On Monday, the Government finally published A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, its response to the settlement consultation, a year after it was launched and nine months after it closed.
As our Adviser Pat Saini warned when we launched Job Creators 2026: “When uncertainty persists, it becomes harder for entrepreneurs to commit fully to building their future in the UK.”
Settlement — also called Indefinite Leave to Remain — is the permanent right to live in the UK. Until now, most work visas resulted in this after five years. The consultation was on whether this should be ten years by default, with shorter routes for people who “earn” them.
There will now be four speeds. Three years for those earning £125,141 or more, or belonging to a “Highest Talent Group”. Five years for those earning £50,271 or more, or working in public services such as doctors, nurses and teachers. Ten years by default for everyone else. And 20 years for people who broke immigration rules or claimed benefits. The Home Secretary told the Commons the changes will start to be laid in December’s immigration rules and come in over 2027.
A lot of this is welcome for entrepreneurs. In Job Creators 2026 and earlier reports we argued for keeping the fast track for founders and top talent. The accelerated route survives. Global Talent and Innovator Founder are both listed as “high talent” routes. Who makes the Highest Talent Group depends on the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of talent routes, due by the end of December.
We also asked for the qualifying period to be matched across the household. After all, there is no point having certainty over your own path to settlement if your family’s future is insecure. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood agrees. Dependants who arrived at the same time as the main applicant can settle alongside them, and also don’t have to meet the earnings test on their own.
This builds on the expansion of the High Potential Individual visa announced at the Budget, which lets graduates of top overseas universities come to the UK for two years with no job offer and no sponsor.
Eligibility widens from the world’s top 100 institutions to the top 150, but we’re still missing a trick. The next step should add business school rankings, so we can attract the best and brightest from schools such as INSEAD and HEC Paris, whose graduates miss out because standalone business schools don’t appear in general university rankings.
There’s still much to do. The Innovator Founder visa still needs binding decision times, spot-checks of endorsing bodies in place of a second full assessment, and a viability test instead of a requirement that every business be novel. The Home Office should also give a short reason with every refusal.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that there is ultimately no certainty for those working towards settlement. Immigration rules are ministerial decisions and you will be judged under the rules in force when your application is decided, not when you arrived. Those who have been pushed onto a ten-year wait will feel justifiably hard done by. Ministers need some freedom to change the rules, but changing them for people already partway through the wait erodes the trust of those trying to build a life here.
One way to reduce the chopping and changing is a standing red team for the Home Office: endorsing bodies, immigration solicitors and founders who pick apart visa rules before they come in.
Bristol Fashion
Our Ecosystem Builders events have now run in six cities, and in the next fortnight we’ll be back in London and then Bristol. These are all about supporting the supporters: the accelerators, incubators and venture builders, university and corporate innovation teams, tech-transfer groups, innovation agencies, science parks, coworking spaces, local authorities and business networks.
We’re keen to welcome anyone with a network of entrepreneurs, from the private or third sector, who wants to meet others in the ecosystem.
We want to connect up the ecosystems, with people travelling to each meetup, getting to know that city’s ecosystem and even working from the venue for the day. We’ve already proven the model. Now we’re looking to expand it into more cities with people who want to connect up Britain’s ecosystem builders.
If that’s you, I hope to see you in London or Bristol.
Thanks for reading Perennial Gale!
Open Door Policy
Policy is only as good as the evidence behind it. On entrepreneurship, and particularly on how regulation affects founders, there is a great deal that government should know but doesn’t. That’s why we welcome efforts to hear directly from founders about the barriers they face.
The Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) Front Door, now open for submissions, is one such effort. Building on two pilots earlier this year, it lets businesses and investors anywhere in UK science and technology, not just RIO’s priority sectors, flag regulatory barriers to developing, launching or scaling innovative products and services.
You might be unsure which regulator or framework applies, juggling requirements from several regulators, stuck in an unclear or lengthy approval process, unable to get the engagement you need or held back by a wider regulatory issue.
If any of these sound familiar, submit evidence through the Front Door.
It’s Wonderful
We’re delighted to welcome Dan Maudhub, founder of Wonderful, to The Entrepreneurs Network.
Dan brings more than 20 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, adviser and non-executive director, helping leadership teams scale through disciplined innovation, digital transformation and commercial execution. He has led large-scale transformation programmes for organisations including the NHS, British Airways and Pfizer, and in 2025 exited his multi-award-winning digital agency to an employee ownership trust.
On joining us, Dan said: “The Entrepreneurs Network is vital to advancing research and debate on entrepreneurship, and to championing entrepreneurs across the UK.” Find out more about becoming an Adviser here.