Asian immigrants brace for UK plans to tighten residency rules

Nurses, students may be hit as unpopular PM finds ways to fight populist challengers

2025-05-20 Filipino nurses.jpeg

Filipino nurses gather at Westminster Abbey on May 12 for the 60th Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service, celebrating International Nurses Day. (Photo by Clement Ngu)

CLEMENT NGU

LONDON -- Ali Hussain made the painful decision to leave his parents behind in Pakistan for the U.K. over four years ago to complete his training to be a doctor, looking forward to settling in a country he thought was politically more stable.

Now, British politics threaten to derail his plans. Just six months away from being eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the U.K., Hussain (not his real name) will have to wait another five years if the government's proposed immigration rule changes are implemented.

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