will be refused, and applicants must have no outstanding Government debt, including NHS charges, unpaid tax or National Insurance and Home Office litigation costs.
Applicants must meet B2 English (up from B1), pass the Life in the UK test and earn at least £12,571 annually in at least three years, with earnings thresholds linked to income tax bands. Those on three-, five- and ten-year pathways must not have accessed specified public funds during the preceding five years. Existing English, test and earnings exemptions continue for children, people aged 65 or over and those with a physical or mental condition.
How earned settlement affects each immigration route
Three-year route: highest earners, Global Talent and Innovator Founder
Applicants earning at least £125,141 a year, the additional rate of income tax, in three of the four years before applying will be able to settle after three years. The same accelerated route will be open to the high talent group, including Global Talent and Innovator Founder visa holders, although this element remains subject to review once the Migration Advisory Committee reports. Those relying on Global Talent or Innovator Founder status must hold that permission at their most recent grant, and must not have accessed public funds or committed a qualifying immigration breach.
Five-year route: Skilled Worker visa holders earning over £50,271 and public service professionals
Skilled Workers and others on core work routes who earn at least £50,271 a year, the higher rate threshold, in three of the last five years will keep a five-year route to ILR. A permanent five-year route is also created for public service occupations in health and education paid on national pay scales, listed in Annex C of the response. These include doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, paramedics, allied health professionals, teachers and social workers.
Skilled Workers earning below £50,271 will move to the 10-year route, but the proposed 15-year route for roles below RQF level 6 has been dropped. Workers who benefit from the lower salary thresholds that applied before April 2024 will be able to extend their visas on current terms until 2035, rather than the original sunset date of 2030.
Ten-year route: the new default for settlement
The 10-year route becomes the starting point for anyone on a qualifying route who meets the mandatory requirements, including all those earning less than £50,271. Applicants must earn at least £12,571 in five of the seven years before applying. This “best years” approach allows two lower-earning years for periods such as maternity leave, caring responsibilities or ill health, and applicants can continue to renew their existing visas until they qualify.
Twenty-year route: immigration breaches and public funds
An adult who commits a specified immigration breach, such as overstaying, breaching a visa condition, using deception or frustrating immigration control, will be placed on a 20-year route regardless of earnings. Applicants who have accessed specified public funds in the five years before applying must either complete five continuous years without claiming them or wait 20 years. Breaches committed before the age of 18 will not trigger the longer route.
Health and Care Worker visa: care workers already in the UK
Care workers who entered or switched into the care route before the Immigration White Paper was published in May 2025 will keep the five-year route, provided they earned at least £25,000 a year and met their sponsorship and employment conditions. Those who have not met those conditions, around a quarter of the 2022 to 2025 cohort according to the Home Secretary, may apply for a further five-year Health and Care visa limited to genuine care work. This visa will not tie them to their previous sponsor, will carry no recourse to public funds, and will allow them to apply for settlement again at its end.
From 1 February 2027, care workers whose sponsor loses its licence will have up to 120 days to secure a new job offer and a further 60 days to regularise their status, in place of the usual 60-day period. Care workers who joined the route after May 2025 will follow the standard 10-year route.
Other health and education workers below RQF level 6
A one-off transitional arrangement will apply to health and education workers in occupations below RQF level 6 that are paid on national pay scales, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants. Those who came to the UK before May 2025 and meet their visa conditions will keep a five-year route to settlement, while later arrivals will move to the 10-year route.
Long Residence, Student and Graduate routes
The 10-year Long Residence route will close, and time spent on temporary routes will no longer count towards settlement. This covers Visitor, Student, Graduate, High Potential Individual, Youth Mobility, Seasonal Worker, Global Business Mobility, Temporary Work, Overseas Domestic Worker and the Ukraine schemes. In practice, an international student who switches into the Skilled Worker route will begin building qualifying residence only from the date of that switch.
Time spent on protection or human rights routes also cannot be combined with time on work or family routes, so the qualifying period restarts on moving between them. The Government will set out its approach to people granted leave outside the rules at a later date.
