Settlement for Indian nationals

The Settlement Routes

The Immigration Rules set no different requirements by nationality. These are the published routes:

• Skilled Worker visa: After 5 years of continuous residence on a Skilled Worker visa (or the former Tier 2 General visa), you can apply for settlement on the Skilled Worker route. At the settlement stage the sponsor must confirm the applicant is still needed for the job and still paid at least the required salary, which is £41,700 a year in the general case, with the lower figures in the table at paragraph SW 24.3 for particular groups, and in every case at least the going rate for the occupation code.
• Spouse or partner visa: If you are married to or in a relationship with a British citizen or settled person, you can apply for settlement on the partner route after 5 years.
• Long residence: If you have lived continuously in the UK for 10 years on any lawful basis, you may qualify for settlement through long residence.
• UK Ancestry visa: open to Commonwealth citizens, which includes Indian nationals, who have a grandparent born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man — or, before 31 March 1922, in what is now Ireland, or on a ship or aircraft registered in the UK or belonging to the UK government. The visa costs £726, lasts 5 years, and settlement can follow after those 5 years.

Document Requirements for Indian Nationals

The documents a settlement application asks for are the same whatever the applicant’s nationality. See our settlement documents checklist for the full list. Three of them come up more often for applicants from India:

• Passport history: If you have renewed your Indian passport during your time in the UK, you need to provide all passports covering the qualifying period. Indian passports are typically valid for 10 years, but if yours was renewed, keep the old one.
• Translations: Any documents in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, or other Indian languages must be accompanied by certified English translations. This includes marriage certificates, birth certificates, and educational qualifications.
• Educational qualifications: where a qualification awarded outside the UK is used to show English language ability, a UK ENIC statement (the body was formerly called NARIC) confirms what it is equivalent to. The settlement level is B1 of the Common European Framework in speaking and listening on the routes that test it, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on Skilled Worker, Scale-up, Global Talent and Long Residence among others. GOV.UK says it is not tested again on the Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, T2 and Tier 2 routes.
• Overseas criminal record certificates: these are a requirement of certain entry clearance applications made from outside the UK, such as Skilled Worker jobs in education, health and social care. They are not part of the published settlement requirements, where the equivalent test is Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules. Good character is a separate requirement, and it belongs to British citizenship.

The Dual Nationality Question

This is decided by Indian law, not by UK law, and the Government of India is the authority on it. The UK permits dual nationality; India does not, under the Citizenship Act 1955. In outline:

• Settlement does not affect Indian citizenship. Indefinite leave to remain is a UK immigration status, not British citizenship, so the holder remains an Indian citizen with an Indian passport.
• British citizenship requires renouncing Indian citizenship: Under section 9 of the Citizenship Act 1955, Indian citizenship ceases when another nationality is voluntarily acquired. So the question arises at the point of British citizenship, not at settlement. Naturalisation costs £1,839: £1,709 to apply and a £130 citizenship ceremony fee.
• The Overseas Citizen of India card. The Government of India issues this to certain former Indian citizens and their relatives. It is not Indian citizenship. Its eligibility rules, the rights it carries and the process for obtaining it are set by the Indian authorities and should be checked with them, not with GOV.UK.

Settlement and citizenship are separate statuses with separate consequences. Our guide to what settlement allows sets out what indefinite leave to remain gives on its own: GOV.UK says the holder can work, run a business, study, use public services such as healthcare and schools, and apply for public funds and pensions.

Fees and the Health Surcharge

Settlement costs £3,226 for each person applying, and there is no fee for the fingerprints and photograph. GOV.UK lists people applying for indefinite leave to enter or remain among those who do not pay the immigration health surcharge, so none is charged on the settlement application itself — though GOV.UK says it becomes payable if the application results in a grant of limited leave instead.

The surcharge is paid on the visa that precedes settlement, at £1,035 a year at the standard rate. GOV.UK also lists “you’re applying for indefinite leave to remain” among the circumstances in which the surcharge is not refunded, so the unused part of a surcharge already paid does not come back when settlement is granted. Our guide to health surcharge refunds sets out which refunds are published.

Financial Requirements

The financial requirements at settlement are set by the route, not by nationality. On the Skilled Worker route the requirement is the salary threshold in the table at SW 24.3, confirmed by the sponsor. On the partner route the published minimum income requirement is £29,000 a year for new applications; the older figures of £18,600, with £3,800 for a first child and £2,400 for each further child up to a £29,000 cap, apply only to people extending who first applied before 11 April 2024. See our guide to the income threshold and when it changed.

Travel and Absences

Paragraph CR 3.1 of Appendix Continuous Residence sets the limit at not more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period during the qualifying period. See our guide to the travel and absence rules. Only whole days count: the Home Office guidance says part-day absences of less than 24 hours are not counted.

The application form asks for each absence, and the guidance directs decision makers to check the list against passport pages and travel documents. Where a passport carries no stamp — for example after an eGate arrival — the guidance names travel tickets and boarding passes, bank statements showing a pattern of UK payments, and employer letters as evidence of the date of entry. A separate rule applies while the application is undecided: GOV.UK says it is withdrawn if the applicant travels outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man before the decision.

Processing Times

Processing times are published by route, not by nationality. See our 2026 settlement processing times guide. GOV.UK says a decision usually follows within 6 months of the fingerprints and photograph. Two paid services are published: the priority service at £500 and the super priority service at £1,000, for a decision within 5 working days and by the end of the next working day respectively.

For the official processing time guidance, check the GOV.UK indefinite leave to remain page.

After Settlement

Two published statuses follow settlement:

• Settlement on its own. Indian citizenship and the Indian passport are retained. GOV.UK says indefinite leave to remain is lost after more than 2 continuous years outside the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man; where that happens, a Returning Resident visa, costing £726, is applied for from outside the UK.
• British citizenship. GOV.UK says an application usually follows after a minimum of 12 months holding settlement, with the residence limits of not more than 450 days outside the UK in the 5 years before the application and not more than 90 days in the last 12 months. It costs £1,839 in total. Under Indian law, acquiring it ends Indian citizenship. See our citizenship guide for Indian nationals.

For more on the general requirements and costs, visit the GOV.UK citizenship application page.

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