Immigration: Foreign workers planning to settle in UK face tougher new requirements

*UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood declares the foreign workers will have to wait 10 years, instead of five, to apply to stay long-term, and must meet a set of conditions, from making national insurance contributions to learning English to ‘a high standard’ and volunteering for local charities

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Foreign workers in the United Kingdom (UK) will need twice as long to quality for permanent residency, Labour announced Monday, September 29, 2025.

ConsumerConnect gathered that migrants would be need to pass a “series of new tests” to prove they can be good citizens in the country.

In remarks concerning the development at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood Monday said that people would have to earn the right to claim indefinite leave to remain, which would give them access to certain welfare benefits, the ability to work in the country, and a path to citizenship, agency report said.

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They also will have to wait 10 years, instead of five, to apply to stay long-term and must meet a set of conditions, from making national insurance contributions to learning English to “a high standard” and volunteering for local charities.

She also stated: “Because the truth is, across this country, people feel like things are spinning out of control.

“When they hear of widespread illegal working, under-cutting British workers, they feel the system is rigged.”

The huge rise in legal migration under the last Conservative government, combined with record numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats, has propelled migration to the top of the political agenda.

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Reform UK earlier September announced it would get rid of the ILR status, and instead make workers apply for a five-year renewable visa.

The Labour government, report noted, is under pressure to respond as it finds itself outflanked by Nigel Farage’s Reform in the polls.

The policy shift on the wait time for permanent residency was set out in a White Paper May this year by her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, who’s now the UK Foreign Secretary.

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