Turkish business owners and workers who came to Britain under the Ankara Agreement will be exempt from the Government’s new ‘earned settlement’ rules, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has confirmed in response to a question from Enfield North MP Feryal Clark.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday 2 November, the Labour MP asked what the changes would mean for Turkish businesspeople who had built their lives in the UK under the European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA), better known as the Ankara Agreement. Mahmood said those who came through the route were “outside the scope of earned settlement”.
Clark welcomed the assurance on Facebook. She had already raised the issue in Parliament in March, when she called for urgent protections for people who had set up businesses and paid taxes in Britain and were approaching the point at which they could apply for permanent residence. Clark’s Facebook post.
The wider reforms raise the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from five to 10 years, with shorter routes for some applicants. Turkish businesspeople and workers on the ECAA route can still apply for permanent residence after five years of qualifying residence if they meet the existing requirements. Eligible family members can also apply under the existing rules.
A rise in visas before the Brexit deadline
The Ankara Agreement was signed in 1963 to strengthen economic ties between Türkiye and the European Economic Community. Britain became party to it when it joined the EEC in 1973. The agreement provided a route for Turkish nationals to set up or help run a business in Britain, as well as provisions for certain Turkish workers already legally employed here. The UK closed the route to new main applicants on 31 December 2020, at the end of the Brexit transition period.
The Home Office issued 2,942 Ankara Agreement businessperson visas to Turkish main applicants overseas in 2019, up from 798 in 2018. The figure rose to 4,204 in 2020, the final year the route was open to new main applicants. The number who actually arrived in 2019 could not be verified.
The Home Office recorded 17,477 grants of permanent settlement to Turkish nationals whose most recent immigration permission was under the Ankara Agreement between January 2020 and June 2026, including main applicants and dependants. The route-specific figures in the current settlement dataset start in 2020, so the full number who settled over the life of the scheme remains unclear.
Earlier High Court challenge failed
In 2018, the Home Office increased the qualifying period for Turkish businesspeople from four years to five and introduced a settlement application fee and English language and Life in the UK requirements. The Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople argued that people already on the route had been entitled to rely on the earlier policy when moving their families and investing in Britain. The High Court dismissed its judicial review in March 2019, and the Court of Appeal dismissed the Alliance’s appeal in April 2020.
Main image, top, of British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood as she arrives at the Home Office for the first time following her appointment on 05 September 2025. Cropped picture © Jonathan Chen / Home Office, CC BY 4.0
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