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Migrants in the UK would need to wait longer before they could apply to make their residency permanent under plans being drawn up by the government as part of a crackdown on foreigners coming to work in Britain.
The measure to make it harder for some migrants to apply for indefinite leave to remain is set to appear in a Home Office immigration white paper, an impending package of reforms intended to limit arrivals, according to people familiar with the matter.
Britain’s political establishment has been rocked by the rise of Nigel Farage’s rightwing populist Reform UK party, which last week dealt electoral blows to both the ruling Labour party and Conservative opposition in English local elections.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has been charged with putting together a package of measures that Labour hopes will show voters it is getting to grips with immigration levels, which hit a record high of more than 900,000 in the year to mid 2023 under the previous Tory government.
Curbs on work and study routes introduced since then have already led to sharp falls in the number of new arrivals, but the Office for Budget Responsibility still expects net migration to settle at about 340,000 in the medium term, well above previous historical averages.
At present, most people who come to the UK on time-limited visas can apply for indefinite leave to remain after they have lived and worked in the country for five years. The permanent status opens up eligibility for benefits and a path to citizenship.
Ministers are preparing proposals that could extend this period to as long as ten years for some migrants, for example where there were questions over their financial status or whether they had spent too much time outside the UK since arriving, the people familiar with the matter said. Tougher language requirements are also under consideration.
The Labour plan echoes a policy set out by the Conservatives on Wednesday under which they would double the residency requirement from five to 10 years for migrants applying to remain indefinitely.
The Tories would also introduce a binding legal cap on annual migration, and exempt all immigration matters from the need to comply with the Human Rights Act.
A move to make it harder to settle will be a sharp break with previous UK government policies designed to help migrants integrate and find work that matches their skillset, while giving them a stake in British society.
Some academics have argued that making it harder to achieve settlement rights would leave more people in insecure immigration status, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation without necessarily bringing down the net migration figures.
A Home Office spokesperson declined to comment on plans to change the conditions concerning indefinite leave to remain, but said the immigration white paper would “set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system”.
Other measures in the white paper are expected to make it harder for international students to get jobs if they remain in the UK after graduation.
There will also be a clampdown on the abuse of care visas and closer links between employers’ access to visas and the actions they take to train UK workers.
