Earned settlement plan sets B2 English and Life in the UK test

The Home Office has set out how English and the Life in the UK test would fit into its new earned settlement model. Its consultation, A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, was published on 20 November 2025 and closed at 11.59pm on 12 February 2026. It is a proposal: the settlement rules only change when the Immigration Rules are amended.

English and the test as baseline conditions

The paper lists English at B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference as a minimum requirement for settlement, and the government said it was not consulting on whether to include it. Passing the Life in the UK test is also listed as a minimum requirement. The consultation asked how integration should be assessed in future, and one option it mentions is a revised Life in the UK test. It does not describe what a revised test would contain.

Advanced English could shorten the wait

Under the proposals, applicants with English at C1, the level above B2, would have one year taken off their qualifying period for settlement. The consultation asked whether one year is the right reduction, or whether it should be longer, shorter or dropped.

The government also said that citizenship reforms would build on the settlement changes, and that changing the British Nationality Act 1981 would need new primary legislation. No citizenship test change was set out.

Since the consultation

On 5 March 2026 the government laid HC 1691, which raises settlement English to B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027. The consultation page still says responses are being analysed, and no formal outcome has been published as of 30 October 2026.