The 10-Year Settlement Rule Changes Everything for Sponsor Licence Holders

The 10-Year Settlement Rule Changes Everything

Sponsor Licence Protection Is Now a 10-Year Strategy

The Government's consultation on "earned settlement" has now closed. In Home Affairs Committee evidence, the Home Secretary referenced "something like 130,000 responses" to the consultation.

The core direction is clear in the published consultation materials and related parliamentary discussion: settlement is being framed as something earned over a longer period, not something reached quickly.

What the Case Is

1) The consultation has closed and the Government is analysing feedback

The Home Office "earned settlement" consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 11:59pm on 12 February 2026, and is now closed while feedback is analysed.

2) The baseline settlement timeline is shifting to 10 years

In the consultation's statement, the Home Secretary sets out that "most people" would face a 10-year starting point before settlement, with additional conditions around how settlement is "earned."

The same document also describes a separate baseline qualifying period of 15 years being consulted on for a specific low-wage, lower-skilled group arriving on the Health and Care visa.

That combination is why this conversation lands differently for care providers: for many sponsored workers, the settlement journey potentially becomes a decade-long process, and for some cohorts it could be longer.

Why This Matters Specifically for Care Providers

For care providers, the operational implication is not abstract. A longer route to settlement means a longer period where a worker's ability to stay in the UK is tied to repeat visa extensions and continuing sponsorship.

In practical terms, extension routes like Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker link eligibility to the worker continuing in the role and continuing to work for the employer that provided the current Certificate of Sponsorship.

So when the settlement horizon stretches from five years to 10 years, the dependency on sponsor licence continuity stretches with it.

Sponsor Licence Protection Becomes a Workforce Stability Issue

Under a longer settlement model, the sponsor licence stops being a background administrative permission and becomes part of long-term workforce stability.

That is the case in one sentence: longer residence requirements create a longer period where sponsorship continuity matters.

What We Did to Resolve the Case for Clients

When providers come to us in response to these proposed changes, the work is structured around sponsor licence protection over a longer cycle.

1) We Reviewed the Current Compliance Position

We start by establishing what the sponsor's current "as-is" position looks like, using the evidence an auditor or caseworker would expect to see. This includes reviewing how key sponsorship duties are evidenced in practice, not how they are described in theory.

2) We Mapped Recruitment and HR Activity to Sponsorship Duties

We then map the sponsor's operational workflow to sponsorship obligations so that the compliance story is consistent across:

• Recruitment and onboarding
• Right to work and identity evidence
• Role information and job alignment
• Reporting events and record retention
• Pay and salary evidence trails

This is not presented as a template. It is done against the sponsor's actual workflow.

3) We Produced a Clear, Documented Output

The resolution in these engagements is clarity and structure. The output is typically:

• A documented view of the sponsor's current risk profile
• A list of the evidence sources that support the current position
• A prioritised set of compliance issues identified during review
• A practical outline of what needs strengthening for repeatability over time

The point is not to "prepare for one visit." It is to make compliance repeatable year after year, because the sponsorship timeline is getting longer.

Key Facts

• The Home Office earned settlement consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and is now closed
• The Home Secretary referenced around 130,000 responses to the consultation
• The consultation sets out a 10-year starting point before settlement for most people
• A 15-year baseline is consulted on for a specific low-wage group on the Health and Care visa
• Visa extension eligibility is linked to continuing in the role and continuing with the sponsoring employer

Book a Call

If you want to talk through what a 10-year settlement model means for sponsor licence continuity, workforce planning, and compliance resilience, book a call and we can review your position confidentially.