Partners, children and young adult dependants
A partner who arrives with the main applicant will be able to settle at the same time, but a partner who joins later must complete the full qualifying period. Couples may combine their earnings to meet a household threshold of £25,142. Partners, parents and children of British citizens, together with UK Ancestry visa holders, keep a five-year route on the basis of their British connection.
Children under 18 will continue to settle with their parents and are exempt from the income, debt, English and Life in the UK requirements, although suitability and criminality checks still apply. Young adults aged 18 to 24 who retain child dependant status may settle with their family without meeting the individual income requirement, while those aged 25 or over when the family becomes eligible must qualify in their own right.
Refugees and protection routes
Refugees admitted through designated safe and legal routes, including the UK Resettlement Scheme, will qualify for settlement after five years and are exempt from the public funds requirement. Refugees granted protection after claiming asylum in the UK will move onto Core Protection, which carries a 20-year route. Those who move into sustained work, education or training can switch to Protection Work and Study and settle after 10 years on that route, provided they meet the earnings, B2 English and Life in the UK requirements and any asylum support repayment obligations.
Anyone who entered the UK illegally, including by small boat, will face an additional 10 years, meaning 20 years on Protection Work and Study or 30 years on Core Protection. The additional period will not apply where Article 31 of the Refugee Convention protects the individual. Those who claimed asylum before 2 March 2026 will move to Core Protection, but time already held with refugee status will count.
Routes that remain outside the earned settlement framework
Several groups keep their existing settlement arrangements. These include Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders (five years), Afghan resettlement schemes (immediate settlement), legacy safe and legal routes, Windrush cases and HM Armed Forces personnel and their families. Bereaved partners and victims of domestic abuse may still apply for immediate settlement, and existing arrangements continue for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, children in local authority care and young people who have grown up in the UK.
The EU Settlement Scheme, the Turkish ECAA routes and the closed Tier 1 (Investor) route are unaffected. However, applicants on these routes will still need to meet the strengthened criminality and B2 English requirements unless an existing exemption applies.
For a more detailed coverage on the Earned Settlement: Major Changes to the UK’s Indefinite Leave to Remain Rules, visit our blog here
UNHCR raises concerns over 30-year settlement route for refugees
UNHCR has shared concerns that settlement waits of up to 30 years raise “significant concerns”: while welcoming new safe and legal routes, it warned that longer waits, shorter protection grants and last year’s citizenship changes could undermine refugees’ security and integration, particularly as they cannot rely on their home country’s protection.
The Helen Bamber Foundation, which supports torture and trafficking survivors, also argued that longer waits would not deter people fleeing persecution while safe routes remain limited. The Government maintains that the pathways encourage safe and legal entry and discourage Channel crossings, with protection continuing for as long as needed.
Immigration Enforcement to extend live facial recognition to civil immigration matters
The Home Office’s updated live facial recognition (LFR) policy allows deployments at transport hubs, busy events and travel routes, including joint police operations, to support civil immigration enforcement, with watchlists potentially covering overstaying, unauthorised work and entry without leave. Although the policy sets rules for watchlists, locations, human oversight and matching thresholds, the Open Rights Group and the3million warn about its use in non-criminal matters and reliance on Home Office systems such as the Person Centric Data Platform, which underpins eVisas and has experienced record mismatches. The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, whose remit excludes immigration services, has called for their inclusion in the legal framework expected under the Police Reform Bill.
Charity dismisses 53 care workers after sponsor licence revocation
Young Epilepsy, a charity supporting young people with epilepsy, dismissed 53 migrant workers at St Piers School and College in Surrey after its sponsor licence was revoked. UNISON says staff were emailed on 11 October and dismissed the next day with notice pay but no further compensation, following self-reported historic sponsorship breaches involving promotions, addresses and wage records. The charity says staff were informed in July, received immigration advice, mental health support, full pay and formal consultation, and that dismissal was legally required after Home Office notification in October. UNISON is calling for sector-wide visas to protect workers from employers’ compliance failures; the case highlights timely sponsor reporting as the Government announces longer periods to find a new care sponsor from February 2027.
