British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has scrapped plans to require foreign care workers already in the UK to wait 15 years before becoming eligible for permanent residence.
Mahmoud had proposed doubling the waiting period to obtain an indefinite residence permit, from five years to ten years for most immigrants, extending to 15 years for some of them.
But after objection from a number of Labor MPs, Mahmoud amended her policy, so that care sector workers who earn at least £25,000 a year and arrived in the UK before May 2025 will remain eligible for permanent residency after five years.
The Conservative Party said Mahmoud's "reversal" of her decision would cost taxpayers billions of pounds.
Indefinite residence, also known as permanent residence, gives the holder the right to live, work and study in the UK for as long as they wish, and to receive government benefits if they are eligible. It also allows him to apply for British citizenship.
Last November, Mahmoud announced plans to extend the waiting period to obtain permanent residency, in response to concerns about the number of people close to meeting the conditions for obtaining it, in the wake of recording record levels of net immigration after Britain’s exit from the European Union, during the era of the previous Conservative government, in a wave dubbed the “Boris Wave.”
In response to a question from the BBC whether she had reneged on her previous pledges, Mahmoud said: “I do not agree to that,” adding that about 500,000 people in the United Kingdom “will now not be able to obtain permanent residency after five years.”
She added: "They will have to wait longer before they can obtain permanent residency in this country, and I have come up with a fair solution for workers in the care sector."
Under the changes, people with an annual income of less than £50,000 will have to wait ten years to obtain permanent residency, unless they are covered by an exemption.
Mahmoud also told MPs that the government would allow care sector workers who “answered our call when we needed them” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to obtain permanent residency after five years.
Mahmoud said: “Therefore, workers in the social care sector who earn £25,000 annually, which is the requirement stipulated in their visas, will be able to obtain permanent residency according to the current five-year path.”
She added that care sector workers who do not meet the conditions for their visas can apply for another five-year visa, and then request permanent residency after that period has expired.
MPs were also informed that:
- High-income earners whose salaries exceed 50 thousand pounds sterling annually, as well as workers who have contributed to the health and education sectors, such as doctors and teachers, will be able to obtain permanent residency after five years.
- Higher earners, who earn more than £125,000 a year and are subject to the highest tax bracket, will be able to apply for permanent residency after three years.
Refugees who arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel in small boats or through other illegal routes will have to wait 20 years if they are working or studying, and 30 years if they are not working or studying.
“Our changes ensure that people whose contributions exceed their resources are encouraged to come and stay in this country,” Mahmoud said.
She added: “As a result, the Department for Work and Pensions estimates that our reforms will result in a multi-billion pound reduction in the social benefits bill.”
In a statement before the British House of Commons, Mahmoud said that obtaining permanent residency “should not be automatic, but must be earned through merit.”
The Home Secretary confirmed that a number of categories will remain subject to the current pathways for obtaining permanent residence, including holders of the status of British citizens abroad from Hong Kong, members of the armed forces, people with links to Britain, and those included in the old immigration pathways, including the “Windrush” programme.
The original version of the plans announced by Mahmoud last year would have delayed 799,000 people obtaining permanent residency. But under revised plans announced on Monday, that number will fall to 517,000 people.
Among those affected by these changes is Ashfaq Junaid, a Bangladeshi chef working in Birmingham, who told the BBC that he was “crying” when he learned that his waiting period for permanent residency will now extend until 2033.
How much will the new changes cost?
The Home Secretary refused to reveal the cost of canceling her plans.
When the original plans were put forward in March, the Home Office used data from the committee that advises ministers on immigration to estimate that the rules then in place would cost £4.2 billion. This figure represents the estimated lifetime cost of 117,000 foreign care workers who were expected to gain permanent residence in the UK between 2026 and 2030. The Department estimated that this cost would rise to £9.5 billion when including dependent adult family members. Mahmoud told the BBC that the revised plans would save “billions” of pounds, partly because workers in other sectors would still have to wait longer. But she explained that an impact assessment including cost details would be published in a later announcement. She also declined to clarify whether Prime Minister Andy Burnham had asked her to change her approach to proposals she had put forward under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, saying only that the consultation process had resulted in a fair settlement. The Conservative Party said its "reversal" of the decision would cost the state billions of pounds. The Home Office announced that its figures show that net migration, that is, the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the country, has led to an increase in the UK’s population by about 2.6 million people between 2021 and 2024. The Ministry estimates that between 1.3 million and 2.2 million people will obtain permanent residency in the United Kingdom between 2026 and 2030, noting that its likely estimate has risen to 1.9 million people. The Home Secretary has faced criticism for proposing to apply the changes to migrant workers already in the UK, with Housing Secretary Angela Rayner previously saying it would be a “game changer”. A number of Labor MPs also described applying the changes retrospectively as “contrary to British values”, warning that it could exacerbate the shortage of skilled workers in the UK, especially in the care sector. “We feel like we are back to square one.”
