Spouse Visa to ILR After Earned Settlement: Who Still Settles in Five Years and Who Faces Longer

Key Takeaways

• Partners of British citizens keep a five-year route to ILR under the earned settlement decision. The government's response, CP 1707, published on 2 November 2026, treats eligible partners of British citizens as a "British connection" on the five-year pathway, provided they meet the route requirements and the new mandatory requirements (page 14). It estimates that 223,000 family-route arrivals sponsored by a British citizen will still settle after five years (page 46).
• Partners of ILR holders, refugees and other non-British sponsors face a longer route, and CP 1707 does not say how long. Page 46 says only that the 39,000 family-visa arrivals not sponsored by a British citizen "will move to a longer pathway". Outside the British connection, five years is open to people earning at least £50,271 or working in an eligible public service job, and the default is 10 years (page 42).
• None of this is law yet, so today's five-year rules still decide every application. No Statement of Changes has been laid since HC 584 on 3 September 2026 (checked on 9 November 2026). The Home Secretary told MPs on 2 November 2026 that the changes "will begin to be laid from the December immigration rules" and will be implemented over 2027.
• Under today's rules you can apply for ILR only once you have completed 60 months as a partner. Paragraph E-ILRP.1.3 of Appendix FM measures the 60 months at the date of application. The 28-day allowance in Appendix Continuous Residence does not apply to the five-year partner route, so an application made even a few days early fails.
• The £29,000 financial requirement still applies at ILR, or £18,600 if your first partner application was made before 11 April 2024. Paragraph E-ILRP.1.3(1A) applies the extension requirements again at settlement, including income, accommodation and the relationship. The £18,600 transitional figure applies only if you are still with the same partner.
• Settlement applications made on or after 26 March 2027 need B2 English in speaking and listening. This is confirmed law, laid in HC 1691 and written into paragraph 2.2 of Appendix KoLL. Applications made before that date need B1. You also need the Life in the UK test (£50), and the ILR fee is £3,226 for each applicant on the 8 October 2026 fees table.
• Earned settlement will add mandatory tests for every partner, including five years without specified public funds. CP 1707 requires no UK criminal record as an adult, no outstanding government debt, B2 English, the Life in the UK test and sustained contribution of £12,571 a year, or £25,142 combined for a couple. Using specified public funds in the five years before applying puts you on a 20-year route (pages 8, 13, 14 and 17).
• A partner who joins a Skilled Worker or other main applicant later must complete the same qualifying period. A partner who arrives with the main applicant can settle at the same time if they meet the requirements (CP 1707, pages 25 and 27). The Home Secretary confirmed this in the Commons on 2 November 2026.
• Partners on the 10-year route cannot use the three- or five-year pathways. CP 1707 says Family and Private Life permission qualifies only for the 10- or 20-year pathways (pages 19 and 20), and it excludes Article 8 cases from the family permission it treats as core permission.
• We confirm which route applies to you and prepare your ILR application under the current rules. Our spouse visa service checks your 60 months, financial evidence, English and Life in the UK test against your exact application date, and tells you whether you are ready to apply.

Introduction

If you are in the UK on a spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner visa, the earned settlement decision of 2 November 2026 changes one thing above all. Your partner's status now decides how long you wait for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Partners of British citizens keep five years. Partners of people with ILR, refugee status or another type of permission move to a longer route.

The decision is confirmed policy, not law. It was published as CP 1707, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: Government Response to the Consultation, on the GOV.UK earned settlement consultation page. Until the Immigration Rules are changed by a Statement of Changes, every ILR application is decided under Appendix FM as it stands today. On 9 November 2026 the Statement of Changes collection still showed HC 584, laid on 3 September 2026, as the latest.

This guide sets out where you stand by your partner's status, what you need for ILR today, what earned settlement will add, and what to do if you are close to five years. It covers the five-year route under Appendix FM, partners of Skilled Workers and partners on the 10-year route. How to prove the £29,000 income is covered in our guide to the spouse visa financial requirement, and the English level at each stage is in our spouse visa English requirement guide.

For the wider decision, including care workers and the full pathway table, read our earned settlement decision guide. You can check your own dates with our free ILR eligibility calculator.

Where You Stand, by Your Partner's Status

Who sponsors you is now the deciding fact. The table compares today's rule with the CP 1707 position for each type of sponsor. Page numbers refer to CP 1707, and paragraph numbers to Appendix FM unless stated otherwise.

What CP 1707 says, and does not say, about partners of settled persons and refugees

CP 1707 never names partners of ILR holders or partners of refugees. Two passages decide their position. The first is page 14, which limits a recognised British connection to "eligible partners, parents and children of British citizens" and Commonwealth citizens on the UK Ancestry route. The second is Annex A on page 46, which says the 39,000 people who arrived on a family visa not sponsored by a British citizen will move to a longer pathway to settlement. It does not say which pathway, or how long it is.

