Proposed Earned Settlement vs the Current Settlement Rules
One side of this comparison is the published Immigration Rules. The other is a consultation document. Read it as a comparison between what is in force and what has been put forward, not between two sets of rules.
- Section
- Costs, English & General
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Last checked
- 20 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
- Nothing in the proposal is law. The settlement rules published on GOV.UK today are unchanged.
- The consultation proposes adjusting the qualifying period in years. It does not propose awarding points.
- The proposed baseline is 10 years, with shorter and longer periods for named groups. Today the qualifying period is 5 years on most work and family routes.
- The consultation gives no start date, and this guide does not estimate one.
- Whether anyone already partway through a qualifying period would be covered is an open question in the consultation, not an answer.
Settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain, is currently reached by completing a qualifying period on a qualifying route and meeting the published requirements. The government has proposed replacing that with an earned settlement model, in which a baseline qualifying period is made shorter or longer by a person's circumstances. The consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and GOV.UK says the responses are being analysed. Nothing in the proposal is in force. This guide sets the published rules beside the published proposal and marks which is which.
Read This Comparison Carefully
Only one column of this comparison is a rule. The current settlement requirements are published in the Immigration Rules and are what a decision made today is taken against. The earned settlement model is a consultation document: a set of options the Home Office asked for views on. It has no start date, no draft rules and no government response.
Our timeline of the earned settlement proposal sets out what has been published and when.
The Settlement Rules That Apply Today
Settlement is reached route by route, and the requirements differ by route. GOV.UK lists the routes on its indefinite leave to remain page. Taking the Skilled Worker route as the example, GOV.UK's settlement page for that route requires:
- 5 years lived and worked in the UK on a qualifying visa. The earliest an application can be made is 28 days before the 5 years are complete.
- No more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period. This is the work-route rule. Read the absence rule in full before applying it to another route: GOV.UK publishes no day limit for the 5-year partner route.
- Continuing to meet the salary requirement for the route, confirmed by the employer.
- A pass in the Life in the UK test for anyone aged 18 to 64.
- Meeting the suitability requirements of the Immigration Rules.
On the Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, T2 and Tier 2 routes GOV.UK states plainly: “You do not need to prove you meet the English language requirements when you apply to settle”, because the level was already proved for the visa. On routes where English is proved again at settlement the level is B1, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the routes named in the statement of changes HC 1691. See our guide to the B2 English requirement.
The fee is £3,226 for each person applying, and GOV.UK says a decision usually comes within 6 months of giving fingerprints and a photograph. Our breakdown of settlement costs sets out what else is and is not payable.
The good character requirement people often expect here belongs to citizenship, not settlement. Settlement applications are refused on the suitability grounds in the Immigration Rules instead.
What the Consultation Put Forward
Everything in this section comes from A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, the consultation that ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026. None of it is in force, and the government has not said which of the options it will take.
The model described is a time adjustment, not a score. A baseline qualifying period of 10 years would be made shorter or longer by a person's circumstances. Shortenings put forward include tax paid on income above £50,270 and again above £125,140; partners and children of British citizens and people on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) route; the Global Talent and Innovator Founder routes; English at C1, above the required level; specified public service work; and sustained volunteering.
Lengthenings put forward include claiming public funds, entering the UK illegally or overstaying, and a longer baseline of 15 years for work at skill levels 3 to 5 rather than degree level.
The consultation also proposes requirements that would apply to everyone: English at B2, a pass in the Life in the UK test, no relevant criminal record, and earnings above £12,570.
Several guides on this site describe the proposal in the language of points — the scheme in outline, employment, integration and public service. Read them against this page: the published consultation adjusts years.
Side by Side
In every row below, the first line is a published rule and the second is a consultation option.
Qualifying period
In force: 5 years on most work and family routes, 3 years on Global Talent and Innovator Founder, 10 years on the long residence route.
Proposed: a baseline of 10 years, shortened or lengthened by the factors above. No accelerated route has been defined and no threshold has been published.
How the decision is structured
In force: the requirements are met or they are not. There is no scoring and no ranking.
Proposed: the same pass-or-fail requirements, with the length of the qualifying period varying by circumstance.
English language
In force: B1 where English is tested again at settlement, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the routes named in HC 1691. Not retested on the Skilled Worker route.
Proposed: B2 for everyone, with C1 named as one of the factors that would shorten the qualifying period.
Income and employment
In force: continuing to meet the salary requirement of the route being settled from.
Proposed: earnings above £12,570 for everyone, with tax paid above £50,270 and £125,140 named as factors that would shorten the qualifying period.
Volunteering and public service
In force: not part of the settlement requirements.
Proposed: sustained volunteering and specified public service work are named as factors that would shorten the qualifying period. Which roles would count has not been published.
Life in the UK test
In force: required for ages 18 to 64.
Proposed: required for everyone. The consultation does not restate the age range.
Conduct
In force: the suitability requirements of the Immigration Rules.
Proposed: no relevant criminal record, with illegal entry and overstaying named as factors that would lengthen the qualifying period. Separately, the good character guidance for citizenship was revised on 10 February 2025, which is a different requirement on a different application.
Absences
In force: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period on the work routes. GOV.UK publishes no day limit for the 5-year partner route.
Proposed: the consultation publishes no absence figure, so this guide gives none.
Fee
In force: £3,226 for each person applying, with no charge for fingerprints and a photograph.
Proposed: no fee has been published for the proposed model.
What Has Not Been Decided
The consultation asks questions as well as setting out options, and the answers are not published. In particular:
- Whether there would be transitional arrangements for people already partway through a qualifying period.
- Which of the shortenings and lengthenings would survive into a rule, and by how many years each would move the period.
- What evidence would be accepted for volunteering, public service or contribution.
- When any of it would start.
Rowan does not tell anyone what to do about an unmade rule, and it cannot say which set of requirements would apply to a particular person. The settlement requirements published today are what an application made today is decided against.
Where a Change Would Appear
- The earned settlement consultation page — the government response is published here when it exists
- The Immigration Rules and the statements of changes listed alongside them
- The GOV.UK indefinite leave to remain pages, which carry the requirements in force
Questions and answers
Have the settlement rules changed?
No. The rules published on GOV.UK today are the rules an application made today is decided against. The earned settlement consultation closed on 12 February 2026 and GOV.UK says the responses are being analysed. No government response has been published and no changes to the Immigration Rules have been laid before Parliament.
Is the proposal a points system?
The published consultation does not propose awarding points. It proposes a time adjustment model: a baseline qualifying period that a person's own circumstances would make shorter or longer. The phrase points system has been attached to it in news coverage, but what was published adjusts years.
Would the qualifying period rise from 5 years to 10?
That is proposed, not decided. The consultation names a baseline of 10 years, with shorter periods for some groups and longer ones for others. It is a consultation option. The qualifying period in the published rules today is 5 years on most work and family routes, 3 years on some, and 10 years on the long residence route.
Would the Life in the UK test and the English requirement still apply?
The consultation proposes that a pass in the Life in the UK test, English at B2 and no relevant criminal record would apply to everyone. Under the rules in force today the Life in the UK test applies to people aged 18 to 64, and English at settlement is B1, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the routes named in the statement of changes HC 1691. That B2 change is already law with a future start date and is separate from the consultation.
Which set of rules would apply to someone partway through?
That has not been decided. The consultation asks for views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for people already on a pathway to settlement. No transitional policy has been published, and this guide cannot say which rules would apply to any individual.
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.