Almost 300,000 foreign care workers will be spared a proposed extension to the settlement waiting period after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood altered the Government’s immigration plans following opposition from Labour MPs.
The revised measures represent a significant retreat from proposals published last year, under which foreign workers would have faced much longer waits before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Of the 1.9 million foreign nationals expected to become eligible for settlement by 2030, around 500,000 will now face a longer route under the new scheme.
About three-quarters of foreign care workers — more than 282,000 people — will retain the existing five-year qualification period for indefinite leave to remain.
Those who fail to meet the requirements after five years will be offered a further five-year visa, giving them another opportunity to qualify for permanent residence.
Concessions in revised settlement rules
The package also includes concessions for other groups of workers and shorter settlement waiting periods for some refugees.
The five-year route will remain open to foreign nationals in lower-qualified public sector roles, including teaching assistants, podiatrists and nursing auxiliaries.
Other workers in lower-skilled jobs will no longer face the 15-year wait previously set out by Ms Mahmood. They may instead qualify for settlement after ten years.
The changes come months after the Home Secretary warned that abandoning the original proposals could create a “£10billion drain on public finances” as foreign workers gained full access to welfare and social housing.
She had also argued that weakening the plans would be “an affront to the idea of fairness within our society” and place “further strain on public services like housing and healthcare”.
However, the proposals were rewritten after resistance from Labour’s Left-wing. Angela Rayner described the original measures as “un-British” in March, when she was a backbencher, and has since returned to the Cabinet under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The revised immigration measures will be introduced in stages from next year. All applicants for indefinite leave to remain will still have to meet key conditions, including having no criminal record and being able to speak English.
