The upper chamber of the United Kingdom Parliament has opposed a proposal by the country’s government to extend the waiting period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) to 10 years, calling the pending policy restrictive.
Earlier in March, the Home Office unveiled plans by the ruling Labour Party to double the time that immigrants will have to wait to earn rights to permanently live and work in the UK and pathway to citizenship, citing the unprecedented levels of immigration to the country recently.
The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee has now faulted the 10-year path proposal in a report published on Tuesday, saying the policy is more rigid compared to other high-end countries around the world.
“A baseline 10-year path to ILR for migrants with work and family visas would be more restrictive than equivalent routes in comparable high-income countries. Paths exceeding 10 years are far less common and would make the UK an outlier,” the committee wrote.
The committee also argued that extending the qualifying period for ILR risks disrupting integration as the policy would prevent families from committing to long-term plans, including employment, family and housing decisions because of fear of falling out of legal status.
“Extending the qualifying time to ILR risks undermining integration by reducing affected migrants’ security of status — this would limit their ability to make long-term employment, family, and housing decisions,” the report said.
Furthermore, the report maintained that the proposal could pose additional financial challenges for low-income households, who will have to pay repeated application fees and Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), making renewals unaffordable for some of them.
“In some cases, those who are unable to afford to renew their status may fall out of legal status, increasing the size of the unauthorised migrant population if they do not depart the UK,” the report stated.
Additionally, the House of Lords rejected the 20-year settlement pathway for refugees, which would require their cases to be reviewed every two and a half years, noting that the proposal could also compromise integration and ability to make long-time decisions.
The committee also made some recommendations for the Home Office, including avenues for immigrants with dependent visas to be able to qualify for ILR if their income is significantly higher and places no burden on taxpayers and must increase availability of resources for immigrants to learn English language.
