What is Indefinite Leave to Remain or Permanent Residency in the UK?

Reviewed by: UK Visa Jobs Editorial Team | Estimated reading time: 19–21 minutes

Indefinite Leave to Remain, usually shortened to ILR and often called permanent residency, is permission to live in the United Kingdom with no time limit and no visa to renew. You can work for anyone, change jobs without telling the Home Office, study, start a business, and leave and re-enter the country freely. You no longer need a sponsor.

It is the point at which your right to be in the UK stops depending on an employer.

One thing has to be said before anything else. Today, most sponsored workers reach ILR after five years. On 2 November 2026 the Government confirmed that the standard qualifying period will rise from five years to ten, with faster routes for higher earners and some public service occupations. That decision is published policy, not yet law, and no commencement date has been named for any part of it.

So this guide does two separate jobs. First it explains what ILR is and what the rules actually are today, because those are the rules an application made now is decided under. Then it explains what the Government says will change, and how to work out where you are likely to stand. If you want the detail of the announcement itself, we cover it separately in what the new rules mean for you.

In This Article

• What indefinite leave to remain actually is
• What ILR gives you that a work visa does not
• ILR, settled status and citizenship are three different things
• The rules in force today
• What the Government says will change
• How the earnings test actually works
• Which routes count towards settlement, and which count for nothing
• Care workers and the May 2025 cut-off
• After ILR: British citizenship
• How a sponsored job fits into all of this
• Frequently asked questions
• Final thoughts

What indefinite leave to remain actually is

ILR is a grant of immigration permission with no expiry date. Every work visa is temporary: it is tied to a sponsor, it runs for a fixed period, and it has to be extended. ILR ends that cycle.

Once you hold it you are described as "settled" in the UK. You are not a British citizen, you do not hold a British passport, and you cannot vote in general elections. But you can stay indefinitely, and nobody can require you to leave because a job ended.

The practical change most people notice first is that the renewal calendar disappears. No visa expiry date to plan around, no Immigration Health Surcharge on each extension, no sponsor who has to keep confirming they still need you.

ILR can be lost

"Indefinite" does not mean unconditional. If you spend more than two continuous years outside the UK, ILR lapses and you have to apply to return as a returning resident. It can also be revoked, for example following a serious criminal conviction or deportation action.

This matters for anyone who takes an overseas posting after settling. Two years away is the line to watch.

What ILR gives you that a work visa does not

The difference is bigger than "no more renewals", and it is worth being specific about it.

Your job stops being your immigration status

On a sponsored visa, losing your job starts a clock. You have a limited window to find another licensed sponsor or leave. With ILR you can resign, be made redundant, take a career break, go freelance or start a company, and none of it touches your right to be here.

That also changes your bargaining position. A sponsored worker who cannot easily move is in a weaker negotiation than one who can.

You stop paying to stay

Visa extensions and the Immigration Health Surcharge add up over a five or ten-year period, often to several thousand pounds per person and more for a family. ILR is a single fee, after which those renewal costs stop.

Access to public funds and student finance

Most work visas carry a "no recourse to public funds" condition. ILR removes it, subject to the ordinary eligibility rules for each benefit. Settled status also generally opens access to home fee status and student finance for university, which is a substantial difference for families with teenagers.

It is the gateway to citizenship

With very limited exceptions you cannot apply to naturalise as a British citizen without first being settled. ILR is the step before that.

ILR, settled status and citizenship are three different things

These get used interchangeably, and they are not the same.

Indefinite Leave to Remain is settlement granted under the Immigration Rules, which is the route almost all sponsored workers take.

Settled status is the equivalent granted under the EU Settlement Scheme to EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members who were resident before the end of the Brexit transition period. It does the same job; it is reached by a different scheme.

British citizenship is nationality, not immigration permission. It brings a passport, the right to vote, and the fact that it cannot lapse through absence. It normally comes at least twelve months after ILR.

The rules in force today

Everything in this section is current law. If you are applying now, this is what your application is assessed against. The settlement pages on GOV.UK are the authoritative source and fees change in April most years.

How long you need

On a Skilled Worker visa, Health and Care Worker, T2 or Tier 2 visa, you must usually have lived and worked in the UK for five years. The same five years applies on a UK Ancestry visa and on the BN(O) route.

Some routes are shorter. A Global Talent visa or an Innovator Founder visa can qualify after three years. Legacy Tier 1 visas are two or three years.

