Earned Settlement and Public Service Jobs: What Is Proposed
The earned settlement consultation proposed changing how long people wait for settlement, with public service among the things that could shorten the wait and the skill level of the job among the things that could lengthen it. This guide sets out what the document said, and is careful to say what it is: a closed consultation with no rule behind it.
- Section
- Costs, English & General
- Reading time
- 8 min
- Last checked
- 15 March 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
- None of this is law. The qualifying period for settlement has not changed.
- It is not a points system. The consultation described a time adjustment model.
- Proposed: a 10-year baseline, minus 5 years for 5 years in a specified public service occupation.
- The public service reduction was proposed for roles at RQF level 6 or above.
- Proposed: 15 years where the person was sponsored in a role below RQF level 6, which includes care worker roles.
- No list of qualifying public service occupations has been published.
The consultation proposed a 10-year baseline qualifying period for settlement, with a reduction of 5 years for 5 years in a specified public service occupation at RQF level 6 or above, and an extension to 15 years for people sponsored in roles below RQF level 6. It is not a points system and it is not law. It ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and GOV.UK says the responses are being analysed.
What This Page Is About
On 20 November 2025 the Home Office opened a consultation called Earned settlement, published alongside a statement called A fairer pathway to settlement. It closed at 11:59pm on 12 February 2026. GOV.UK says of it: “We are analysing your feedback.”
A consultation is a set of questions about what the government is thinking of doing. It changes nothing. The qualifying period for settlement today is the one in the current Immigration Rules, and an application made today is decided against those rules. Nothing on this page describes a requirement you have to meet.
It is also worth naming what the proposal is not. It is not a points system. The consultation described a time adjustment model: a baseline number of years, with named circumstances that would subtract years or add them, and only the largest reduction and the largest increase counting on any one application.
What Was Proposed for Public Service
The consultation proposed a baseline qualifying period of 10 years, up from the current 5, with adjustments either way.
Among the proposed reductions was: an applicant who “has been employed in a specified public service occupation for 5 years” would have 5 years taken off the baseline. The document gave “medical and teaching professionals working in public services” as its examples, and said the reduction was aimed at skilled occupations, meaning RQF level 6 or above.
Two things about that were left open, and both matter more than the headline.
- No list exists. The consultation did not publish a list of specified public service occupations. Which jobs would count was itself one of the things being consulted on.
- The skill level does the work. The reduction was framed around roles at RQF level 6 or above. That is the same threshold that has applied to new Skilled Worker applications since 22 July 2025, and it excludes a good deal of the workforce that people picture when they hear “public service”.
The Part That Cuts the Other Way
The same document proposed lengthening the qualifying period for people sponsored in less skilled roles. It proposed “extending the baseline qualifying period to 15 years where the worker has been sponsored for a role skilled below RQF Level 6 (for example, under the Skilled Worker and Health and Care routes)”.
Care worker and senior care worker roles, occupation codes 6135 and 6136, sit below RQF level 6. On the face of the consultation, a sponsored care worker would be in the 15-year group rather than receiving a public service reduction. That is the reverse of how this proposal is often summarised, and it is worth reading the document itself rather than a report of it.
The Health and Care Worker route has already narrowed independently of any of this. GOV.UK now lists occupation codes 6135 and 6136 as available only when extending, updating or switching into the visa, not for a new application. See our guide to the care worker route.
The Other Proposed Adjustments
For context, these were the other adjustments the consultation put forward. Only the largest reduction, and separately the largest increase, would apply to any one application.
Proposed reductions from the 10-year baseline:
- 3 years as a Global Talent or Innovator Founder migrant: 7 years off
- Income of £125,140 or more for 3 years: 7 years off
- Income of £50,270 or more for 3 years: 5 years off
- 5 years in a specified public service occupation: 5 years off
- Partner, parent or child of a British citizen: 5 years off
- British National (Overseas) status: 5 years off
- Community volunteering: between 3 and 5 years off
- English at C1 level: 1 year off
Proposed increases to the baseline:
- Sponsored in a role below RQF level 6: baseline of 15 years
- Receipt of public funds for less than 12 months: 5 years added
- Receipt of public funds for 12 months or more: 10 years added
- Illegal entry, entry as a visitor, or overstaying by 6 months or more: up to 20 years added
The consultation also proposed a 20-year baseline for people recognised as refugees after the change, and 10 years for people arriving through an official resettlement programme.
Who the Proposals Were Said to Cover
The consultation said the new arrangements were intended to apply to “everyone in the country today who has not already received indefinite leave to remain”, and that people close to qualifying “would be subject to the new requirements for settlement, as soon as our immigration rules have changed”. People already granted settlement would keep it.
That is a stated intention in a consultation document. What the rules will actually say, if they change at all, is not known, because no statement of changes has been laid and no start date has been announced.
What the Rules Say Today
The requirements that apply to a settlement application made now are unchanged and are set out on GOV.UK’s indefinite leave to remain pages: the qualifying period for the route, continuous residence, the knowledge of language and life requirement in Appendix KoLL, and the suitability requirements.
One settlement change has been made law and is worth separating from the proposals. The English level in Appendix KoLL rises from B1 to B2 for settlement and citizenship applications made on or after 26 March 2027, under statement of changes HC 1691. That one has a date. See our guide to the B2 transitional rules.
Records that a settlement application asks for are the same as they have always been: evidence of continuous residence, the permission held across the qualifying period, and the documents listed for the route in the settlement documents checklist.
Related Guides
Questions and answers
Would NHS workers settle sooner under the proposals?
The earned settlement consultation proposed a reduction of 5 years from a 10-year baseline for an applicant who has been employed in a specified public service occupation for 5 years, and named medical and teaching professionals as examples. It also said the reduction would apply to roles skilled at RQF level 6 or above. No list of qualifying occupations was published, no rule has been laid, and the consultation closed on 12 February 2026 with the responses still being analysed.
Is this a points system?
No. The consultation set out a time adjustment model, not a points score. It proposed a baseline qualifying period with named circumstances that would subtract years from it or add years to it, and said that only the largest reduction and the largest increase would apply to any one application.
What did the consultation propose for care workers?
The opposite of a reduction. It proposed extending the baseline qualifying period to 15 years where a worker has been sponsored for a role skilled below RQF level 6, and gave the Skilled Worker and Health and Care routes as examples. Care worker and senior care worker roles sit below RQF level 6. This is the part of the proposal most often reported the wrong way round.
Does any of this apply to my application now?
No. The qualifying period for settlement has not changed. An application made today is decided under the Immigration Rules in force today. The consultation document did say the proposals were intended to reach people already in the UK who have not yet been granted settlement, but that is a statement of intent in a consultation, not a rule.
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.