Our ILR calculator will help you model your employees’ path to settlement under the Home Office’s new proposals
The UK’s immigration landscape is on the brink of its most significant overhaul in decades.
The Home Office is proposing a shift to an ‘earned settlement model’. This will double the standard five-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and create a more complex, contribution-based pathway.
HR teams in the UK now need to shift their operational thinking away from manual visa renewals and toward a proactive workforce settlement strategy.
Under the new proposals, settlement will no longer be an automatic right based solely on time spent in the UK. Instead, it will be “earned” through four pillars: character, integration, contribution, and residence.
This shift creates immediate challenges for your budgeting, plus compliance and retention strategies:
The new framework is fiendishly complicated, so automatic accuracy is your strongest asset. Your sponsored staff on qualifying visas will now face varied pathways to indefinite leave to remain. These can’t be easily tracked on spreadsheets.
That’s why we’ve created a specialised, free ILR Calculator to simplify this complexity for UK employers.
The ILR eligibility calculator helps you model how the Home Office’s proposals would impact individual staff. It evaluates the relevant visa route, the period spent in the UK lawfully, absences, salary criteria and other qualifying factors to determine how close each sponsored employee is to indefinite leave to remain under the proposed Home Office rules.
Auditing your current Skilled Worker visa cohort or planning long-term employee compliance? This tool will show you how close each employee is to settlement – and what factors are holding them back.
Note: the calculator refers only to the Home Office’s proposals, and not to the current reality. The proposals are currently under consultation and have not yet become law. You can submit evidence to the consultation here. The calculator does not constitute legal advice, so stay up to date with official UK government guidance and consult our qualified immigration lawyers for further information.
Try the Centuro Global ILR Calculator today
The Earned Settlement model is a proposed overhaul of the UK settlement system. It would shift indefinite leave to remain from a mainly time-based route to one where individuals earn settlement through factors such as their continuous period of residence, social contribution, economic activity, integration and good character.
The proposed changes would affect any migrant whose current visa grants ILR eligibility after five years, especially Skilled Workers and other long-term visa holders. Changes to the ILR route may impact sponsored employees, dependants, and anyone moving between visa categories.
The model focuses on four pillars: continuous residence, economic contribution, integration and good character. Applicants may need to demonstrate proficiency in English, a consistent employment record, community engagement and compliance with immigration rules. The ILR calculator will model all these factors and provide the earliest date each staff member can expect to become eligible for continuous lawful residence.
HR and mobility teams can use the ILR calculator to understand when sponsored employees are likely to gain ILR eligibility under the new proposals. This supports long-term retention planning, informs budgeting and allows employers to plan succession and training more effectively.
Most ILR applications require a valid passport, biometric residence permit, evidence of continuous residence, records of absences from the UK, proof of earnings where applicable, confirmation of English language ability and a Life in the UK Test pass certificate. Required documents vary depending on the visa route.
Yes. If fully adopted, the Earned Settlement model will replace the current time-based ILR eligibility system with a new criteria-based route. Transitional arrangements may apply for those already on their settlement journey.
Family members and other dependants would still be eligible for settlement. But they may need to meet their own eligibility requirements around contribution, immigration history and residence under the new system. This could create different timelines compared with current rules.
Most routes to ILR grant 180 days of permitted absences in any rolling 12-month period during the qualifying residence. Exceeding this limit means your ILR clock resets, breaking continuous residence unless specific exceptions apply.
The Life in the UK Test assesses knowledge of British history, culture and values. Most applicants for indefinite leave to remain must pass the test unless they qualify for an exemption based on age, medical conditions or visa category.
ILR applications are normally assessed against the rules in force at the time of application. Changes to policy may affect eligibility criteria, salary thresholds or qualifying periods. Employers and applicants should review timelines regularly and plan ahead in case new rules are introduced.
Visa switching is possible, but not all time spent on previous visas will count toward ILR. Sometimes, visa switching can reset the qualifying period, and different visas carry different rules on whether timelines can be combined. This should be assessed carefully before making a change.
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