Ten years of continuous lawful residence currently qualifies you through the long residence route, regardless of which visas made up those ten years. The Government has said this route will close, which we come back to below.

The 180-day absence rule

You must not have spent more than 180 days outside the UK in any twelve-month period of your qualifying time. This is assessed across rolling twelve-month windows, not calendar years, which catches people who take one long trip spanning a year end.

Keep your own record of travel dates from the day you arrive. Reconstructing five years of movements from passport stamps later is miserable, and it is the most common avoidable reason a settlement application runs into trouble.

Salary and sponsorship, for sponsored workers

You must still meet the salary requirement at the point you settle, and your sponsor must confirm in writing that they still need you in the role. On the Skilled Worker route, the general floor is the higher of £41,700 a year or the going rate for your occupation, and a number of sectors and occupations have their own thresholds. Check the GOV.UK guidance for Skilled Worker settlement against your own occupation code rather than assuming the general figure applies.

This is the requirement people forget. Five years in the UK is not enough on its own if the salary test is not met on the day you apply.

Life in the UK Test and English

If you are aged 18 to 64, you must pass the Life in the UK Test. It is 24 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes; you need 75% to pass, and you can retake it.

Skilled Worker applicants do not generally need to prove English again at settlement, because it was proved at the visa stage. If you are unsure which level you were assessed at, our guide on how to prove your English language ability covers the accepted tests and exemptions.

Timing, fees and the application itself

You must be in the UK to apply, and you cannot apply more than 28 days before completing your qualifying period. Applying early gets the application refused, and the fee is not fully recoverable, so count carefully.

The fee is £3,226 per person as of 8 April 2026. A priority decision costs £500 more and super priority £1,000 more. Standard decisions usually take up to six months.

Do not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man while the application is pending. Leaving can be treated as withdrawing it.

What the Government says will change

On 2 November 2026, the Home Office published its response to the Earned Settlement consultation. The headline is that the starting point for settlement rises from five years to ten.

This is not law. It is a policy document. The Immigration Rules are expected to start being laid in the December 2026 Statement of Changes and to be implemented across 2027, but the response itself names no commencement date for anything, and the timetable has already slipped once. The Government has committed to publishing technical guidance and a full impact assessment before implementation.

Treat what follows as the Government's stated intention. The architecture has been stated consistently since May 2025 and is very likely to happen in some form. The dates, and the transitional detail that decides how your existing years are treated, are much less certain.

Four qualifying periods are proposed, each with an earnings test measured over a look-back window.

Three years

For what the response calls exceptional economic contribution: earnings above £125,141 in three of the last four years, or membership of the Highest Talent Group. The Home Office expects around 27,000 Skilled Workers to reach settlement this way between 2026 and 2030.

Five years

Three separate ways in. Earnings above £50,271 in three of the last five years. Or five years working in one of 31 listed public service occupations. Or a recognised British connection.

The occupation list is restricted to roles at degree level and above, and includes doctors, all registered nurse categories, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, radiographers, paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists, primary, secondary, further education, nursery and SEND teachers, head teachers and social workers. Care workers and support workers are not on it. Around 86,000 Skilled Workers are expected on this pathway.

Ten years

The new default. Earnings above £12,571 in five of the last seven years. The Home Office expects around 146,000 Skilled Workers here, which is more than the three and five-year pathways combined.

Twenty years

For people with an immigration breach in their history, or who have relied on public funds. Using public funds in the five years before applying moves you to this pathway.

The thresholds move

All three earnings figures are pinned to income tax bands, so they rise when those bands rise. A salary that clears a threshold comfortably today may clear it narrowly in five years. Watch the margin, not just the number.

What earnings cannot buy

Several requirements apply to everyone regardless of salary. No criminal record at all, which includes fines, cautions and community sentences and is considerably harsher than the current approach. No outstanding debt to the government, covering NHS charges, tax, National Insurance and Home Office litigation costs. English at B2 level. The Life in the UK Test. And evidence of sustained contribution.

The B2 requirement is the one part already written into the Immigration Rules. Statement of Changes HC 1691, laid on 5 March 2026, sets B1 for applications made before 26 March 2027 and B2 for those made on or after it. If your English is at B1 and you may apply after that date, that is a concrete thing to act on now. C1 was considered and buys nothing. A volunteering credit was consulted on and dropped.

