Switching from pre-settled to settled status

If you currently hold pre-settled status in the UK, it’s crucial to understand your rights, responsibilities, and the steps you’ll need to take to secure a permanent status or Settled Status (also called Indefinite Leave to Remain). This article provides essential guidance on how to check your current immigration status, maintain your continuous residence in the UK, and prepare to switch from pre-settled to settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). We’ll also explain recent legal changes, what they mean for you, and how the automatic extension or upgrade process works.

Know your status!

It is very important that you know what kind of immigration status you have.

Generally, you should be granted pre-settled status if you have lived in the United Kingdom for less than five years or were unable to prove that you have been in the country for 5 or more years. 

If you are not sure what status you have, you can check it on your digital profile. 

Go to: https://view-immigration-status.service.gov.uk/status 

your identity document number

your date of birth

an access code sent to your phone or email

You will see the type of status you have just below your name on your eVisa profile. If it’s pre-settled status, you can also see the expiry date underneath.

For more information and practicial tips on accesing your eVisa, read this blog post.

Absences and maintaining continuous residence in the UK.

People with pre-settled status must pay attention to the amount of time they spend outside the UK. Long absences may result in losing the pre-settled status. If you have an absence of more than 2 consecutive years before 21st May 2024, your status will lapse. This rule has now changed, and from 21st May 2024 you will lose your pre settled status if you spent more than 5 consecutive years outside of the UK.

Another important factor to consider if you have pre-settled status is maintaining continuous residence.

The meaning of this concept under the EU Settlement Scheme changed on 16th April 2025. The updated EUSS Caseworker Guidance states that in order to maintain the continuity of your residence, you must prove that you were present in the UK for any 30 months in the last 60 months.

In practice, it means that when you submit an application to switch from pre-settled to settled status, the Home Office will look at the last 60 months (5 years) from the date of your application and will require proof of any 30 months (2,5 years) within that period.

In the past, keeping continuous residence to upgrade to settled status meant that you had to be present in the UK for at least 6 months in any 12-month period. Any absences longer than 6 months were problematic (unless you proved they were due to an important reason and were covered by an exemption).

If you have any questions or you are unsure about how this rules apply in your case, contact us for free advice at immigration@citizensrightsproject.org.

Automatic extension of pre-settled status or switch to settled status

Following the ruling of the High Court, pre-settled status cannot longer expire. The High Court stated that it would be unjust that people could their your pre-settled status, only because they have not switched to settled before their pre-settled expired. As a result, the Home Office introduce pre-settled extensions and utomatic upgrades. Keep reading to learn how this works in practice.

When you look at your eVisa account, you can still see the expiry date of your pre-settled status. Once you will be approaching this expiry date (approximately a month before that date), the Home Office will look at online databases such as your tax or benefit history using National Insurance number you provided when applying for pre-settled status, to make a decision to:

automatically grant you settled status, if they can clearly see from the online records that you have been continuously living in the UK for more than 5 years, or
automatically extend your pre-settled status for another 5 years, if they cannot see from their records that you have been living in the UK for more than 5 continuous years

The Home Office should communicate with you to tell you if they are looking to upgrade your status and also, if they have granted you an extension. The automated process does not benefit family members, as they would also need to prove their family relationships have been maintained. If your status is about to expire, and you have not heard from the Home Office, email us at immigration@citizensrightsproject.org

We are still uncertain how the Home Office will treat those individuals who have extensive absences from the UK. These may be people who were away from the UK for more than two or five continuos years, but also people who were present in the UK, but for various reasons do not have any evidence of their residence in the system. It is clear, however, that the Home Office will not curtail (remove) any pre-settled status without notifying the person and giving them a chance to provide potential evidence of the time they lived in the UK.

If you receive a message from the Home Office that your pre-settled status may be curtailed, contact us or any other support organisation that can help you act on it urgently. You can email us at immigration@citizensrightsproject.org

The application process.

Switching from pre-settled status to settled status means that you must submit a new application, which looks almost exactly the same as when you applied for pre-settled status in the past.

You will need:

A valid ID document (passport or national ID card)

A phone number

An email address

Your National Insurance number (if you have one)

You can use EU Exit: ID Document Check app on your mobile to confirm your identity by:

Taking photo of your passport

Scanning your passport (you will need a mobile phone with contactless NFC functionality and make sure you removed cover from both your phone and passport)

Scanning your face

Taking a photo of yourself

If you are using the same ID document that is linked to your eVisa account, the app will automatically recognise your email and phone number, otherwise, you will have to verify both of your contact details.

Alternatively, you will be able to apply via UK Gov website, but it will require you to send your ID document to the Home Office by post.

In the next stages of the application, you will need to provide your home address, National Insurance number (if you have one), and date of your arrival to the UK. You will also have to disclose any criminal convictions you had either in the UK or any other country, or any criminal cases that are currently taking place.

You will also be asked to provide the Unique Application Number of your previous application for pre-settled status. This is so the Home Office can check that you already have pre-settled status and want to change it to settled status, as opposed to applying for the first time.

Keep your documents!

When you apply for settled status, the Home Office could ask you to provide more evidence to prove your residence in the UK.

Usually, the Home Office check their database using your National Insurance number to see if they have your records in HMRC or DWP, but it might not always work. If you don’t have NIN you will definitely have to provide evidence for your residence in the UK. You can upload up to 10 files at one time, and the size of one file cannot exceed 6MB.

It is essential, therefore, that you keep documents such as bank statements, bills, payslips, etc in case this happens. For more information about the type of evidence accepted by the Home Office visit this link.

Find your Unique Application Number

If you don’t know what your Unique Application number is go to:

https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families/applying-for-settled-status, click ‘Start now’ and then ‘Sign in’.

your identity document number
your date of birth
an access code sent to your phone or email

You will see details of your past applications, including 16-digit UAN.

If you need support to switch from pre-settled to settled we can help you. Email us at immigration@citizensrightsproject.org. Our support is FREE and multilingual. 

If you want to know who to view and update your status, check this article.

If you need to generate a share code and don’t know how, read this article.

This information was updated on 9th December 2025

Author

Pawel Kopec

Outreach and Information Officer