Britain set to make it harder for migrants to get permanent residency

By Joe Mayes

 

The UK is drawing up plans to make it harder for migrants to get permanent residency in Britain, as Keir Starmer’s government tries to show progress on cutting immigration.

 

Under the current system, migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK after they have lived and worked there for five years. The government is planning to extend that period to as long as 10 years for some migrants, with the measure due to be included in a package of reforms soon to be published by the Home Office, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

The plan was first reported by the Financial Times on Wednesday evening.  

 

Taking a tougher stance on immigration has become a priority for Starmer as he tries to respond to the electoral threat from Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, which has been riding high in the polls and enjoyed a surge in local election results last week.

 

In November last year, Starmer said he wanted to see immigration “come down significantly” and that the previous Conservative administration had “failed” on the issue, after the UK saw net migration of a record 906,000 people in the 12 months through June 2023, and then another 728,000 people for the year through June 2024.

 

When someone has the status of “indefinite leave to remain” in Britain, they no longer have a time limit on how long they can stay in the country and they can access benefits like use of the National Health Service and welfare. It also opens a path to British citizenship. 

 

 

The Home Office declined to comment on specific measures but said in a statement that its upcoming reforms would “set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system, linking immigration, skills and visa systems to grow our domestic workforce, end reliance on overseas labour and boost economic growth.”