What CP 1707 does set out is the menu of pathways. Table 1 on page 42 offers five years to people who earned at least £50,271 in three of the last five years, people who worked five years in an eligible public service occupation, and people with a British connection. Ten years is the default for everyone who meets the mandatory requirements. Page 19 adds that not every immigration route qualifies for every pathway, and CP 1707 does not say whether family partner permission can use the higher-earnings route to five years. Until the rules are laid, nobody can give a partner of an ILR holder an exact qualifying period.

CP 1707 also does not say whether a sponsor who becomes a British citizen part way through your route brings you within the British connection, or at what date the sponsor's status will be tested. If your partner is eligible to naturalise, that is a question to raise with an adviser now and to check against the rules when they are published.

Partners of refugees face two layers. Today, the ILR rule requires a British or settled partner, because paragraph E-ILRP.1.3(1A) switches off the protection-status option that applies at entry and extension. In practice the refugee usually has to settle or become British first. Under CP 1707 the refugee's own route becomes five years for safe and legal routes, 10 years on Protection Work and Study, or 20 years on Core Protection, with a further 10 years for illegal entry unless Article 31 of the Refugee Convention applies (pages 33 to 36). The Home Secretary also told MPs that family reunion for refugees is suspended "while we settle family migration policy" (Hansard, 2 November 2026, column 594).

What You Need for ILR Today on the Five-Year Partner Route

These requirements apply now, and they keep applying until a Statement of Changes says otherwise. Paragraph references are to Appendix FM unless stated.

The Home Office immigration and nationality fees table of 8 October 2026 shows the ILR fee at £3,226 and the Life in the UK test at £50. You can estimate your total costs with our visa fee calculator. The family life caseworker guidance (version 30.0, GOV.UK page updated on 5 November 2026) sets out how absences and the 28-day rule on extensions are assessed.

The transitional £18,600 cohort

You meet the lower £18,600 figure only if your first application as a partner, fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner was made before 11 April 2024 and was successful, and you are applying with the same partner (E-LTRP.3.5 and E-LTRP.3.6). A new partner means the £29,000 figure. Whether £29,000 itself will change is tracked in our post on whether the £29,000 income requirement will be lowered.

The 28-day point, explained

Two different 28-day rules exist, and they are often confused. On the partner route, 28 days relates to extensions. The caseworker guidance says an extension made up to 28 days before you complete 30 months counts as meeting the 30 months, and up to 28 days of your remaining permission is added to the new grant. It also warns that applying more than 28 days early can leave you short of the 60 months needed to settle.

Separately, Appendix Continuous Residence lets the qualifying period be counted to any date up to 28 days after the application (paragraph CR 1.1). That appendix applies to Appendix Settlement Family Life (the 10-year route) and to Skilled Worker settlement, but it does not list Appendix FM. On the five-year partner route you need the full 60 months on the day you apply. Because each extension carries forward up to 28 days, your visa often runs out a few weeks after you complete 60 months, so count forward from the start of your first partner permission rather than back from the expiry date.

If you fail the English or Life in the UK requirement

Failing English or the Life in the UK test at settlement does not end your route. Under D-ILRP.1.2 you are granted further permission as a partner for up to 30 months, with no recourse to public funds, provided you pay the Immigration Health Charge when asked (GEN.1.15). If your next settlement application is made on or after 26 March 2027, it must meet B2.

What Earned Settlement Will Change for Partners

CP 1707 is policy. Its requirements reach you only once they are written into the Immigration Rules, and page 6 says further technical guidance will be published before implementation. The table shows what each requirement looks like today for a five-year partner and what CP 1707 says will replace it.

Does the British-connection pathway carry an income test?

On the face of CP 1707, yes, although the detail is missing. Table 1 lists "meets all mandatory requirements" under the five-year pathway and adds that all mandatory requirements apply to all pathways (page 42). Sustained contribution is one of those mandatory requirements (page 5). Example B on page 15 describes a person earning £42,000 who is married to a British citizen and qualifies for five years despite not meeting the higher earnings threshold. The British connection replaces the £50,271 test, not the minimum contribution test. In her Commons statement the Home Secretary also listed a failure to make three years of National Insurance contributions as a disqualifying factor.

Two points are not answered. CP 1707 does not say over which years a British-connection partner must show £12,571, because the "best years" windows on page 12 are written for the earnings pathways. Nor does it say how the contribution test will sit alongside the £29,000 Appendix FM requirement, which page 14 keeps by referring to "the relevant route" requirements. The minimum income test does not apply to people aged 65 or over or to those unable to meet it because of a physical or mental condition (page 11).

How the £25,142 household threshold works

The household threshold is twice the individual £12,571 figure, and it will move with the National Insurance threshold (page 13). One partner can meet it alone, or both can combine their earnings. A partner who works fewer hours, for example to care for children, does not need to reach £12,571 personally if the couple reaches £25,142 together. The relationship must be genuine and subsisting, and only one person may rely on the other's income. Example C on page 15 shows a part-time carer qualifying this way. The Home Secretary repeated the point in the Commons (column 596). This is a contribution test, separate from the £29,000 financial requirement.

