International social workers in the UK will still be able to settle after five years, not ten, under the Government's new earned settlement framework, according to the Home Office response to its consultation. The standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain will otherwise double from five years to ten years.

What the response says

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the final shape of earned settlement in a statement to the Commons on Monday 2 November 2026, alongside the Government response, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement (CP 1707). The response names social workers on its list of public service occupations, in Annex C, that keep a five-year route whatever they earn. The list covers health and education roles paid on national pay scales, from doctors, nurses and paramedics to teachers and head teachers, with social workers as the last entry. The response even uses a social worker as its first worked example, an individual earning below the 50,271-pound salary threshold for accelerated settlement who can still access the five-year route because social work is a qualifying public service profession.

The wider framework

Five years will also be open to people earning at least 50,271 pounds in three of the five years before they apply, and to people with recognised British connections such as the partner of a British citizen. Three years will be open to people earning at least 125,141 pounds. Separately, care workers who joined the route before the May 2025 Immigration White Paper, who earned at least 25,000 pounds a year in social care and complied with their visa conditions, keep a five-year route, while those who did not meet those conditions will be offered a further five-year care visa not tied to one employer.

Not law yet

None of this is law yet. The changes will be written into the Immigration Rules, starting with the December rules, and brought in over the course of 2027, and the detail of how the public service route will be evidenced has not yet been published. Until the rules change, the current rules continue to apply. This is general information only, not personal immigration advice: anyone affected should check the official GOV.UK pages and speak to a regulated immigration adviser about their own case, as rules change and individual circumstances differ.

Sources: Home Office, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: Government Response to the Consultation (CP 1707), November 2026; Social Work World, Social workers keep a five-year route to settlement under the new ILR rules, 4 November 2026; VWV, Earned Settlement: what employers need to know, 4 November 2026.