Assessment is on your best years

The earnings tests count your strongest years within the look-back window, not an unbroken run. Periods of maternity leave, caring responsibility or illness do not reset your progress. This is a deliberately forgiving piece of design, and it matters more than it sounds.

How the earnings test actually works

This is the part that causes the most confusion, so it is worth working through properly. "Three of the last five years" is a rolling test, not a sequence you complete and then bank.

Two conditions have to be true on the day you apply. You have completed the qualifying period on a route that counts. And three of your most recent five years cleared the threshold.

Because the window slides forward with you, a salary rise part-way through does not have to wait for a fresh five-year run.

A worked example

Take someone on a Skilled Worker visa earning £40,000 for their first three years, who is promoted at the start of year four to £60,000.

At the end of year five, their last five years are years one to five. Only years four and five cleared £50,271. That is two qualifying years, and the test needs three. They do not qualify on the five-year pathway.

At the end of year six, the window has moved to years two to six. Years four, five and six all cleared the threshold. That is three, and they qualify.

So the answer is six years in total, not five and not ten. The three years at £40,000 did not count towards the earnings test, but they were not wasted either: they formed part of the qualifying period while the higher-earning years accumulated behind them.

The general rule

If your salary crosses the threshold at the start of year N, your third qualifying year completes at the end of year N plus two. You settle at whichever is later: year five, or year N plus two.

A rise in year two or three gets you there at exactly five years. A rise in year four costs you one extra year. A rise in year six costs you three.

Missing the mark does not reset you

There is no penalty period in the five-year pathway. Falling short at year five means applying at year six, not waiting another five years.

What puts you on a longer road is never meeting the test at all. If your earnings do not reach three qualifying years, you are on the ten-year default with its much lower £12,571 threshold. That is the longer route, not a punishment for a near miss.

Which routes count towards settlement, and which count for nothing

This is the most damaging part of the announcement for the people it affects, and it is getting the least attention.

The Government says time on the following routes will count for nothing towards settlement: Student, Graduate route, High Potential Individual, Youth Mobility Scheme, Seasonal Worker, Global Business Mobility, Overseas Domestic Worker, Visit, the Ukraine schemes, and leave outside the rules.

Time on those routes used to reach settlement through the ten-year long residence route. With that route closing, it no longer leads anywhere on its own.

Routes that do count include Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Global Talent, Scale-up, Innovator Founder, International Sportsperson, UK Ancestry, Tier 2 Minister of Religion, family partner and parent routes, and the stateless route. Work-route time cannot be combined with protection or Article 8 private life time.

The practical consequence for an international student is blunt. Three years of study and two years on the Graduate route is five years of lawful residence that, under the proposals, contributes nothing. The settlement clock starts when you move onto a sponsored work visa. Getting onto one sooner is worth more than it used to be.

Care workers and the May 2025 cut-off

Care workers are treated separately, and the date that matters is the May 2025 immigration White Paper.

If you entered or switched into the care route before that point, you keep the five-year path, provided you meet the salary requirement of £25,000, remain sponsored and meet the employment conditions. If you do not meet them at five years, the response describes a further five-year Health and Care visa restricted to genuine care work, with no recourse to public funds throughout, after which you can try again.

If you switched in after May 2025, you are on the standard ten years.

Below-degree-level health and education roles on national pay scales, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, keep five years only if they were already in the UK before May 2025. That is a one-off transitional arrangement, not a continuing pathway. A fifteen-year pathway for these workers was consulted on and dropped; they are on ten years.

One further protection is proposed. From 1 February 2027, a care worker whose sponsor loses its licence gets 120 days to find a new job offer and 180 days in total to regularise their position, which is longer than other sponsored workers get. Our guides on care worker sponsorship and healthcare jobs with sponsorship cover the current state of that route.

After ILR: British citizenship

Settlement is usually not the final step. To apply for British citizenship by naturalisation, you normally need to have held ILR or settled status for twelve months. If you are married to a British citizen, you do not have to wait the twelve months.

You also need five years of residence in the UK before the application date, and you must have been physically in the UK exactly five years before the Home Office receives it. Absences are capped at 450 days across those five years and 90 days in the final twelve months.

The fee is £1,839, made up of £1,709 to apply and a £130 citizenship ceremony fee.

Unlike ILR, citizenship cannot lapse because you spent too long abroad. For anyone whose career is likely to involve overseas postings, that is the main argument for naturalising rather than stopping at settlement.

