Earned Settlement: consultation closed, nothing in force

In short: the Earned Settlement consultation has closed. No Immigration Rules have been laid, and the existing settlement routes continue exactly as they are.

Where it has reached

• 20 November 2025 — consultation opened
• 12 February 2026 — consultation closed
• Now — proposals published, no rules laid, nothing in force

Implementation has been discussed for autumn 2026. A proposal becomes law only when a Statement of Changes is laid before Parliament and comes into force, and that has not happened.

Why we are not writing about the detail yet

The proposals include removing the separate long residence route and changing qualifying periods. Those are consequential, and they are also proposals — detail routinely changes between consultation and rules.

Reproducing a draft as though it were settled would be worse than saying nothing, because people make decisions about applications on the strength of pages like this one. So this update reports the status, and the Earned Settlement page explains what is proposed with the same caution.

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 ten-year long residence route operates as it does today
• The five-year work routes operate as they do today
• The settlement calculators apply the rules currently in force

What we will do when it changes

Record the new rules as a new dated policy version, keep the existing one so past calculations stay reproducible, and update the Earned Settlement page with what actually changed rather than what was proposed.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Immigration Rules — Statements of Changes
• GOV.UK: Settle in the UK

This is general information, not legal advice. This page reports a status, not a prediction, and is not a basis for delaying or accelerating an application.