The UK Government published White Paper in May 2025, where it proposed several changes to settlement and citizenship pathways. Later in November 2025, the Home Office released a consultation paper, and the consultation process ran for 12 weeks. 

The process that began on 20 November 2025 ended yesterday on 12 February 2026 which is said to be received around 130,000 submissions by the last week of the consultation.

The consultation process was about how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented. 

The proposed changes include: 

• Doubling the standard qualifying period for ILR or settlement from 5 years to 10 years. 

• Introducing an “earned settlement” model, where the new baseline of 10 years can be decreased or increased depending on a person’s contribution to the UK’s economy and society.

Status of the consultation on ‘earned settlement’

The government’s consultation process on how the current settlement system should be reformed and implemented based on the new ‘earned settlement’ model has formally closed on 12 February 2026. It is being said that it has marked a significant milestone in what may prove to be one of the most substantial reforms to UK immigration law in recent years.

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that the consultation received around 130,000 submissions by the last week of the consultation.

What happens next? 

Consultation feedback will now be analysed by Government officials, and this can take several weeks, after which they will inform the final policy decisions and drafting of changes to the Immigration Rules.

The Home Office is expected to set out its preferred approach in a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, likely to be laid before Parliament in March 2026, as part of the normal legislative process.

Any new rules agreed post consultation are expected to be rolled out in a phased manner starting April 2026. However, those dates remain subject to change and formal announcements.

Responses from Public & Stakeholders

Organisations and civil society bodies such as the Law Society emphasised that any model that is finalised must be applied fairly and not retrospectively, avoid undermining the UK's global competitiveness, and be consistent with equality and administrative fairness principles.

Also yesterday, on 12 February 2026, a joint letter that was signed by 35 Labour MPs, 17 MPs from other parties, 21 peers, and 33 civil society organisations urged the Home Secretary to rule out applying the proposals to migrants who are already living in the UK. The signatories cautioned that doing so would be unfair to people who have already established their lives in the UK and made significant contributions to the country. 

On the other hand, employer groups like NHS Employers and other stakeholders highlighted their concerns about the proposal’s implications for the workforce, its fairness, and transitional protections.

Several other analysts have also underlined the potential social impacts, for example, on families and children, if qualifying periods for settlement are extended and transitional safeguards are limited. 

Government Position

The Home Secretary has said to the MPs that they want to go from a baseline 5-year qualifying period to 10 years, which they are not consulting on. She indicated that they intend to proceed with the earned settlement model, although aspects like transitional arrangements and retrospective application remain under review. 

On 12 February 2026, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated that certain changes could be implemented more swiftly because decisions on elements such as the English language requirement had already been taken. The consultation is intended to examine how reforms should be applied to different cohorts, and whether transitional arrangements, exemptions, or a new way of designing the system is needed to address issues that will arise as a result of the consultation. The Home Secretary added that full impact assessments, especially on equality, can only be carried out once the policy is finalised, after which the system will need to be structured to cope with the new changes.

The Home Secretary is confident that it can be done. 

About the impact on children, the Home Secretary said that children in care and those who arrived in the UK unaccompanied had been taken “out of scope of the consultation”, and that the commitments set out in last year’s immigration White Paper for children who had grown up in the UK without status would remain unchanged under the new proposals.

However, she made clear that broader questions about how children should be incorporated into an earned settlement framework were still open. She added that ministers would “look very carefully” at how both younger and older children should be treated within the redesigned system.

Things to Watch in the Coming Weeks

One can expect official Government updates, official announcements, or a policy summary from the Home Office in March 2026 or soon after the consultation analysis is complete.

Proposed changes through the Statement of Changes will be scrutinised in Parliament, and adjustments can happen during the scrutiny.

Following the consultation results, transitional and retrospective arrangements are likely to be central in policy debates, especially for those already on settlement pathways.