Settlement after 5 years, by route

Skilled Worker Route

The Skilled Worker visa is the most common work route to settlement. After 5 years of continuous residence on it you can apply for settlement.

• Qualifying period: 5 years
• Salary at settlement: the higher of £41,700 a year or the standard going rate for the job. Lower figures apply to some cases: £33,400 for a job on the Immigration Salary List, £31,300 if you were sponsored before 4 April 2024, £25,000 for eligible health and education roles paid on a national pay scale
• Your employer must confirm it: GOV.UK asks for a document from your sponsor saying you will continue to be needed for the job and will keep meeting the salary requirement. It is not a new Certificate of Sponsorship
• Predecessor route: time on Tier 2 (General) and on the other routes listed below counts
• English: GOV.UK says you do not have to prove English again — you did that for the visa
• Knowledge of life in the UK: the Life in the UK test, if you are 18 to 64

Spouse and Partner Route

The Spouse visa route takes 5 years through an initial visa and one extension.

• Qualifying period: 5 years (2.5 + 2.5)
• Financial requirement: £29,000 a year for anyone who first applied on or after 11 April 2024. People who first applied before that date stay on £18,600, plus £3,800 for a first child and £2,400 for each further child, capped at £29,000
• Relationship: Must be genuine and subsisting throughout
• English: A1 at the first application, A2 at the extension, B1 at settlement
• Knowledge of life in the UK: the Life in the UK test, if you are 18 to 64
• Absences: GOV.UK publishes no day limit for absences on this route. The 180-day rule belongs to the work routes
• Domestic abuse: there is a separate settlement route with no qualifying period for a partner whose relationship broke down because of domestic abuse. See our spouse visa guide

Ancestry Route

The UK Ancestry visa is available to Commonwealth citizens with a UK-born grandparent. It reaches settlement after 5 years.

• Qualifying period: 5 years
• No salary threshold: But you must be working or seeking work
• No sponsorship required: You are free to work for any employer
• English: B1 at settlement. The UK Ancestry visa itself has no English requirement, so this is the first time you are asked
• Knowledge of life in the UK: the Life in the UK test, if you are 18 to 64

Global Talent Route

The Global Talent visa is for leaders and emerging talent in science, engineering, arts, humanities and digital technology. Its qualifying period is shorter than 5 years for some endorsements.

• Qualifying period: 3 years if you were endorsed for exceptional talent by the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, UK Research and Innovation, Arts Council England or Tech Nation, or if you qualified through an eligible prize. 5 years if you were endorsed for exceptional promise
• No salary threshold: no minimum income requirement
• No sponsorship required: you are endorsed, not sponsored
• English: B1 at settlement
• Knowledge of life in the UK: Life in the UK test required

Innovator Founder Route

The Innovator Founder visa replaced the old Innovator and Start-Up routes. It is designed for entrepreneurs establishing a business in the UK.

• Qualifying period: 3 years. GOV.UK says you cannot count time on any other visa toward it
• Business requirements: the business must be viable, innovative and scalable
• Endorsement: you need a new endorsement showing you have met the requirements for growing the business
• English: B1 at settlement
• Knowledge of life in the UK: the Life in the UK test, if you are 18 to 64

Other Routes That Settle After 5 Years

Scale-Up Route

The Scale-up Worker visa is for people recruited by qualifying high-growth UK businesses. Settlement comes after 5 years of continuous residence. The salary figure at settlement is £39,100 a year if your most recent permission rested on a Certificate of Sponsorship assigned on or after 22 July 2025, or £36,300 if it was assigned between 4 April 2024 and 21 July 2025. GOV.UK adds that you must have been earning that amount for at least 2 of the 3 years before you apply, and that you do not have to prove English again.

Minister of Religion / Sportsperson

These routes also reach settlement after 5 years of continuous residence, with their own requirements. For an International Sportsperson GOV.UK gives a settlement salary of £35,800 a year or more; for a Minister of Religion it asks for pay in line with UK workers doing the same job, and at least the national minimum wage. You pay the immigration health surcharge on the visas that lead up to settlement, but not on the settlement application itself.

Domestic Worker Visa

There is a settlement route for an overseas domestic worker who has been a victim of modern slavery or human trafficking. Its rules differ from the work routes above, and GOV.UK sets them out separately.

10-Year Long Residence Route

If you have lived in the UK continuously and lawfully for 10 years on any combination of permissions, you can apply for settlement under the long residence rules. They moved from paragraph 276B into Appendix Long Residence on 11 April 2024.

• Qualifying period: 10 years of continuous lawful residence
• Most permissions count: Student, work, family and other leave. Time as a visitor, on a short-term study visa, as a Seasonal Worker, on a Ukraine scheme, on immigration bail, in detention or while overstaying does not
• Continuous residence: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months. For an absence that began before 11 April 2024, the older test applies instead: you break continuous residence if you were away for more than 184 days in a row, or more than 548 days in total
• English: B1
• Knowledge of life in the UK: the Life in the UK test, if you are 18 to 64
• Current permission: you need valid permission to be in the UK, and you usually need to have held it for a year

The route matters most to people whose permissions do not themselves reach settlement — long periods of study followed by work, for instance. A separate government proposal to move the standard qualifying period from 5 years to 10 is not law: the consultation on it opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026, and the responses are being analysed.

Routes That Do Not Lead to Settlement

Some permissions never reach settlement:

• Student visa: time on a Student visa does not count toward the 5 years on a work route. It does count toward the 10-year long residence route.
• Graduate route: the post-study work visa does not lead to settlement and does not count toward the 5 years on a work route. It runs for 2 years, or 3 for a PhD; for applications made on or after 1 January 2027 it shortens to 18 months, with the PhD length unchanged.
• Visitor visa: visitor time never counts, on any route.
• Youth Mobility Scheme: this route does not lead to settlement.
• Seasonal Worker: does not lead to settlement, and does not count toward long residence either.

How the Routes Differ

Four things separate one route from another:

• How long it takes: Global Talent for exceptional talent, and Innovator Founder, are 3 years. Most routes are 5. Long residence is 10. Every route also asks for the Life in the UK test if you are 18 to 64.
• Whether pay is tested: Skilled Worker and Scale-up Worker set a salary figure at settlement. UK Ancestry, Global Talent and Innovator Founder set none.
• Whether you are tied to an employer: Skilled Worker is sponsored (see switching visa categories). Global Talent and UK Ancestry are not.
• What it costs: settlement is £3,226 for each person applying, and there is no fee for giving your fingerprints and photo. Along the way you pay visa fees and the healthcare surcharge, but the healthcare surcharge is not charged on the settlement application. See our visa fees guide.

Questions and answers