Protect existing Skilled Workers from substantively retrospective changes
The Government should guarantee clear transitional (grandfathering) protection for people already on the Skilled Worker route and their families, so they can complete the five-year route to ILR under the rules in force when they entered, without being affected by substantively retrospective changes.
Signatures
21
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 21/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 21/100,000
- 25 MAR 2026Petition rejectedduplicate
You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action: "Do not apply ILR qualifying period changes retrospectively to ILR applicants" https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/751517 You may also be interested in this petition: "Make a law to protect ILR from abolition and retrospective changes" https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/742864
- 19 FEB 2026Petition created
Background
Many Skilled Worker visa holders and their families moved to the UK in good faith under the current five-year rules and have built their lives around them. Extending the route to settlement from five to ten years and imposing much higher salary thresholds detached from labour market realities on people already here would, in substance, be retrospective. This would disrupt lives, undermine legal certainty and fairness, and could stop people from reaching ILR after years of lawful residence.