New immigration rules have been announced which will make it faster and more affordable for migrant children and young adults living in the UK to become settled. The introduction of these rules is a major victory for CCLC, young migrants, and children’s rights campaigners.
The new rules, which will be effective on 20 June 2022, replace the old ten-year route to settlement for migrants relying on their human rights to live lawfully in the UK. This change will come into force just before the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the ten-year route – a process which CCLC has fought against since its introduction in July 2012 and which we have long argued is punishingly lengthy, expensive, bureaucratic and an injustice to the migrant children, young people and families who had to live within it.
Changes to the immigration rules for children and young adults include:
- Many UK-born children will become eligible for immediate settlement. Children born in the UK will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain aged seven, subject to residence and reasonableness conditions
- Non-UK born children and young adults can apply for settlement after five years rather than ten. This concession for young adults was announced in October 2021, but the new rules significantly broaden those eligible to settle after five years to include all children on the private life route.
- Children and young adults will be able to apply for longer periods of leave. Children and young adults on the private life route will be able to apply for permission to stay for five years, rather than only for two and a half years as at present.
These changes are the result of both public campaigning by We Belong, CCLC and others, and of CCLC’s participation in the current Home Office Simplification of the Immigration Rules taskforce. Our membership of this taskforce continues, and from within it CCLC will continue to fight for the rights of children and young people.
These new rules will be life-changing for so many thousands of children and young people who have grown up in the UK and who call it home. CCLC is so proud to have contributed to making the UK immigration system more humane and more affordable for migrant children and young people.
Read the Ministerial announcement on these rules changes here
Read CCLC’s 2019 report on the impact of the ten-year route on children and young people: This is my Home
Read CCLC’s joint submission (with We Belong) to the Law Commission on the Immigration Rules here
Read the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules here: Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules – HC 1118 (publishing.service.gov.uk) (page 173 onwards)
