# Britain doubles wait for migrants to gain permanent residency

> The government will require most immigrants to wait ten years for permanent settlement, though high earners and key workers face shorter timelines.
- Title: Britain doubles wait for migrants to gain permanent residency
- Summary: The government will require most immigrants to wait ten years for permanent settlement, though high earners and key workers face shorter timelines. Britain…
- Keywords: shabana mahmood, immigration policy, permanent residency, britain, labour party, migration, work visas, politics, news, doubles, wait, migrants
- Source: The Independent — https://independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-party-people-european-union-shabana-mahmood-care-workers-b3077800.html
- Published: 2026-11-02T17:22:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: shabana mahmood, immigration policy, permanent residency, britain, labour party, migration, work visas, politics, news
## Britain doubles immigrant wait times
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced Monday that most immigrants on work visas must wait a decade for permanent residency, which grants the right to work, study, access free health care and claim benefits.
## Higher earners and key workers get faster paths
People earning at least fifty thousand pounds a year will wait five years, as will public-sector workers including doctors, nurses and teachers. Those earning above one hundred twenty-five thousand pounds can apply after three years.
## Care workers get five-year eligibility
Care workers will be eligible for settlement after five years if they earn at least twenty-five thousand pounds a year. The median UK salary is about thirty-nine thousand pounds a year.
## Mahmood links settlement to contribution
Mahmood told lawmakers her parents came from Pakistan half a century ago because they knew Britain values fair play. She said it is her responsibility to ensure the migration system lives up to that ideal.

> It is my responsibility to ensure our migration system lives up to that ideal.
## Refugees face much longer waits
Refugees who did not come by safe and legal routes must wait up to twenty years for permanent settlement. Those who arrived by small boat face a thirty-year wait.
## Critics say policy ignores falling migration
Net migration fell from nine hundred thousand in the year ending June twenty twenty-three to one hundred seventy-one thousand in the year to December twenty twenty-five.
## Key takeaway

Britain will double the time most immigrants must wait for permanent residency to ten years, with exemptions for high earners and essential workers, starting in twenty twenty-seven.