Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allowing those on the 10-year route to settlement to switch to the five-year route.

Those who meet all eligibility and specified evidential requirements of the Family Immigration Rules, will be granted on a five-year route to settlement (granted in two periods of 30 months, with a third application for indefinite leave to remain). Those who cannot or do not meet these requirements, or seek to rely on their private life, will instead have a longer route to settlement: 10 years (granted in four periods of 30 months, with a fifth application for indefinite leave to remain). This reflects our obligations under Article 8 of the ECHR.

A person who is on a 5-year route must meet all of the suitability, eligibility and evidential requirements at every application stage, to stay on this route. If they do not, they may be granted on a different basis, including on a longer 10-year route. Where this is the case, they may shorten the time in the UK before they are eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain, by starting the 5-year route again when the requirements of those Rules are met.