Public funds: the five-year look-back

Under page 14, anyone on the three-, five- or ten-year pathway must not have accessed specified public funds in the five years immediately before applying. If they have, they must either complete a continuous five-year period without public funds or wait until they have completed 20 years on a qualifying route (Example D, page 15). The government will start from the existing public funds definition in the Immigration Rules, then decide which benefits count and what safeguards apply, and it will set that out before implementation.

B2 English for partners at ILR

B2 at settlement is already law and does not depend on earned settlement. It applies to five-year partners through paragraph 2.2(c)(ii) of Appendix KoLL, to 10-year partners through SETF 5.1 of Appendix Settlement Family Life, and to Skilled Worker partners through SW 44.1, in each case for applications made on or after 26 March 2027. CP 1707 keeps B2 as the standard (page 17). Our spouse visa English requirement guide covers tests, reuse of earlier results and exemptions, and our post on the new B2 requirement for Skilled Workers and their families covers the dependant route.

Close to Five Years? What to Do Now

Two rules decide your timing. First, you cannot apply until you have completed 60 months (E-ILRP.1.3). Second, CP 1707 page 37 says applications are ordinarily considered under the Immigration Rules in force at the date of the settlement decision, unless transitional provisions are made, and the Home Secretary repeated this in her statement. No transitional provision for partners has been published.

So applying as soon as you are eligible means your application is decided under today's rules if it is decided before any new rules take effect. Applying early cannot protect anyone who is not yet eligible, and nobody can promise how an application still pending when new rules start will be treated.

Partners Who Joined a Skilled Worker Later

Today, a dependent partner of a Skilled Worker settles after five continuous years as that person's dependent partner (SW 42.1), so a partner who arrived later settles later, even if the main applicant already has ILR. Our post on completing five years when your partner joined later explains how that works now.

CP 1707 keeps the same principle. A partner who joins later will complete the same qualifying residence period before settling (page 25). In Example B on page 27, a lead applicant is on a five-year pathway and their partner joins two years later, so the partner applies two years after the lead applicant. If the lead applicant is on the 10-year default, the later partner's period is 10 years too. Couples can use the £25,142 household threshold to meet the contribution test. If your partner is a chef or works in hospitality, our post on chefs and the 10-year ILR route sets out their position.

Partners on the 10-Year Route

You are on the 10-year route if you were granted permission under the exceptions in paragraph EX.1 or on exceptional circumstances under GEN.3.1 or GEN.3.2, rather than by meeting every requirement. Settlement is then under Appendix Settlement Family Life after 120 months (GEN.1.17 and D-LTRP.1.2), with B1 or B2 English depending on the application date (SETF 5.1) and absences of no more than 180 days in any 12 months under Appendix Continuous Residence (CR 3.1). Our comparison of FLR(M) and FLR(FP) explains which route applies.

CP 1707 says permission granted under the Family and Private Life routes will not qualify for the three- or five-year pathways, only the 10- or 20-year pathways (pages 19 and 20). Footnote 9 excludes Article 8 cases from the family permission that counts as core permission, and page 21 says time on Article 8 routes cannot be combined with time on work or family routes. Annex A (page 46) also limits the unchanged five-year position to British-sponsored partners who have not needed to rely on exceptional circumstances. Our 10-year ILR route service can check where your time stands.

Children

Under CP 1707, children under 18 settle with their parents and are exempt from the income, government debt, English and Life in the UK requirements, though suitability and criminality rules still apply (page 25). Young adults aged 18 to 24 who keep child-dependant status settle with their family and meet the adult requirements except the income test (pages 25 and 26). Anyone aged 25 or over when the family becomes eligible must qualify independently or move to their own route (page 26). Our posts on child ILR when your spouse cannot settle and the guide to ILR for dependants, and our dependants and family guidance, cover the detail.

Where Things Stand on 9 November 2026

This table separates what is law, what is confirmed policy and what is still unknown. Our ILR and settlement guidance will be updated when the rules are laid.

How Can WorkPermitCloud Help?

WorkPermitCloud is an IAA-regulated immigration adviser (F202100311) that prepares spouse and partner visa extensions and indefinite leave to remain applications for couples in the UK. We check your 60 months, your partner's status, your financial evidence and your English against your exact application date, so you apply on the right day under the right rules.

Through our spouse visa service we handle the five-year route from extension to ILR, and our unmarried partner visa and partner and family visa teams cover other relationships. If you are ready to settle, our five-year ILR route service prepares the application, and if your partner holds ILR or protection status we will tell you plainly what is known about your route and what is not.

Conclusion

The earned settlement decision splits the partner route in two. If your partner is British, CP 1707 keeps five years, though you will face new mandatory requirements on criminality, debt, English, contribution and public funds once the rules change. If your partner holds ILR, refugee status or EUSS settled status, CP 1707 moves you to a longer route without saying how long.

For now, none of it is law. Today's Appendix FM rules decide every application: 60 months completed on the day you apply, the £29,000 or £18,600 financial requirement, B1 English until 26 March 2027 and B2 after, and the Life in the UK test. If you are eligible, apply under those rules. If you are not, prepare for the requirements that are coming and watch for the December Statement of Changes.

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