UK to double wait for permanent residency, with exemptions for care workers
Under new rules, most workers will have to wait 10 years to settle in the UK, but higher earners can qualify sooner.
The United Kingdom has revised its immigration rules, doubling the time most foreign workers must wait to qualify for permanent residency to 10 years and making refugees who arrive on “small boats” wait as long as 30 years.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, speaking in Parliament on Monday, said hundreds of thousands of care workers will be exempt from the hardline rules, offering a concession amid political outcry within the governing Labour Party.
Permanent residency, known in the UK as indefinite leave to remain, carries the right to work, study, use the free National Health Service and claim welfare benefits. Until now, it has been granted after five years.
Under the revised plan, care workers will be able to settle after five years if they have met the conditions of their visas and earn at least 25,000 pounds ($33,500) a year.