{"id":62690,"date":"2026-06-14T11:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/62690\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T11:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:40:08","slug":"ive-lived-in-uk-for-more-than-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/62690\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve lived in UK for more than 10 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019 settlement rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Government has proposed doubling the wait for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)<\/a> from five to 10 years and that those applying must pass a Life in the UK test on British culture, history and society. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Jamaican national, 59, is a healthcare assistant whose children and grandchildren are British citizens. <\/p>\n

She is eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), <\/a>having completed a 10-year route to settlement, but now fears that her learning disability means she wouldn\u2019t be able to pass a Life in the UK test.<\/p>\n

The grandmother-of-three, who has received Universal Credit since 2018, is worried she will be left \u201ctrapped\u201d on a temporary visa status, a charity assisting her has said.<\/p>\n

If Mahmood\u2019s changes are implemented and applied retrospectively, she would face an extension of up to 10 years on her wait for ILR.<\/p>\n

She said she is extremely worried about Home Office plans to tighten the rules and says it has impacted her mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m finding it hard, day by day. There\u2019s no enjoyment. Everything is pressure,\u201d she told The i Paper.<\/p>\n

She has renewed her status through Leave to Remain applications every two and a half years.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the charity said she \u201cremains trapped\u201d on temporary immigration status, and can\u2019t go on holiday with her family due to her situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than recognising her decades of contribution, the Government\u2019s proposed \u201cearned settlement model\u201d will effectively punish her by cancelling her eligibility for settlement and forcing her to wait another decade in limbo,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The grandmother said: \u201cThe thing that troubles me now is sometimes I want to go out with my grandkids to spend one holiday with them. I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahmood\u2019s reforms have sparked revolt within the Labour Party, with Angela Rayner <\/a>branding them \u201cun-British\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes as record numbers of migrants<\/a> apply for British citizenship ahead of the Government\u2019s clampdown on settlement rights.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Another 331,000 applied for ILR in the two years to March \u2013 a record high and a 28 per cent jump on the previous two years.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Shabana Mahmood has unveiled sweeping changes to future settlement rights (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz\/Future Publishing via Getty)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s planned overhaul \u201cunfair and inhumane\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Concerns over the Government\u2019s planned overhaul of settlement rights led her to apply for British citizenship after Mahmood\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, I didn\u2019t feel the need to apply because I could potentially live in the UK as long as I want, I\u2019ve got settled status,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now with the earned settlement proposal, and the fact that they\u2019re basically planning to introduce retrospective changes, I was like, you know what, I don\u2019t feel that secure any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Home Secretary has confirmed that changes to ILR will apply retrospectively to those already in the UK, which Giuliato described as \u201cchanging the rules of the game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are saying: \u2018What we said before, it doesn\u2019t matter any more. If we\u2019re introducing this proposal, and if this proposal becomes law, then there are these new requirements that you\u2019re going to need to satisfy,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019If you don\u2019t 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.’\u201d<\/p>\n

One of their clients is a single mother of three children, one of whom is disabled, who cancelled her eight-year-old daughter\u2019s \u00a3103.10 a week disability allowance as well as her housing benefit and Universal Credit due to concerns over the reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe earned settlement proposals don\u2019t just raise the bar for settlement \u2014 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\u2019ve grown up in the UK,\u201d Giuliato said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foreign nationals who have lived in the UK for more than a decade fear they could be denied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1766,3709,434,5,6],"class_list":["post-62690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-home-office","tag-migrants","tag-shabana-mahmood","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116748276571813707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}