Care worker exemption announced

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has reduced the waiting time for care workers who arrived on health and social care visas during the Boriswave from 2022 from fifteen years to five years.

Conditions for care worker settlement

Lower-qualified care workers must meet their visa conditions and earn at least twenty five thousand pounds a year to qualify for the five year settlement period.

Default waiting period doubles

For most workers, the default qualifying period for settled status will double from five to ten years and will no longer be automatic but must be earned.

Boat arrivals face longest waits

Those arriving on small boats must wait twenty years for settlement, rising to thirty years if they do not enter work or study, the government says to encourage safe legal routes.

High earners get faster access

Those earning at least one hundred twenty five thousand one hundred forty one pounds a year can settle within three years.

Diane Abbott warns of Windrush repeat

Labour MP Diane Abbott said the changes still seem unfair because people can come legally, work legally, then have residency rights turned upside down.

“you can come in legally, you can work legally, and then have residency rights turned upside down. How can that be fair?”

Amnesty says policy moves goalposts

Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK said the home secretary tells people to play by the rules then moves the goalposts when they do, prolonging uncertainty for families.

“The home secretary tells people to play by the rules, then moves the goalposts when they do.”

Charity calls policy inhumane

Kamena Dorling of the Helen Bamber Foundation said extending the qualifying period to twenty years for refugees who did not arrive through safe legal routes is simply inhumane.