London, Nov 21 (PTI) The UK’s Work Rights Centre charity has dubbed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s doubling of the period before migrants can apply for settlement rights in the country as “callous” because it will expose workers to exploitative employers for longer.
The reaction follows Mahmood’s parliamentary statement on Thursday that confirmed government plans to impose a 10-year wait for the bulk of visa holders, including Indians, before they can seek indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK.
The new visa norms of doubling the current five-year timeframe for ILR and a further 10 years added on for migrants accessing state-funded welfare benefits are expected to be enforced for applicants from April 2026.
“Shifting the goalposts on settlement is an extraordinary betrayal of migrant communities, the people and businesses who need and value their contribution, and the very idea of British solidarity,” said Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre.
“Ten years is long enough for many people to build a career, get married, and have children, so to put baseline settlement out of reach for that amount of time is nothing short of callous. It won’t make the system fairer or promote integration. It will just keep people on high-risk employer-tied visas for longer, and drive wedges between communities,” she said.
Describing the 20-year wait for settlement by migrants on social benefits as “particularly dystopian”, Vicol said Mahmood is effectively “punishing migrant families for getting sick or becoming vulnerable”.
During the debate on the issue in the House of Commons this week, Indian-origin Labour MP Warinder Juss – representing the constituency of Wolverhampton West with a significant migrant population in central England – called on Mahmood to acknowledge the “benefits of immigration while managing migration”.
“I see the benefits of migration. I would not be here if this country had not welcomed my parents,” responded Mahmood, who referenced her family as “proud Kashmiris” in Parliament.
“It is literally the story of my life and how I have managed to get from there to this Dispatch Box today, so I very much feel those benefits personally. I will always speak up for them… as I make the case out there in the country for the need for these reforms,” she said.
Under the changes she tabled this week, the “baseline” qualifying period for settlement will increase to 10 years for everyone who has not already received ILR.
A public consultation running until mid-February 2026 will decide if some transitional arrangements may be required for those already on a pathway to settlement.
Visa-holders could wait longer than 10 years to settle if they received UK taxpayer funds, arrived in the country illegally or entered on a visit visa and then overstayed.
Conversely, the route to settlement could be fast-tracked to three years, or remain at the current five years, for proficient English speakers, high earners, Global Talent or Innovation Founder applicants and those contributing to communities through volunteer work.
In addition, the government is also consulting on increasing the qualifying period for settlement to 15 years for migrants sponsored in a role under the Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker visa routes.
“I love this country, which opened its arms to my parents around 50 years ago, but I am concerned by the division I see now, fuelled by a pace and scale of change that is placing immense pressure on local communities,” Mahmood told MPs.
“For those who believe that migration is part of modern Britain’s story and should always continue to be, we must prove that it can still work, with those who come here contributing, playing their part and enriching our national life,” she said.
The proposals have been dubbed by the UK Home Office as the “biggest overhaul” of legal migration towards an “earned settlement” model that rewards those making greater contributions to British society.
“To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege, and it must be earned,” declared Mahmood.
The changes are targeted at the estimated 1.6 million people qualifying for ILR between 2026 and 2030, with a peak of 450,000 expected to be hit in 2028.
The Labour Party government claims the reforms are necessary because over 2 million migrants arrived in the UK from 2021, under the post-Brexit Conservative Party “Boriswave” – named after the then prime minister Boris Johnson. PTI AK GSP GSP
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