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Case Law
RM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2026] EWCA Civ 1416 (4 November 2026)
The Court of Appeal allowed an Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker’s appeal and remitted the case to the First-tier Tribunal after it rejected his credibility over inconsistent explanations for his girlfriend’s family’s opposition but failed to address his solicitors’ May 2021 clarification, which described his political activities from the outset. Where credibility turns on consistency over time, tribunals must expressly consider each key stage of the account; omitting a material consideration is a material error unless any rational tribunal would inevitably reach the same outcome. That threshold was not met despite other unchallenged adverse findings, so the linked findings on RM’s political beliefs also required reconsideration. The court nevertheless held that the Upper Tribunal could depart from the Home Office’s narrow, qualified concession without warning the parties. Full decision here
R (AAM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2026] EWCA Civ 1411 (4 November 2026)
The Court of Appeal dismissed the Home Office’s appeal concerning a Syrian man kidnapped in Libya, holding that kidnapping for ransom can constitute exploitation under regulation 3(6)(d)(iii) of the Slavery and Human Trafficking (Definition of Victim) Regulations 2022. Using force or threats to make a victim secure ransom payments can amount to requiring them to “enable another person to acquire benefits”, even without forced labour. The Regulations extend beyond the minimum forms of exploitation listed in the international trafficking convention (ECAT), so the Home Office must reconsider AAM’s case rather than rely solely on the absence of forced labour. Whether ransom kidnapping meets the test depends on the facts of each case. Full decision here
R (CU) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (JR-2025-LON-002297)
The Upper Tribunal dismissed a Sri Lankan nurse’s judicial review after she paid agents about £21,000 for a Health and Care Worker visa but received no work from her sponsor. Following the sponsor’s report that she had not started work, the Home Office cancelled her leave under paragraph 9.27.1(a), effective after 60 days. The Tribunal held that submitting an application authorises use of its contact email, even if supplied by an agent, and applicants must keep their details updated: delivery confirmation established valid service under the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) Order 2000, despite her claimed inability to access the account.
The Home Office could rely on the sponsor’s report without further investigation, particularly given the 60-day opportunity to respond; non-commencement was a fact she already knew, not an allegation requiring an answer. Failure to disclose the sponsor inspection report breached the Home Office’s duty of candour but affected only costs, not the outcome. Full decision here
Judicial Review Conference 2026
Judicial review looks likely to become the most sought-after remedy on many UK immigration routes. Pressure will come from the earned settlement reforms from December, the closure of the Long Residence route, longer refugee pathways and the steady rise in sponsor licence revocations, as this week’s AAM and CU decisions show.
HJT Training’s Judicial Review Conference 2026 takes place on Friday 27 November, from 10am to 4pm. It brings together Mark Symes, David Jones, Adrian Berry KC, Duran Seddon KC and Ali Bandegani of Garden Court Chambers, with Ranjiv Khubber of No5 Chambers, to review immigration public law in 2026. It is also a valuable chance to network with leading counsel and peers from 4pm.
You can attend in person or online (please confirm when booking), and the day carries six CPD hours for just £119 + VAT.
Our in-person places are limited, so book early to secure yours HERE
Home Office Guidance and Policy Updates
To view the Home Office Guidance and Policies updated between 29th October 2026 to 6th November 2026 visit here
What’s On
Right to Work Checks – New Illegal Working Regime 1 October 2026
Judicial Review Conference 2026
Immigration Law Review of the Year 2026
All IAA and IAAS Accreditation Levels
For assistance with booking, email us at enquiries@hjt-training.co.uk or call us on 07446466898
Useful links
A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: consultation and Government response, CP 1707
What are the planned changes to immigration rules?
UNHCR criticises UK’s 30-year earned settlement plans for refugees
UK extends facial recognition to civil immigration offences
Immigration Enforcement facial recognition policy
Charity dismisses over 50 care workers after losing Home Office visa sponsorship licence
Written by Shareen Khan, Legal Content Writer, HJT Training
Disclaimer: This blog post is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration advisors should consult the full decisions and official policy documents when advising clients on specific cases.