Routes to permanent status of ten years and more are not in children’s interests, says CCLC, as the Home Office today announces its response to its consultation on “earned settlement”, set out in November 2025 proposing waits for permanent status of up to 30 years.
It is expected to announce that many visa-holders who came to the UK on the expectation of a five-year route will see the rules change for them and their wait extend to ten years or more. The ten-year route is likely to affect skilled workers earning under around £50,000 and care workers, who had previously been facing a 15-year route.
CCLC has argued that it is not right that children reaching settlement – and enjoying the opportunities it affords – will be based on parental income. This runs counter to wider Government ambitions for children, including tackling educational inequalities and child poverty.
The original proposals included penalties for immigration breaches and for claiming benefits that would result in 30-year routes. Under these proposals, some people would never settle at all due to proposed mandatory income and suitability requirements. This could mean children, including British children, growing up in families where income is being diverted from the child’s needs to pay thousands of pounds in Home Office fees every 2.5 years in an often extremely stressful process of trying to stay on a long and precarious route.
Based on its work with children, young people and families, CCLC has long argued that short periods of leave are not in a child’s best interests; children need stability and a future horizon.
Anita Hurrell, Head of Policy at Coram Children’s Legal Centre, said:
It is crucial that the Government understands children’s need for permanence. Child dependants must be allowed to settle with their first settling parent. The Government should keep the existing private life rules for children born or growing up in the UK so that their belonging in this country is recognised in its own right. The immigration system needs to reflect children’s belonging.
Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Kings College London and a trustee of Coram Children’s Legal Centre, said:
Protecting care workers and their families from the further insecurity these proposals would have entailed would be very welcome. However, the same principle should apply to other families who came here lawfully and have built their lives around the rules we set. It is legitimate to use salary thresholds to determine visa eligibility – but the security of children living here, and often born here, should not depend on their parents’ earnings. Prolonging uncertainty, imposing repeated visa costs and putting families at risk of having to leave undermines children’s education and wellbeing. Giving children growing up here a secure future is both fair and an investment in Britain’s future.
For more information, read CCLC’s briefing on children and earned settlement.
