REPORT: experiences on the 10-year route to settlement
2nd March 2023
Around 170,000 people are estimated to be on a ‘10-year route to settlement’ - a way for some people with strong ties to the UK to be able to stay here permanently. On this route, individuals face a number of challenges - length of time before being eligible to stay permanently, the high cost of visa fees (around £13,000 over the 10-year period for one adult), the requirement for repeat applications every 2-and-a-half-years, complex applications with few options for legal advice, and restrictions in accessing welfare through the default ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition.
In new research conducted by Praxis and partners the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), we take stock of the impacts of the 10-year route to settlement on people’s lives. Our findings are drawn from a survey of over 300 people who are either on the 10-year route to settlement, or have been on the route, as well as in-depth interviews with people on the route.
Our research find a series of potential pitfalls and wrong turns arising from the design of the route that lead to poverty and insecurity for many. This is an immigration route often used by women, parents and caregivers, and people from a Black and South Asian background. Usually, people on the 10-year route are long-term residents - 60 % of those we surveyed had been in the UK for more than a decade. Many are working in low-paid jobs and have severely stretched household finances. The high costs, repeated renewals, complexity and NRPF place considerable pressure on people for a prolonged period of their lives and hold people back from achieving all they could for themselves and their families, their communities and the economy.