Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has watered down her plans to make foreign care workers wait up to 15 years for settlement after criticism from senior Labour figures.
Under her initial proposals, lower-qualified workers who arrived on health and social care visas during the “Boriswave” from 2022 could have been made to wait 15 years for permanent settlement.
Revised qualifying period
But under the revised plans, foreign care workers who meet their visa conditions and earn at least £25,000 a year will now only have to wait five years, Ms Mahmood told the Commons.
Foreign care workers who do not qualify for the five-year settlement will be able to apply for a new five-year visa, and then apply for settlement once it has been completed.
Cabinet tensions
Tensions in the Cabinet over the policy surfaced when Housing Secretary Angela Rayner earlier this year publicly attacked the prospect of backdating the plans.
Then Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh repeatedly refused to say she backed proposals to prolong the qualifying period for settlement.
Consultation response
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR), also known as settlement, is an immigration status that allows a person to live, work and study in the UK indefinitely and apply for benefits if they are eligible.
More than 200,000 responses were submitted to the consultation on Ms Mahmood’s initial proposals.
