Easiest ways to settle in the United Kingdom

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If you wish to come and settle in the UK, you will need to consider immigration programs that can lead to indefinite leave to remain. You need to know some important information when you specially trying to settle in the UK. 

A number of questions that are asked by our clients is “What is the easiest way to settle in the UK?”. Well, in this article we will try to explain the visa routes for the fastest way to be granted settlement or indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the UK. 

After 2 years settle in the UK

If you hold a Tier 1 Investor route, then you would be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain. The route is closed for new applicants, so if you don’t hold that visa, it is no longer possible to apply. This category is one of the fastest ways to apply for ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain). If you invest or maintain at least £10 million in the UK. You can apply for the ILR once you have completed 2 years of residency in the UK.  

You can apply to stay in the UK or ILR. Until 17 February 2026, you can apply for ILR as a Tier 1 investor. The Accelerated Settlement is included in the Tier 1 Investor route, and it is until 17 February 2028. If you do have any family in the UK, then your dependent needs to stay a full 5 years for the settlement. 

After 3 years, settled in the UK

If you are planning to settle in the UK after 3 years, there are several ways for you. The ways are: 

  1. For tier 1 investor accelerated settlement.
  2. For tier 1 entrepreneurs, accelerated settlement.
  3. For global talent category endorsement.
  4. For innovation category endorsement.

As an investor, if you want to settle in the UK, you need to maintain or invest a minimum of £5 million. As I mentioned before, if you are a new applicant, you cannot apply for the Tier 1 route. On the other hand, until 17 February 2028, via the Accelerated Settlement route, if you’re an existing Tier 1 holder, you can apply for ILR (indefinite leave to remain). But in the accelerated settlement, your dependent is not allowed for ILR. 

As an entrepreneur in the UK, if you can prove that your experience and investment create a minimum of 10 vacancies for a UK settle person or your turnover is a minimum of £5 million, you can apply for ILR. This is the minimum requirement for those who came to the UK as an entrepreneur. Like the inventor visa, the entrepreneur route is also closed, so if you want to apply, you can’t. However, in the accelerated route, if you are holding a Tier 1 Entrepreneurship visa, you can apply for ILR (indefinite leave to remain). But it also has limitations. It is open until 5 April 2025.

If you are a holder of a global talent visa and want to stay in the UK. After spending their continuous year in the UK, you need to prove that you are eligible for indefinite leave to remain if:

  • You are approved by the British Academy, Royal Academy, Royal Society, or the UKVI. 
  • If you are approved under the exceptional talent like Tech Nation or Arts Council England. 

Please remember that all categories that have accelerated settlement, only you can apply for the ILR not your dependent. I suggest you apply for both as main applicants. Otherwise, you will be counted as a main applicant and your partner will be counted as a dependent. 

As an example, if you have a total of 4 people in your family. You and your partner are qualified for the Global Talent category. Your children don’t need to wait for 5 years but they need to wait until both of you get ILR. 

You can take advice from us if you wish to understand on how best to strategies on the correct immigration programs immigration solicitors Birmingham

UK settled after 5 years

There are some categories where you will get your settlement after years. Below I have tried to explain the whole categories:

  • Investor Tier 1: if you maintain or invest a minimum of £2 million.
  • Entrepreneur Tier 1: If you create a minimum of 2 vacancies.
  • Global Talent: if your last endorsement was under “exceptional promise” criteria for Tech Nation or Arts Council England.
  • Skill worker: if you came as a skilled worker, you could apply for settlement after 5 years. 
  • Scale up. 
  • International sportsperson: If you come to the UK as an international sportsperson, you need to wait 5 years. 
  • Minister of religion.
  • Civil partner, unmarried partner, or UK spouse Visa holder
  • UK Ancestry. 
  • BNO.

Long Residence Settlement

One of the most popular combined categories of settlements is the long residence route. This route is the longest settlement route where it takes 10 years for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). If you have spent 6 years as a student in the long residence route; you can settle in the UK faster than your friend who recently switched to the skilled worker category. Your friend needs to wait a total of 5 years for settlement as a skilled worker. In the same process, if anyone spent a couple of years in the UK in this category their spent time will not be counted. 

Apply British Citizenship

If you want to apply for British citizenship, you need to go through same processes, and the required period is one of them. The minimum required time is five years for applying for British citizenship, and you must need to follow the immigration-restricted rules. This means if you can settle after two or three years, then after 5 years, you can apply for British Citizenship. Similarly, if you get settled after five years, you can apply for British Citizenship after six years residency in total. 

In contrast, if you are married to a British national, then you don’t need to wait the 12 months and can apply for naturalization as soon as you are granted ILR. 

Contact our immigration lawyer Birmingham

If you are impacted by immigration issues like UK Visa Refusal and wish to get some legal advice, please email us at [email protected] or give us a call on 0207 237 3388.