In short: the Government's response to A Fairer Pathway to Settlement says that time spent on temporary routes will not count towards the qualifying residence period for settlement. That includes the Temporary Worker routes. The separate Long Residence route will close, so time on a temporary route can no longer build towards settlement by adding up to ten years.
Status: the response was presented to Parliament in November 2026 as Command Paper CP 1707. It is the Government's policy, not Immigration Rules, and it says further guidance will be published before implementation. Until a Statement of Changes is laid and comes into force, the rules in force when you apply are the ones that govern your application.
The principle
The response puts it plainly: temporary routes should remain temporary. It says these routes were established for specific temporary purposes and were not intended to provide a pathway to permanent residence in the UK. Someone who comes to study, to do a temporary period of work or for another time-limited purpose "should not build up a right to permanent settlement simply through the passage of time".
The routes that will not count
- Visit
- Student
- Global Business Mobility
- Temporary Worker routes
- Youth Mobility
- Seasonal Worker
- Overseas Domestic Worker
- Graduate and High Potential Individual
- Ukraine Scheme routes — the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Ukraine Extension Scheme and the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme
- Leave Outside the Rules (LOTR)
The routes that will count
Only time on specified routes intended to support long-term residence will count:
- longer-term work, talent and family routes, referred to as core permission
- specified talent and innovation routes, referred to as the high talent group
- Family and Private Life
- Core Protection Work and Study
- Core Protection
- Safe and Legal routes
Not every route qualifies for every pathway. To qualify through a particular pathway you must hold permission on a route that is eligible for it. For example, Family and Private Life permission will not qualify someone for the three- or five-year pathways, though those applicants may qualify through the ten- or twenty-year pathways.
Long Residence will close
Under the current rules, a person can qualify through the Long Residence route after ten years of continuous lawful residence, and time on most routes can count towards that — including temporary routes such as Student and Graduate.
The earlier consultation proposed that there should no longer be a separate Long Residence route. The response confirms it: "the Long Residence route will close." Time on temporary routes will no longer build towards settlement simply because someone later reaches ten years of lawful residence. Our Long Residence page describes how the route works today.
Combining time on different routes
Time on protection or human-rights routes (for example refugee or Article 8 routes) cannot be combined with time on work or family routes to meet the qualifying period. When someone moves between these routes, the qualifying period for the new pathway starts when they move onto it. The response says this prevents people "topping up" time on one type of route with time on a fundamentally different one.
Two footnotes worth reading
- Leave Outside the Rules. The response recognises that some people have been granted leave outside the Immigration Rules, and that it may not always be clear whether this was meant to provide a pathway to settlement. It says the Government will give further consideration to this group and set out its approach "in due course".
- Ukraine schemes. The Ukraine schemes are on the list, with a footnote saying this reflects the Government's commitment to the Government of Ukraine.
What the transitional arrangements cover
Chapter 8 of the response sets out one-off transitional arrangements for three groups: care workers who entered or switched into the route before the May 2025 White Paper, health and education workers below RQF 6 on national pay scales who arrived before it, and a pre-April 2024 Skilled Worker cohort. It does not set out separate arrangements for people on temporary routes.
What governs your application today
The rules in force when you apply. If you are counting towards settlement now, you are counting under the current rules. The Long Residence calculator applies the rules currently in force. See our Earned Settlement page.
Sources
- GOV.UK: A Fairer Pathway to Settlement — Government response to the consultation, CP 1707 (PDF) — Chapter 4 "Residence", pages 18–23, including footnotes 11 and 12; Chapter 8, pages 37–41
- GOV.UK: Immigration Rules — Statements of Changes
- GOV.UK: Settle in the UK
This is general information, not legal advice. This page reports a policy response, not a prediction, and is not a basis for delaying or accelerating an application.