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