UK drops 15-year settlement wait for migrant care workers already in country

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has dropped plans to make migrant care workers already living in the country wait up to 15 years to obtain permanent settlement, following opposition within her Labour Party, Anadolu Agency reported.

Under the revised proposals, care workers who arrived in the UK before May 2025 and earn at least £25,000 ($34,000) a year will remain eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years.

Mahmood has also scrapped the proposed 15-year wait for low-income workers, reducing their qualifying period to 10 years.

The changes scale back her earlier proposal to extend the current five-year settlement period to 10 years. The measure was introduced in response to a period of high net migration.

The initial plans faced opposition within the governing Labour Party, particularly over extending the settlement requirements to migrant workers already living in the UK.

The opposition Conservative Party criticized any potential easing of the proposals, describing it as a “slap in the face to British taxpayers.”

Indefinite leave to remain, also known as settlement, allows people to live, work and study in the UK without a time limit. It also enables them to apply for benefits if they meet the relevant eligibility requirements.