Petition

Protect existing Skilled Workers from substantively retrospective changes

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

The Government should guarantee clear transitional (grandfathering) protection for people already on the Skilled Worker route and their families, so they can complete the five-year route to ILR under the rules in force when they entered, without being affected by substantively retrospective changes.
Many Skilled Worker visa holders and their families moved to the UK in good faith under the current five-year rules and have built their lives around them. Extending the route to settlement from five to ten years and imposing much higher salary thresholds detached from labour market realities on people already here would, in substance, be retrospective. This would disrupt lives, undermine legal certainty and fairness, and could stop people from reaching ILR after years of lawful residence.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action: "Do not apply ILR qualifying period changes retrospectively to ILR applicants" Do not apply ILR qualifying period changes retrospectively to ILR applicants

You may also be interested in this petition: "Make a law to protect ILR from abolition and retrospective changes" Make a law to protect ILR from abolition and retrospective changes

Timeline

19 Feb 2026 Petition opened for signatures
25 Mar 2026 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 25 Mar 2026

Follow this petition

Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.

Source: the official petition page. Last checked 27 Jul 2026.