Some overseas workers will keep their five-year route to permanent UK residence but, for others, a longer wait means more expense for their employers and challenging conversations with their lawyers.

Shabana Mahmood’s decision to water down plans that would have made some overseas workers wait 15 years to live permanently in the United Kingdom has been widely reported. But beyond the arguments within the governing Labour party, what does the home secretary’s policy pivot mean for business-immigration lawyers and their clients?

Quite a lot, it turns out. The home secretary still intends to double the usual wait for permanent residence from five years to 10, and so employers could find themselves paying for another five years of sponsorship, while employees who thought they were approaching the end of the visa process discover they are only halfway through.

For corporate-immigration lawyers, the first job is to establish which workers can still apply after five years, which might qualify sooner and which will need to extend their permission to stay. Those answers will depend on more than when someone arrived. Their earnings, occupation, immigration history and family circumstances all come into play.

The politics behind the paperwork

Announcing the revised plans in Parliament yesterday (2 November), Mahmood was trying to satisfy stakeholders with very different priorities. Employers need staff. Critics on Labour’s left object to changing the rules for people who came here...

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