Skilled Worker<\/a> (or Health and Care Worker, T2, or Tier 2) visa holder must have lived and worked in the UK for 5 years, and continue to meet salary requirements, to qualify for ILR. That 5-year figure has not changed to 10 years. A Skilled Worker visa itself can run for up to 5 years before an extension is needed, and it is after those 5 years that an eligible holder can apply to settle.<\/p>\nYou can apply for ILR as early as 28 days before you complete your 5 years \u2014 applying earlier than that risks refusal. Your current visa must not expire before you apply; if it is close to running out, you renew it first.<\/p>\n
Salary rules run right through to the ILR decision, not just at the start. Generally you need to be earning at least \u00a331,300 a year, or \u00a325,000 a year if your job is on the Immigration Salary List (or was, when you were first sponsored on it), or the “lower going rate” for your occupation \u2014 whichever applies to your case. Sportsperson and minister of religion sub-routes have different, higher thresholds, and there are transitional rules for anyone sponsored before 4 April 2024. Your employer also needs to confirm, in writing, that your job is still needed \u2014 both to qualify for ILR and after you receive it.<\/p>\n
Applicants aged 18 to 64 must also book and pass the Life in the UK Test. On the current rule, you do not need to prove your English separately at ILR stage, because you already proved it when you applied for your visa \u2014 though that is about to change (see below).<\/p>\n
The ILR application fee is \u00a33,226 per person. There is no biometrics fee, and standard decisions usually arrive within 6 months of your biometrics being taken. Optional priority services cost an extra \u00a3500 (5 working days) or \u00a31,000 (super priority). Unlike a work visa application, you do not pay the Immigration Health Surcharge when applying to settle permanently \u2014 the surcharge applies to limited, temporary leave, not to ILR.<\/p>\n
Where the “10-year rule” headlines come from<\/h2>\n
In November 2025 the government opened a public consultation called “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement,” setting out its “Earned Settlement” reform plans. The proposal would raise the standard qualifying period for ILR from 5 years to 10 for most migrants, 15 years for roles below RQF level 6 (most jobs that do not require a degree), and longer still for some other categories. It also proposed reductions for some groups: a 5-year reduction for people who spend 3 years earning above the higher-rate tax threshold of \u00a350,270, a 7-year reduction for 3 years above the additional-rate threshold of \u00a3125,140, a period as short as 3 years for Global Talent and Innovator Founder visa holders and entrepreneurs, and 5 years for frontline public service workers such as doctors, teachers and nurses.<\/p>\n
None of that is in force. The consultation closed at 11:59pm on 12 February 2026, and the government confirmed it received more than 200,000 responses. Its own news story on 5 March 2026 says those responses “are being considered carefully before further reforms are brought forward” \u2014 language that describes a policy still under review, not a rule that has been made. A later Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, HC 259, took effect on 3 August 2026 and amended several parts of the rules, but its own list of changes makes no reference to the 5-to-10-year qualifying period. The official gov.uk collection of 2026 Statements of Changes lists only two documents \u2014 HC 1691 and HC 259 \u2014 and neither implements the 10-year change. In a speech on 5 March 2026, the Home Secretary described the move to 10 years as something that “should” happen “as a norm,” and as an “intention, subject to consultation” \u2014 future, conditional wording, not an announcement that it had happened.<\/p>\n