Settlement in the UK: Which Routes Are Actually Live?

The Investor and Entrepreneur visas are long gone. What remains — and what is about to change?

It is the question we are asked most often by internationally mobile clients, usually in the same slightly bewildered tone: the Investor visa closed, the Entrepreneur visa closed, the Start-up visa closed — so what is actually left? The answer is more than most people assume, but the routes that remain are built on a different premise. Capital alone no longer buys residence. Contribution does.

And the ground is about to move again.

What has closed

• Tier 1 (Investor). Closed to new applications on 17 February 2022. The final extension deadline passed on 17 February 2026. Settlement applications in the category can still be made until 17 February 2028 — a hard deadline that anyone still in the route should be diarising now.
• Tier 1 (Entrepreneur). Closed in 2019.
• Start-up. Closed in 2023 and folded into the Innovator Founder route.
• Representative of an Overseas Business. Closed in 2022.

There is no direct replacement for a route based on passive investment. Reports circulated in 2026 of an invitation-only category requiring investment of around £5 million, directed at priority sectors with property excluded and enhanced vetting at the gate. It is a proposal. No rules have been laid, and clients should treat anyone marketing it as an available product with considerable caution.

The fastest routes: three years

Global Talent. There is no need for a sponsor,  job offer or a salary threshold. Indefinite leave to remain after three years for those endorsed as exceptional talent, for endorsed exceptional promise applicants in science, engineering, medicine, humanities and social sciences, and for holders of a recognised prestigious prize. Exceptional promise in digital technology and arts and culture carries a five-year period. A dedicated design pathway was added from 1 July 2026. The practical traps at settlement stage are the endorsement (it must still be valid), UK earnings genuinely linked to the endorsed field, and the 180-day absence rule.

Innovator Founder. Endorsement by an approved body for a business that is innovative, viable and scalable, with settlement available after three years where the venture meets the success criteria. There is no minimum investment — which is precisely why it is not an investor visa wearing different clothes. The endorsement bar is substantive, the list of active endorsing bodies is narrow, and applications prepared as though endorsement were a formality fail routinely. However this is a very good route for anyone interested in starting their own business . It also allows a part time study so great for students, who would like to study and work at the same time, whilst clocking the continues stay that counts for the indefinite leave to remain.

Sponsored employment: five years

Skilled Worker. The principal route, and considerably harder than it was. Since July 2025 sponsored roles must generally sit at graduate level (RQF 6), with a general salary floor of £41,700 or the published going rate, whichever is higher. New applicants have needed B2 English since 8 January 2026. Settlement follows five years, with the salary test applied again at the date of the settlement application — a point that catches out workers whose pay has not kept pace. A Temporary Shortage List preserves eligibility for a limited set of RQF 3–5 roles, but those workers cannot bring dependants and the list is scheduled to expire at the end of 2026.

Scale-up and Health and Care. Both remain open and both lead to settlement at five years, although overseas recruitment of care workers ended in July 2025.

A note on “self-sponsorship”. It is not a visa category. It describes a founder establishing or acquiring a UK business which obtains a sponsor licence and then sponsors them under Skilled Worker rules. It can work. It also attracts genuine-vacancy scrutiny and full sponsor compliance obligations, and it is being sold far more confidently than it deserves.

Family, heritage and long residence

• Partner and parent routes under Appendix FM — five years, subject to the minimum income requirement of £29,000.
• UK Ancestry — five years, for Commonwealth citizens with a UK-born grandparent. Still one of the most underused routes on the statute book.
• Hong Kong BN(O) — five years.
• Long residence and private life — the ten-year routes, which remain in force.
• EU Settlement Scheme — now closed to most new applicants, but those within it are expressly outside the reforms described below.

Routes that lead nowhere

Worth stating plainly, because it is a recurring source of client disappointment: the Graduate route, the Student route, the High Potential Individual visa and the Global Business Mobility categories, including Senior or Specialist Worker, do not lead to settlement. Time spent on them does not build a qualifying period. Anyone using them as a landing strip needs a switching plan from the outset.

The change that is coming

The May 2025 White Paper proposed replacing the standard five-year qualifying period with an “earned settlement” model. The consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and attracted more than 200,000 responses.

It is not law. No rules have been laid before Parliament, and every existing five-year and ten-year route remains fully in force. That bears repeating, because a great deal of commentary now describes the reform as though it had already happened.

What is proposed is a baseline of ten years for most migrants — fifteen for those in lower and medium-skilled roles — adjusted up or down by circumstance. Earnings above £125,140 would reduce the period to three years; higher-skilled roles paying above £50,270, public sector healthcare and teaching roles, family visas sponsored by British citizens and the BN(O) route would reduce it to five. Claiming benefits would add five to ten years; illegal entry up to twenty. Family members would need to qualify in their own right rather than alongside the principal applicant.

Critically, the consultation proposed applying the new framework to everyone in the UK who has not yet obtained indefinite leave to remain. Transitional protection is under consideration but not guaranteed. The Home Secretary indicated in March 2026 that the finalised policy would be enacted later in the year, reportedly in the autumn — and enactment does not necessarily mean immediate commencement. One related measure is already on the books: from 26 March 2027, settlement applications on a range of routes will require English at B2 rather than B1.