On 12 May 2025, the government published a white paper policy document called Restoring control over the immigration system. The document proposed some changes to make it harder to move to and settle in the UK, with a view to reducing net migration.
A white paper does not, by itself, alter the law or the immigration rules. It puts forward the changes the government intends to make in future. Some of the white paper’s proposals have been implemented since May, but many are still to come.
What changes did the May 2025 immigration white paper propose?
The document covered both high-level principles and specific policy changes. Among its many proposals, eight were detailed enough to be quantified: that is, civil servants included some rough illustrations of how much they might reduce net migration (PDF).
These eight proposals were:
- Shortening the list of jobs for which employers can sponsor a worker from overseas for a Skilled Worker visa. Jobs assessed as being medium-skilled – RQF levels 3-5 – will not be sponsorable unless the Migration Advisory Committee recommends an exemption and the industry is demonstrating efforts to recruit domestically.
- Ending an existing exemption for social care workers, so that employers are no longer allowed to recruit them from abroad.
- Exploring a levy on English universities’ income from international student fees.
- Making it harder for universities to keep their licence to sponsor student visas by introducing tougher compliance rules.
- Reducing the standard length of the Graduate visa, for international students to stay on and work in the UK, from two years to 18 months.
- Stricter English language rules: higher standards for those already taking language tests, and requiring the partners of people moving to the UK on work visas to have basic English to qualify for a ‘dependant’ visa.
- Increasing the standard qualifying period for permanent residence (also known as indefinite leave to remain or settlement) from five to ten years, with some people qualifying sooner based on criteria yet to be confirmed.
- Making it easier for people to come to the UK on certain visas aimed at highly skilled migrants, such as the Global Talent and High Potential routes.
Most of these changes can be made by amending the immigration rules. They do not require an Act of Parliament, except for the levy on student fees.
The white paper is a wide-ranging document and covers many other issues as well. These included a new Labour Market Evidence Group, reforms to family and dependant visas, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the deportation of foreign national offenders.
Most questions from constituents have focused on the proposal to extend the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (see below). There have been no changes in this area yet. The Home Office says that it will begin a public consultation in 2025.
When are the changes coming in?
There is no overall timetable for the white paper proposals to come into force. So far, the main relevant changes are:
- An initial reduction to the list of jobs eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship took effect on 22 July 2025. The revised list will be in place until the end of 2026; the Migration Advisory Committee is reviewing which medium-skilled jobs should be on the list beyond that.
- Overseas recruitment of social care workers also ended on 22 July 2025.
- Graduate visas will only last 18 months if the person applies on or after 1 January 2027 (but 36 months if they have a PhD).
- New applicants for Skilled Worker, Scale-up and High Potential Individual visas will need B2 English (a higher standard than the current B1) from 8 January 2026.
- Some liberalisation of the High Potential and Global Talent routes will take effect in November 2025.
In addition, regulations to increase the immigration skills charge will begin their parliamentary approval process “later this week”. A new framework for family visas is due by the end of 2025.
Are people on a Graduate visa affected by the changes to Skilled Worker visa eligibility?
Yes.
Graduate visas do not require sponsorship but cannot be extended. Some people on a Graduate visa are expected to transition from that visa onto a sponsored Skilled Worker visa, potentially with their existing employer.
If that person’s occupation was removed from the Skilled Worker eligibility list in July 2025, that option is no longer available. This has affected Graduate visa holders in medium-skilled jobs in sectors such as transport, dentistry and prisons.
Will migrants have to wait ten years for indefinite leave to remain?
The standard qualifying period for permanent residence will be increased under the government’s proposals. The default will be indefinite leave to remain after ten years, rather than five years at present, but some people will be able to qualify earlier. Under this “earned settlement” proposal, there will be a shorter pathway than ten years for people who have made “Points-Based contributions to the UK economy and society” (paragraph 266).
The white paper did not say how these points would be earned or how much of a reduction on the ten-year qualifying period would be available. But the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has since said that relevant factors will include being in work; National Insurance payments; not claiming benefits; good English; a clean criminal record; and “giving back” in the community. This will be covered in more detail in the promised consultation.
Which visa categories will be affected by the longer qualifying period?
There are explicit exemptions for partners of British citizens, who will continue to qualify for settlement after five years, and for victims of domestic abuse (see paragraph 265). In addition, people with post-Brexit residence rights under the EU Settlement Scheme have the right to permanent residence after five years under Article 15 of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.
The government has not confirmed whether other immigration routes with a five-year pathway to permanent residence will be exempt. Asked whether people with a Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa are going to be affected, the minister for migration and citizenship replied, “We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and will provide details of how the scheme will work after that, including which immigration routes it will apply to”.
Will people already in the UK have to wait longer for indefinite leave to remain?
The government has not formally confirmed whether people already in the immigration routes affected will have to wait longer for settlement, as opposed to the change only applying to those arriving after the implementation date.
The previous Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, was asked about this during a statement about the white paper on 12 May 2025. She replied:
We will set out further details of the earned settlement and citizenship reforms later this year, and we will consult on them. There will be plenty of opportunity for people to comment on and consider the detail, but it is important that we extend the sense of contributions and the points-based system to those reforms as well.
[…]
We want the settlement rules to be amended as swiftly as possible and to apply widely, but we will consult on the detail, and it is right that we do so.
The white paper’s technical annexe suggested that the Home Office did envisage the change affecting those already here: “a number of those currently in the UK are likely to leave due to it taking longer to gain settled status” (PDF, paragraph 11). Home Office minister Mike Tapp indicated that people already in the UK would be affected in an interview on 2 October 2025. The Times has reported that the government is exploring an extension in the qualifying period for existing residents, but without making the rules as strict as for new arrivals.
MPs have been asking questions on this issue, but the responses have reiterated that it will be addressed in the public consultation: see, for example, HC Deb 2 June 2025 cc15-16 and PQ 58441, answered on 17 June 2025.
Will MPs be voting on the white paper changes?
Unlikely, in most cases. Revision of visa and settlement regulations is done through statements of changes to the immigration rules. A statement of changes takes effect automatically, without a vote being necessary.
To reject the changes, MPs must approve a motion expressing disapproval of the new rules within 40 days. Some MPs have tabled such a motion in relation to the July 2025 statement of changes connected to the white paper, but the government is not obliged to allow a debate or vote on the motion. There was no House of Commons vote on the Conservative government’s significant changes to visa rules in 2024.
There may, however, be non-binding debates which do not involve a motion to disapprove the rules. MPs held such a debate on 8 September 2025.
Certain elements of the white paper proposals, such as the levy on international student fees and changes to naturalisation law, do require an act of Parliament and therefore the endorsement of MPs.
