Foreign nationals who have lived in the UK for more than a decade fear they could be denied permanent citizenship due to a Government crackdown on migrants’ settlement rights.
The Government has proposed doubling the wait for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five to 10 years and that those applying must pass a Life in the UK test on British culture, history and society.
Meanwhile, migrants who claim state benefits for more than 12 months would face a 20-year wait for ILR, which is also a key step towards being able to gain British citizenship.
One grandmother who has lived in the UK for 27 years fears the changes planned by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will delay her bid for permanent residence by another decade.
The Jamaican national, 59, is a healthcare assistant whose children and grandchildren are British citizens.
She is eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), having completed a 10-year route to settlement, but now fears that her learning disability means she wouldn’t be able to pass a Life in the UK test.
The grandmother-of-three, who has received Universal Credit since 2018, is worried she will be left “trapped” on a temporary visa status, a charity assisting her has said.
If Mahmood’s changes are implemented and applied retrospectively, she would face an extension of up to 10 years on her wait for ILR.
She said she is extremely worried about Home Office plans to tighten the rules and says it has impacted her mental health.
“I’m finding it hard, day by day. There’s no enjoyment. Everything is pressure,” she told The i Paper.
She has renewed her status through Leave to Remain applications every two and a half years.
But her last renewal was submitted in April 2024 and a decision has not yet been received, said charity Refugee and Migrant Justice, which is assisting her.
A spokesperson for the charity said she “remains trapped” on temporary immigration status, and can’t go on holiday with her family due to her situation.
“Rather than recognising her decades of contribution, the Government’s proposed “earned settlement model” will effectively punish her by cancelling her eligibility for settlement and forcing her to wait another decade in limbo,” a spokesperson said.
The grandmother said: “The thing that troubles me now is sometimes I want to go out with my grandkids to spend one holiday with them. I can’t.”
Mahmood’s reforms have sparked revolt within the Labour Party, with Angela Rayner branding them “un-British”.
It comes as record numbers of migrants apply for British citizenship ahead of the Government’s clampdown on settlement rights.
More than 312,000 refugees, migrant workers and their dependents applied for citizenship in the year to March, according to Home Office data, double the number from eight years ago and the highest on record.
Another 331,000 applied for ILR in the two years to March – a record high and a 28 per cent jump on the previous two years.
Shabana Mahmood has unveiled sweeping changes to future settlement rights (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty)
Alice Giuliato, 39, an Italian national living in the UK for 12 years who has settled status as an EU citizen under post-Brexit rules, branded the Government’s planned overhaul “unfair and inhumane”.
Settled status is essentially the same as ILR, meaning she has the permanent right to live, work and study in the UK without any time limits. However, that could be revoked if she were to spend more than two years outside the UK or were convicted of a serious crime.
Concerns over the Government’s planned overhaul of settlement rights led her to apply for British citizenship after Mahmood’s announcement.
“Before, I didn’t feel the need to apply because I could potentially live in the UK as long as I want, I’ve got settled status,” she said.
“But now with the earned settlement proposal, and the fact that they’re basically planning to introduce retrospective changes, I was like, you know what, I don’t feel that secure any more.”
Giuliato is a caseworker with the charity Refugee and Migrant Justice and says around 90 per cent of the people they are helping would be affected by the changes.
The Home Secretary has confirmed that changes to ILR will apply retrospectively to those already in the UK, which Giuliato described as “changing the rules of the game”.
“They are saying: ‘What we said before, it doesn’t matter any more. If we’re introducing this proposal, and if this proposal becomes law, then there are these new requirements that you’re going to need to satisfy,’” she said.
“’If you don’t satisfy them, then instead of 10 years of continuous lawful residence, you may need to wait 20 years, or you may actually never be able to settle.’”
One of their clients is a single mother of three children, one of whom is disabled, who cancelled her eight-year-old daughter’s £103.10 a week disability allowance as well as her housing benefit and Universal Credit due to concerns over the reforms.
“The earned settlement proposals don’t just raise the bar for settlement — they pull the ladder up behind people who have already spent years contributing to this country, including parents of British children and young adults who’ve grown up in the UK,” Giuliato said.