The NFF have received a growing number of enquiries about the proposed changes for ‘Earned Settlement’ in the UK.  This comes from the Home Secretaries announcement last week about the Government response to the public consultation on earned settlement.

So what do we (NFF Immigration Support Services Team) know to date.  Firstly, to ease your concerns, the review takes into account that HM Armed Forces and their dependants provide an “exceptional service to the UK and should continue to benefit from separate arrangements to reflect that contribution.”

Our Naval and Royal Marines personnel will therefore continue to qualify for settlement after at least four years’ reckonable service, while their partners and children continue to qualify after five years’ continuous residence.

Whilst there are no stated changes to the qualifying period, subsequent re-writes of the HM Armed Forces Immigration rules may affect some other requirements of the settlement routes indirectly. We (NFF) anticipate a statement of changes to the immigration rules in December 2026 with any changes taking effect throughout 2027.

As soon as we receive these, we will go though them and make sure that we make our Service Personnel and their families aware of any potential issues that arise from this.

In the meantime, please see the link to the report here