UK earned settlement: the 10-year rule and the fast tracks

Following the 2025 immigration white paper, the UK has moved to an "earned settlement" model. The headline: the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain has increased from five years to ten for most routes, and the flexible 10-year long-residence route — which let people aggregate time across mixed visa categories — has been abolished.

Who is affected, and how to re-advise

• Skilled Workers mid-route. A client who came in expecting ILR at five years now faces ten, unless a faster track applies. Have this conversation now, not at year four.
• People relying on mixed-category time. The old long-residence aggregation is gone. Time no longer stitches together across categories toward settlement the way it did.
• English for settlement. The requirement rises from B1 to B2 across many categories from 26 March 2027. A client who scraped B1 needs a plan to reach B2 before they apply.

The fast tracks

The main one: an applicant who has had taxable income of at least £125,140 for the three years immediately before applying can qualify for ILR after three years. Model whether a high-earning client can realistically hit and evidence that threshold across three consecutive tax years — it is a real route but a narrow one, and the evidence burden is on the applicant.

Practical steps

Audit your Skilled Worker caseload for anyone with an ILR date inside the next 24 months and confirm which framework applies to them. For new clients, set the expectation at ten years from the first consult, note any fast-track possibility, and put the English-for-settlement timeline in writing. Salary compliance also tightened from 8 April 2026 — sponsors must now pay the full required salary every pay period — so extension-stage pay checks matter more.