A number of Arab immigrants in Britain, who spoke to BBC News Arabic, expressed their dissatisfaction with the new changes to the conditions for obtaining permanent residency, warning of their impact on their future and the stability of their families. Among them is Zeina, a Sudanese mother of three who arrived in the UK three years ago. She was supposed to obtain permanent residency in Britain five years after her arrival in the United Kingdom, but now, under the new decisions, she will have to wait another seven years for her and her children to be able to obtain asylum. Zeina describes the new decisions as “unjust,” saying: “We received the new decisions with great disappointment, because they may serve a specific group of immigrants, who are those with high incomes.” She added: "As for those like me, they will not be included in the new decisions. I am a mother of children, one of whom has special needs and needs my presence with him constantly." Zeina fears that she and her children will have to wait an additional seven years to obtain permanent residency, after she expected to obtain it five years after her arrival in Britain. An Egyptian immigrant who preferred to remain anonymous shared her concern, and described the decisions as “a kind of deception,” considering that they threaten the future of an entire family, not a single individual. She says her family was about to complete the five years required to obtain permanent residency, but "all plans changed overnight." She adds that the family is now considering the possibility of moving to a Gulf country, instead of waiting an additional five years, saying: “Britain is no longer an attractive country for us anyway. The general situation is not impressive, and it is not worth waiting for more years.” As for Muhannad, a 42-year-old Sudanese father of three children, he said that he and his family arrived in Britain in 2019, after a long journey that began from Libya, passing through Italy, in search of security and stability. He says: "The decision came to destroy our dreams and everything in our lives... We feel as if we have returned to square one." He adds: "Yes, here in Britain there is security, but there is also great psychological pressure, and we consider ourselves locked in a prison for life." Muhannad is currently living in a temporary refugee shelter, and fears that the new changes will prolong his family’s wait for permanent residency, or that they will be asked to return to Sudan if the British authorities consider the situation there to be safe. He says: “Asylum seekers are a weak group, already exhausted by wars, so why are decisions like this implemented to be more harsh on them? We ask for mercy on our situation.” For his part, Ahmed, a Yemeni immigrant, says that he no longer sees a future for him in Britain after the announcement of the new changes, considering that it seeks to exclude large numbers of immigrants, especially asylum seekers who are already suffering from great psychological and social pressures. Criticisms and warnings
Imran Hussain, of the Refugee Council, said plans to require people who entered the UK illegally or via the English Channel on small boats, and are not working or studying, to wait 30 years for permanent residency were “unfair and unworkable”. He added: “The most equitable reforms would be to make quick and high-quality decisions on asylum applications, while helping refugees who have been granted protection to rebuild their lives and contribute to society, and helping those who are not entitled to remain to leave the country in dignity.” For the Conservative Party, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said that opposition from Mahmoud's colleagues in government and "the left wing of the Labor Party calling for open borders" had led to an amendment to her original proposals, adding that she was "no longer the one running the government's immigration policy." Phillip highlighted figures released in March, which showed that Home Office calculations indicated an estimated lifetime cost of £9.5 billion to taxpayers. He added: "Viewing immigration as simply a matter of aggregate numbers and images of arrivals on small boats undermines this country's ability to have the informed national debate we need." For his part, the leader of the British Reform Party, Nigel Farage, said that Mahmoud "revealed her true face." He added: "She made big statements about immigration, but retreated from her position at the first signs of objection from her colleagues on the left wing of the Labor Party." Farage pointed to Home Office estimates that more than 200,000 migrants who arrived in the UK on work visas in the health and care sectors will be eligible for British citizenship before the next election, and claimed that this would cost taxpayers £50 billion over their lifetime. He pledged to review the citizenship status of all those arriving on work visas in the care sector, starting today, and to extend the period of residence required to obtain citizenship to at least ten years. Green Party MP Sian Perry said that Mahmoud has presented immigrants residing in the United Kingdom with “a new series of obstacles and barriers that they must overcome.” On Monday, the Institute for Public Policy Research said that skilled workers and their dependent family members, who would be expected to gain permanent residency in the UK under current rules, would contribute a net £115bn over their lifetime through the taxes they pay.
