The Graduate route and settlement
The Graduate route is not a settlement route, but today its time can count towards the 10-year Long Residence route. This guide sets out the current rules, which routes lead to indefinite leave to remain, and what the earned settlement decision of 2 November 2026 would change.
- Section
- Student & Graduate
- Reading time
- 8 min
- Last checked
- 3 November 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- Today, Graduate time does not count towards the qualifying period on a work or family route, but it can count towards the 10-year Long Residence route.
- On 2 November 2026 the government announced that the Long Residence route will close and Graduate and Student time will stop counting towards settlement. This is not yet law and no date has been given.
- The Graduate visa cannot be extended: 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, 18 months if on or after 1 January 2027, 3 years for a doctorate.
- Routes that do lead to settlement include Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Ancestry and the family route.
- The qualifying period is 5 years on most of those routes today. Under the earned settlement decision, not yet law, 10 years becomes the standard, with 5 years kept for some people.
The Graduate route does not lead to settlement by itself, and the Graduate visa cannot be extended. Today, Graduate time does not count towards the 5-year qualifying period on a route such as Skilled Worker, but lawful time on it can count towards the separate 10-year Long Residence route. On 2 November 2026 the government announced that the Long Residence route will close and that time on Student and Graduate visas will no longer count towards settlement at all. That decision is not yet law, and the government has given no closing date.
Why the Graduate Route Does Not Lead to Settlement
The Graduate route is temporary permission to stay and work after a UK course. It is not a settlement route. Time on it does not count towards the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain on a route such as Skilled Worker. Indefinite leave to remain is the permission that lets someone stay in the UK without a time limit.
Graduate Time and the Long Residence Route
There is one exception under the current rules. The Long Residence route gives settlement after 10 years of continuous lawful residence in the UK, and lawful time on most routes counts towards it, including Student and Graduate time. The government's own summary says: "lawful time spent on these routes can count towards settlement through the separate 10-year Long Residence route" (CP 1707, page 20).
That is set to change. On 2 November 2026 the government published its earned settlement decision, which says:
- "Under Earned Settlement, the Long Residence route will close" (page 19).
- "Time spent on temporary routes will not count towards the qualifying residence period for settlement" (page 20). The list of routes that will not count includes Student, and Graduate and High Potential Individual.
This is announced policy, not law. No statement of changes has been laid. The response gives no date for the Long Residence route to close, and it does not describe any arrangement for people who are part-way to 10 years. The Home Secretary told the House of Commons on 2 November 2026 that the changes "will begin to be laid from the December immigration rules" and "will be implemented over the course of 2027". See which visas count under earned settlement.
The Graduate visa also cannot be extended. It lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027. If you completed a PhD or other doctorate it lasts 3 years.
One Published Path to Settlement
The steps are:
- Graduate visa. Time to look for work and be employed without a sponsor.
- Switch to a Skilled Worker visa. This needs a job with a licensed sponsor that meets the skill level and salary rules.
- Apply for indefinite leave to remain. After 5 continuous years on the Skilled Worker route. The earliest you can apply is 28 days before the 5 years are complete, and a decision usually takes up to 6 months.
- Apply for British citizenship. GOV.UK says you must normally have held indefinite leave to remain for 12 months, and have lived in the UK for 5 years. You do not need to wait the 12 months if you are married to a British citizen.
The time you spend on the Graduate route is added before this 5-year period begins; it is not part of it.
The government has announced that the standard qualifying period for settlement will rise from 5 years to 10 years. Under its decision of 2 November 2026, a 5-year path stays for people who earned at least £50,271 in 3 of the last 5 years, people who worked for 5 years in a listed public service job, and people with a British connection; a 3-year path is set for people who earned at least £125,141 in 3 of the last 4 years (CP 1707, Table 1, page 42). This is not law yet, and the published period today is 5 years on the routes named here. See our guide to earned settlement.
Other Routes That Do Lead to Settlement
- Global Talent visa. GOV.UK says you may be able to get indefinite leave to remain after 3 or 5 years, depending on which field you work in and how you applied. See Global Talent and settlement.
- Ancestry visa. For Commonwealth citizens with a grandparent born in the UK. The visa lasts 5 years and settlement can follow.
- Family visa as a partner. Where the partner is British, Irish or settled. The 5-year partner route reaches settlement after 5 years. Under the earned settlement decision, partners of British citizens keep 5 years; partners sponsored by someone who is not British move to a longer pathway. See partners and children under earned settlement.
Switching to Skilled Worker
See our detailed Graduate to Skilled Worker guide. Key requirements:
- A qualifying job with a licensed sponsor
- Meeting the salary threshold
- The role must be on the eligible occupations list
Work Rights Compared
See our Graduate route work rights guide. On the Graduate route most jobs are open, including self-employment, without a sponsor, but the time does not count towards settlement on a work route. On the Skilled Worker route your work is tied to a sponsored job, and the time does count.
Where to Check
The register of employers licensed to sponsor workers is published on GOV.UK.
Related guides:
Questions and answers
Does the Graduate route lead to ILR?
Not by itself. The Graduate route is not a settlement route, and time on it does not count towards the qualifying period on a route such as Skilled Worker. Today, lawful time on the Graduate route can count towards the separate 10-year Long Residence route. The government announced on 2 November 2026 that the Long Residence route will close and that Graduate time will no longer count towards settlement. That is not yet in the Immigration Rules.
How can international graduates settle in the UK?
One published path is: Graduate visa, then switch to a route that leads to settlement such as the Skilled Worker visa, then apply for indefinite leave to remain after the qualifying period on that route, which is currently 5 years. The Graduate time is added on top of that qualifying period, not counted within it. Under the earned settlement decision of 2 November 2026, which is not yet law, the Skilled Worker qualifying period becomes 10 years as standard, with 5 years for people who earned at least £50,271 in 3 of the last 5 years or worked in a listed public service job.
Does time on a Graduate visa count towards ILR?
Under the current rules, it counts towards the 10-year Long Residence route only, which is based on 10 years of continuous lawful residence. It does not count towards the qualifying period on Skilled Worker or other work and family routes. The government's earned settlement response of 2 November 2026 says the Long Residence route will close and that time on temporary routes, including Graduate and Student, will not count towards settlement. The response gives no closing date and describes no transitional arrangement for people part-way to 10 years. It is not yet law.
Can I combine time on different visas for settlement?
Time on the Graduate route does not count towards the 5 years on a work route. Some other work routes can be combined with each other towards the 5 years; the Immigration Rules for each route set out which ones. Time on a Student visa does not count towards settlement on the Skilled Worker route either. Today, Student and Graduate time can count towards the 10-year Long Residence route, but the government has announced that route will close.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.