How a sponsored job fits into all of this

Every route to settlement that is open to someone without family in the UK or substantial capital runs through a sponsored job. That is the honest summary.

Two things have to be true for a job to work, and they are separate. You have to be eligible for the visa, and the employer has to be willing and licensed to sponsor you. Plenty of people meet the first condition and apply exclusively to employers who will never satisfy the second.

Under the proposed rules, two further things become worth weighing when you compare offers.

Salary trajectory now has an immigration value, not just a financial one. The difference between an offer that reaches £50,271 in year three and one that reaches it in year six is, on the worked example above, three years of your life.

Occupation matters as much as pay. A role on the 31-occupation public service list reaches five years regardless of salary. For a nurse, teacher or social worker, the occupation itself is the fast pathway.

You can browse sponsored vacancies from licensed UK sponsors on UK Visa Jobs, filtered by the sponsorship status of the employer rather than by what a job advert claims.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the ten-year rule in force now?

No. The Government confirmed the policy on 2 November 2026, but the Immigration Rules have not been changed to implement it. Rules are expected from the December 2026 Statement of Changes and across 2027. Applications made now are decided under the current five-year framework.

I already have four years on a Skilled Worker visa. Do I start again?

No. Nothing in the response suggests existing qualifying time is cancelled, and the Home Office's own projections assume current visa holders are allocated to the new pathways. What is genuinely uncertain is how the transition is handled in detail. The recent precedent in HC 1691 keyed its change to the date of application and protected applications already lodged, which points towards protection, but nobody can say so with confidence yet. The uncertainty is an argument for applying as early as you lawfully can.

Does my time as a student count?

Under the current rules, it can contribute towards ten years of long residence. Under the proposals, it counts for nothing, and the long residence route closes. Your settlement clock would start when you move onto a qualifying work route.

What happens if I miss the salary threshold in one year?

Nothing is reset. The test looks at your best three years within the last five, so a single weaker year does not undo your progress. You may simply qualify a year later than you otherwise would.

Do I need to prove English again at settlement?

Not generally on the Skilled Worker route today, because it was proved at the visa stage. Under the proposals, B2 becomes a settlement requirement in its own right, and HC 1691 already sets B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027.

Can my partner and children settle with me?

A partner who arrived with you is expected to settle at the same time as you. A partner who arrived later completes their own full qualifying period. Children under 18 are exempt from the income, debt, English and Life in the UK requirements. Dependants aged 18 to 24 who hold child-dependant status settle with the family without an income test, but from 25 you must qualify in your own right. Couples can combine income to reach a household figure of £25,142.

How much does ILR cost?

£3,226 per person as of 8 April 2026, with optional priority services at £500 and £1,000 extra. Each family member pays separately, which is what makes settlement expensive for a family of four.

Can I lose ILR once I have it?

Yes. More than two continuous years outside the UK causes it to lapse, and it can be revoked following serious criminality or deportation action. British citizenship does not lapse through absence, which is one reason many people go on to naturalise.

Final Thoughts

ILR is the point at which your presence in the UK stops being conditional on an employer, and that is why it is worth planning for deliberately rather than arriving at by accident.

The rules today still give most sponsored workers a five-year path. The Government has confirmed it intends to make ten years the default, with faster pathways for higher earners and for a defined list of public service occupations. That is not yet law, no commencement date has been published, and the transitional detail is the least settled part of it.

Three things follow from that, whatever the final rules say. Keep an exact record of your absences from the day you arrive. If your English sits at B1 and you may apply on or after 26 March 2027, deal with that now. And if you are choosing between job offers, weigh salary trajectory and occupation as immigration decisions and not only financial ones.

For the details of the 2 November announcement, read what the new rules mean for you. The Earned Settlement consultation page and the full government response are the primary sources, and both are worth reading directly rather than through summaries.

About This Guide

This guide explains the current settlement rules and the Government's published intentions as at 3 November 2026. Current rules are drawn from GOV.UK; the proposed changes are drawn from the Government response to the Earned Settlement consultation, published 2 November 2026. Fees and salary thresholds are reviewed by the Home Office, usually each April, and the earnings thresholds in the proposals are pinned to income tax bands and will move with them.

Disclaimer

UK Visa Jobs is a job board and information service. We are not immigration advisers and nothing here is legal advice. The Earned Settlement proposals described above are not law, no commencement date has been published, and the detail may change before implementation. Always check your own position against GOV.UK and, before relying on any of this for an application, consult a regulated immigration adviser.